houses hemmed into homes...

Yesterday I started with a group of houses....solid shelters clustered together to form a neighborhood.  Today these houses were colored with shades of ochre, connected with complex patterns and stitched into safe havens full of emotion, meaning and memory.

A house is a house is a house...

...but there is no place like home.  Here is a painting I started today after one of my busiest weeks ever.  The quiet and time that I found today was like a haven from the rushed and chaotic week.

The idea of home is particularly appealing to me once autumn arrives.  Pleasantly cool temperatures and leaves rustling outside open windows mean it's time to pull out the sweaters and start making soup again.  Tomorrow I'm hoping to get a bit of work done in the vegetable garden (preparing it for winter crops) and on this painting (making my houses into homes).  

The Social Workers

Work, work, work...all they do is work!   The honey bee's constant production and storage of honey keeps the hive buzzing with activity day and night.   My house has been buzzing with activity over the past few days and it was only last night as I finished this piece that i started to think about what we can learn from this community of winged workers.   Honey bees actually cooperate to find food and use a pattern known as  "dancing" to communicate information about food sources. They depend upon one another and exist only as a community....they truly are "social workers"!   

A Crooked Path...

I used to get frustrated when I couldn't figure out where a particular painting was going.  I would get hung up on the fact that I couldn't picture the piece finished.  Lately though I have really been enjoying the process of letting a picture develop more organically until a light bulb goes off and I see what it wants to be....does that make any sense?  Here is a painting I started this morning and hope to work on a bit more later tonight.

I want to give a shout out to Jamie for mentioning my painting Cloud Study 2 in her Inspiration Post on Indie-Fixx.  She has lots of good stuff going on here and here.

Hopefully I'll have something finished to share tomorrow???

Sharing...

I am sharing a few things today that are not paintings.  A wet basement and a few other things have kept me out of my studio the past few days but today I was rewarded with a special and eagerly anticipated package.  The photo above is the sweetest picnic blanket ever!  It is made by friend Dana whose Etsy shop Leillilaloo is filled with all kinds of goodies.  The colors, fabrics and attention to detail (tucked into a basket) make this the most lovely and special gift ever (it's for my nieces).  There are more detailed photos of a new one of a kind picnic blanket here.

 The other thing I want to share is my excitement over the new etsyencausticblog.  An ever expanding group of encaustic artists who sell on etsy are joining forces and creating a place to share skills, ideas and inspiration.  We have many things in the works right now and I'm going to be heading up the monthly "skill share" page and the "monthly theme" page of the blog.  Anyone who paints in encaustics or is interested in learning more about the process is invited to check out the site here.  There's lots of information on the site and all are welcome!

A Question of Balance...

This girl is walking a fine line to maintain balance in her daily life.   Somedays she struggles with each step to keep from crushing the fragile beauty below her and other days things are pretty  easy and she simply enjoys the beautiful view.  The bees above watch the entire drama unfold feeling the potential impact of every step....

The new beeswax team is getting up and running with skill shares, monthly themes and lots of other good stuff.  If you work in encaustics and would like to be a part of this new team check us out here.  Anyways, we were talking about bees being our 1st theme and it happened to fit perfectly into my last 3 pieces which were already in progress...it's funny how that happens.  

Buzz...

Buzz said the queen....

Buzz said the king....

What a beautiful sound so often heard it's almost taken for granted.  But things can change when we're not looking and that is exactly what seems to be happening with the honeybees.  You can find more information here.  

Heart Lab Feature!

I want to extend a warm thank you to Marichelle of hearthandmade for featuring my painting in her heart lab series.  If anyone wants a little better understanding of what goes into the creation of an encaustic painting check out this feature. The painting featured  "Treading Under the Moon" was the painting that appeared in my 1st blog entry and is happily residing in san francisco now.I really loved the way this painting came together and I'm honored to have it featured.  Also be sure to check out the archives as she has featured some other really amazing artists (leililaloo)!

Blocks of Time...

my time has not been my own this week with my little guy starting school, my daughter starting her 1st official team sport (volleyball) and co-chairing a school committee.  however, things are falling into place as the calendar fills up and i plan to have 2 mornings a week in my studio (and there's always the wee hours...).

here are two little blocks i started on today...

Sitting On A Shelf...

What's in your closet?  There are good intentions waiting to be realized, tears to be shed and limitless joy to experience in this one....

Under the Stars (with dreams from the past)

Unexamined dreams lie low in our subconscious full of possibility, promise and insight.  It's as if they exist in a kind of limbo waiting for us to connect the dots and have that ah-ha moment...

Under a mobile of stars the box of past dreams has been opened and seemingly random ideas and words are lurking under the bed in search of understanding.... 

Thinking of Dreaming...

Here is a small piece of an 11x14 inch painting I started today.  I don't think I'll get back to it tonight and so I wanted to share it's beginning.  I started by painting very thin layers of a subtle blue-gray and some medium gray oil bar and then after fusing each of those layers together added a semi transparent graphite gray layer of wax.  In between the layers I also did a lot of scraping back to get a semi-flat but mottled sky.  The ground where the words are layered is a smokey greenish gray  that I love.

This painting is sure to change as I add more layers and details but in the end I know it will include a bed, some stars, and a few dream jars....have a good night and sweet dreams!

On the Ball

These little ladies are all on top of things but it's a delicate balance.  Each one places a foot precariously forward, then back and then forward again...laughing all the while.