Inspired Year

Here is a preview of the work I have been doing while away in South Australia the past couple of days. Medium is encaustics--beeswax, resin, and oil paint pigment melted and applied to art boards I have made up. The subject is inspired by colors and patterns seen at the Imperial Palaces at the Forbidden City, in Beijing China. I visited there in June and had some awesome photos of detail seen on the temples and palaces there. Deep reds, bright golds, and vivid greens featured well and have made it into my latest run of encaustics. The reds you see there are created in several red-like layers, scarlet, bright red, darker bricky red and orange. After I apply the encaustics in layers, I scrape and carve it to expose layers, color, detail, pattern, etc. It also gets hand polished, with a cotton cloth or old piece of wool.

The paintings you see here are not done. They weren't intended to be painted as a pair either. They are inspired by the same reference, a carved architectural panel on a doorway of a temple. However, they seem to go together as a set very well and so they will be further developed as a set. I like that they are clearly similarly inspired, but not same-same alike. More to do on them, so stay tuned.

Meanwhile, I am off enjoying my Birthday...See you next post

when I will be a bit older, or so I am told ;)