Here’s an excellent story from the NYTimes about the current state of American art. Though the author, Holland Carter, is a little snarky about the professionalization of artmaking (big art world trend of the last 8 years) his enthusiasm about the art being made right now, or just about to be made, is wonderful.
This tiny art director sure knows her stuff. Those of you who like your art humor dark & sweet need to check out this charming art blog by illustrator Bill Zeman.
All good things must come to an end (at least that’s what they say). Boulder’s Emerging Artists of Open Studios show at the Macky Gallery closed over the weekend… but not before I got a chance to poke around.
Two encaustic paintings at the Macky Gallery in Boulder
Open Studios has a reputation for eclecticism and this experience was no different. A diverse range of 2-D work – from ab-ex acrylic paintings to prints, pastels and nature photography – were represented. I’d have loved to share more images with you, but the gallery monitor sure was on her toes! No pictures allowed, except of my own paintings…
“A New Pair of Shoes” (left) and “Bear” (right) at the Macky Gallery
The artist’s names above link to their websites where I could find them. Overall, this show was good survey of the current state of 2-D artmaking in Boulder… Diverse works, some traditional & some new, with a strong nature/landscape theme running through.
It’s an honor and a pleasure to announce that Sister Bee is screening at the Denver Botanic Gardens on Thursday.
SISTER BEE at the Denver Botanic Gardens
Denver, Colorado
Thursday, February 19th at 7:00 PM
Tickets are $8 for members and $10 for the general public. Panel to follow. Panelists are myself, Sister Bee beekeepers Suzanne Connolly-Howes and Julie Finley and honorary Boulder County Beekeepers’ Association President, Tom Theobald.
Hope to see you there! If you come, please say hello after the show.
Totally conscious and apropos of nothing, you come to see me.
Is someone here? I ask. The moon. The moon is full inside your house.
My friends and I go running out into the street. I’m in here, comes a voice from the house, be we aren’t listening.
We’re looking up at the sky.
My pet nightingale sobs like a drunk in the garden.
Ringdoves scatter with small cries, Where, Where.
It’s midnight. The whole neighborhood is up and out in the street thinking, The cat burglar has come back.
The actual thief is there too, saying out loud, Yes, the cat burglar is somewhere in this crowd.
No one pays attention.
Lo, I am with you always means when you look for God,
God is in the look of your eyes,
in the thought of looking, nearer to you than your self,
or things that have happened to you
There’s no need to go outside.
Be melting snow.
Wash yourself of yourself.
A white flower grows in the quietness.
Let your tongue become the flower.
The last day to see Emerging Artists at the Macky Gallery in Boulder is Wednesday. The painting above is one of two I’ve got in the show. It’s called Bear & it’s one of my favorite paintings I made last year.
As a painter, I’m into visual transformation. I love it when the imagination goes to work on a familiar object turning it into something else. Bear started as a large scale gesture drawing of a plum leaf. But after being cropped and painted it shifted into something dark and mountainous. It’s a friend to me.
Emerging Artists at the Macky Gallery
Date: January 14th – February 11th, 2009
Time: Wednesdays 9 AM to 4 PM
Location: Andrew J. Macky Gallery University of Colorado, Boulder.
Collectors want to know… Is encaustic archival? Is it durable? Will it last? The answer, if the painting is made correctly and handled gently as you’d handle any other piece of art, is a big, resounding YES! Encaustic is archival, and in most cases, will outlast paintings made with oil.
Depiction of a woman with a ringlet hairstyle. Royal Museum of Scotland.
Encaustic paintings survive, in part, because the wooden surfaces they’re painted on are preserved/impregnated with beeswax, rendering them resistant to moisture and mold. Also, encaustic paint doesn’t just sit on the surface it’s painted on. It’s bonded on with heat, literally melted into whatever lies beneath, making it less likely to flake off with age.
Here are three things beginning painters can do to make their work archival.
1. Choose a rigid, absorbent surface to paint on. It’s important for the wax paint to bond with its substrate. Birch and maple plywood are good choices. Paper or fabric coated wood is also an excellent choice. Traditional stretched canvas is too wobbly to hold wax paint. You need something stiff.
2. Don’t mix acrylic and encaustic paint. I know it’s tempting for acrylic painters to mess with wax… and the results might look cool in the short term, but water and oil repel each other. It’s only a matter of time before an acrylic/encaustic painting starts to flake apart like nail polish flaking off a ten year old’s fingertips.
3. An un-fused encaustic painting is kind of like sandstone, full of seperate layers that come apart under stress. Use heat to fuse each encaustic layer to the one underneath to make a painting that lasts.
