Wildflowers Art In Wax

Painting on wood panel

This is one of my new paintings, it is a 20 x 10 inch wildflower flower painting on a birch wood panel, the panel was primed in encaustic gesso before painting.

This painting is painted in Arts Encaustic brand of wax, the soft layers of wax in the background give a misty feel and a great backdrop to the dramatic colour of the flowers.

Working with Ampersand Art Supply Encausticbord

Video demonstrations Encausticbord

When I was approached by Karyn at Ampersand Art Supply earlier this year to create some demonstrations of me working with their wonderful products for their YouTube channel, I was really excited.

I love to paint in hot wax and have used the Encausticbord panels and cradle in the past when I reviewed the R&F Handmade Paints Starter kit on this blog last year and the kit included some of the panels and a cradle.

The Encausticbord has not been readily available in the UK other than in the kits as far as I am aware, but I am informed that Ampersand Art Supply who are based in Buda Texas, are looking to have UK supplier later this year.

Always up for a challenge

If you have read my blog before you know that I love to see what can be done in hot wax and I love to challenge myself and try new things, so when this opportunity came I was very excited to be working with Ampersand and with these wonderful encaustic supports.

Working with Ampersand Encausticbord

This is what Ampersand Arts Supply say about Encausticbord …….

A Creative Collaboration between Ampersand™ and R&F Handmade Paints
This creative collaboration began in 2008 when the two manufacturers, authorities in their respective fields of wood painting panels and encaustic paint colors, started working together to dream up the perfect surface for encaustic paints. This combination of Ampersand’s archival panel coating technology and R&F’s expertise in encaustics led to Encausticbord™, a unique wood panel that has the tooth to hold encaustic and mixed media unlike any other surface.

Quote taken June 2014 courtsey of www.ampersandart.com/encausticbord.html

Making the videos

My husband Adrian, a great amateur photographer in his own right, filmed as I painted. We are not professional film makers, we got the giggles a few times and had a few out-takes too …… but I have a passion for painting Art In Wax and I hope this comes over in the videos.

The two videos created especially for Ampersand Art Supply are now live and can be seen online on the Ampersand Art Supply YouTube Channel. I have posted the direct links to my demonstrations below :

I am using the wonderful and amazing colour wax paints by R & F Paints in these films.

Two video demonstrations

Cradled Encausticbord :
This film shows me working on an Encausticbord cradle which is 6 x 6 inches and a prefect size for this subject, in this film I demonstrate the stages of how I painted a Sunflower head.

The video can be watched here : Ampersand Art Supply : Hazel Rayfield Cradled Encausticbord.

Artist Trading Cards in Encaustic :
In this film I demonstrate the techniques working in miniature, onto Encaustic ACEO / ATC 2.5 x 3.5 inch size Encausticbord panels which are great fun to work with. Here I create three pieces using different styles and technique, from painting directly onto the surface, to a mixed media piece and a colorful abstract.

The video can be watched here : Ampersand Art Supply : Hazel Rayfield Artist Trading Cards in Encaustic.

The finished pieces

These are the finished pictures, this is been a great challenge / project. Ampersand Art Supply and their products have made painting my Art In Wax a pleasure.

A Fun Project

This has been a great fun project, I hope you like the videos and watching me paint in this style of hot wax.

If you would like to comment below that would be great.

Thanks for visiting my blog today.

Hazel

Wax on Wood

More wax paintings on wood panels

I have been painting on wood again, with the R F Paints handmade paints, these are couple of the new pictures now uploaded to the Art In wax Online Gallery, please visit the gallery page to see larger views of these pictures.

The Lavender is on a 4 x 4 panel and the boat is 8 x 8 I sourced these panels at Jacksons art, they are plain wood, sanded plywood, with a 20mm depth, with reinforced bracing on the back. I applied a couple of coats of gesso (Encaustic Gesso) before painting onto them with the wax paints.

Boating ….

Original Art Cards

When I first starting showing and selling my artwork online it was in the form of greetings cards created using my original paintings, not prints. As the cards were an aperture card they looked similar to being a mounted picture and I know of at least one person who has framed one of these cards using the card as the mount. If using glass in the frame, I would note that this is not what I recommend. It is important, as with many types of medium that the artwork is mounted so as not to touch the glass, as this may damage the painting.

I rarely make cards to sell nowadays as my encaustic paintings are sold either mounted in Acid free Conservation board with a White core or hard backed onto mount board so they have a good structure and can be either mounted and framed or displayed in a free standing manner.

I do however make cards on occasional, for my own use to give to friends and family or by commission if especially asked.

Experimenting – Mix Media

I have been experimenting with mixed media artwork again, and came up with this little boat painting, just 3.75 x 2.5 inches in size, very slightly larger than an ACEO or ATC.

This boat picture is a drawing / painting created using watercolour pencils that, once the painting was dry I covered in several layers of clear wax.

The picture has a softness to it I feel, the watercolour paper absorbs some of the wax, and as the mediums, watercolour and wax combine this effect was created. I am really pleased with the outcome of this combination.

When lightly polished, as I do with all my encaustic paintings, the picture comes even more to life with the sheen and slight texture from the wax coating.

Using Encaustic Wax

As I am discovering there are lots of ways to use Wax and I love experimenting to see how things work and will be blogging about all the things I am trying out as Art In Wax !

Versatility of Art In Wax

The photography below shows the mixed media boat painting as it is in the card, also pictured is an Encaustic hot wax, just wax this time, version of this boat scene.

As you can see the Encaustic wax version is a much bolder coloured piece the wax is vibrant and colourful, in contrast to the mixed media version with has a beauty of its own in the softness and more pastel tones ……

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Art, like many things, is I believe in the eye of the beholder ……

I think both of the paintings are pretty, yet very different. What do you think? why not leave me a comment below ……