Studio makeover complete...

Hi There.  These are the best photos I could get on a grey and rainy day and since it's supposed to be grey and rainy all week I figure these will just have to do.  I am super happy with my little makeover but now I can't find anything!  I gained space by turning my 2nd table against the wall so that I have one long continuous work surface.  This opened up the wall opposite the tables so that I can pin up and work on larger pieces of Arches Oil Paper.  I cleaned the floor, took work off the wall and put up the Anthony Burrill print so that the whole room feels light and airy and open.  On the table you might be able to see two paper pieces I started on the wall but am now going to work on the table.  It's going to take some getting used to but I really love the feel of the place.  

happy monday to you-

b

Hello again-

Homebody::Summer Daze

Ok to say it's been too long would be an understatement here.  I have been painting A LOT which you might know if you have been following me on Instagram.  It took awhile to get the hang of it but snapping photos of new work or WIP and adding a few words and a hashtag seems to suit me.  I am meeting you here today with new work that is old work.  Each year I paint one or two sets of my old friends...the house heads (homebody), the beach lovers( Summer Daze) and the Night Swimmers (which are still in progress).  I wanted to write today to say I'm still here painting most days but tomorrow I will share the new way I am working and why.  For 10 years this space has been a place where I could throw words out into the universe to help myself make sense of things and it's time to get back to that a little more regularly.  If you want to see what I've been up to you can find me as Beth Billups on Instagram or check back here tomorrow.

xx-

b

Micro Art Series 2...Murmur

Warm wishes from the very wintery midwest.  I was up early on this snowy morning baking a six layer spice cake with buttercream frosting for my Mom's 70th birthday today.  These little guys are finally cured and ready to go.  I priced and listed each piece separately but am offering discounts for buying multiples ( i've given away a few and they stand perfectly well on their own but tiny does love company).  I'm offering free USPS priority mail domestic shipping thru December 20th, so if you are looking for a last minute  handmade holiday gift it can still make it! 

-b

Handmade Holiday SALE

To help celebrate a season of giving handmade I am offering 20% off all work in my Etsy shop 11/19-12/1.  If you've had your eye on something for someone special or for yourself I hope this helps...use the code HANDMADEHOLIDAY at checkout .

A Sense of Place

A Sense of Place 1 & 2

encaustic on wood

5" x 5"

Made it through another week. Looking hard for hope and beauty. I have to look a little harder these days but its there, just below the surface, waiting to be be revealed.  

It's 72 degrees here today and snow likely tomorrow. 

Crazy weather, crazy times.

-b

Prints on wood!

 This package brightened up my weekend.  I have experimented with making prints of my work a few times and none of the attempts ever felt like a good fit, but these little babies are awesome.  I only ordered a few pieces to see how they would translate, how true the image would appear and what the quality would be like.  They exceeded my expectations and the customer service was excellent as I worked through the process of uploading, resizing etc... The images are printed on sustainable birch, maple and bamboo plywood in a factory that is 100% solar powered.  The sides of the panels have a clean look that I really like and they have a keyhole hanger in the back so they can hang unframed.  (they also have a small cut out and wooden wedge so they can stand on their own).  I'm planning to add a new 'prints' section to my Etsy later today.  

:)

-b

between you and me

between you and me

4"x 5"

between you and me. a heavy heart telling my children we got it wrong. telling them it will be ok. hugging them tightly and truly believing that love still trumps hate. 

xx-

b

house, home and good neighbors-

Friends & Neighbors

6" x 6"

Good & Plenty

6" x 6"

Turned on the pots today and worked in wax.  Felt pretty summery outside but that's about to change.  Darker earlier, temperatures dropping and something big going down tomorrow.  Thinking about house, home, friends, loved ones and the state of the nation.  

xx-

b

Lucky Day-

Lucky Day

14" x 20"

A little color, a few bunnies and some lucky numbers.

Wishing you a weekend of good fortune.

xx-

b

returning to wax-

::new encaustic mixed media work::

So I've been framing all week and every flat surface in my house is covered with work.  Yesterday I started to feel overwhelmed by the amount of work left to do so I did what any red blooded procrastinator would do and I started something new.  I already had some small blocks gessoed and so I turned on my skillet, picked out some bits of print from the pile, and created these small pieces.  Going back to hot wax and old imagery was like visiting a good friend and it was just what I needed.  These pieces (and quite a few from my Etsy shop) are going to The Ann Arbor Art Center for the "Art Off The Wall' show. I'm delivering them tomorrow so if you are interested in any of these paintings (or something you saw on Etsy) let me know and I will set it aside.  Now I need to get back to attaching dust covers and hanging hardware....right after I start a new micro art series :-)

Micro Art Series 1

tiny art!

An answer to all of the large paintings in progress crowding my studio space was to go tiny. Super tiny. Like 1.5"x 2" tiny.  I had squirreled away scraps of wood left after cutting the talking blocks with the thought that I would create a series of tiny landscapes.  But after working on large abstract pieces for the past couple of months and filling large spaces with color and shape I decided that I wanted to do the same on a smaller micro scale.  I started this set a few weeks ago and every couple of days I layered on more color and detail.  It was very freeing to have less space to work with and I already have a color pallet picked out for Series 2.  Sadly it will have to wait as the next few days are set aside for framing.  I have LOTS of new work which is just about ready to share.  Some pieces will be going to The Ann Arbor Art Center for Art Off The Wall and some pieces will go into my Etsy shop the 1st week of November.  Well, maybe I can just lay down a 1st layer of color...

happy day-

b

new cold wax work-

The Very Thought Of You

cold wax, oil, mixed media

24" x 24"

Counting On It

cold wax, oil, encaustic

14" x 14"

Two new pieces in a new (and very messy) medium.  'The Very Thought Of You' has been in the works for months and it was created with cold wax and oil paint and .a few bits of newsprint. 'Counting On It' is a reworking of a painting from late summer. that I finished this afternoon.  It was created with cold wax, oil paint and oil pastels. I was in the studio most of this rainy day and it felt so good...but now I'm worn out and ready to call it an early night.  Just want to say a quick hello and share :)

sweet dreams-

b

from sea to shining sea...

from sea to shining sea

6"x6"

Hey you...how are you?  Another long pause here on the blog but I've been posting regularly to instagram (@bethbillups).  Pop X came and went and my installation was everything I wanted it to be but I'll save that for another post.  One with lots of photos and some thoughts on the whole process.  This piece has been hanging around the studio for quite some time but it never felt quite finished....not sure why but it just needed something, turns out it was more wax :)  I painted the image using layers of cold wax and oil paint which I then carved into the surface and set it aside to dry for a few weeks  months.  This morning I applied  three layers of clear encaustic medium and voila...it's done.  I have so many cold wax paintings in the works right now and I'm really enjoying the process of playing and learning to slow down and let pieces evolve over days, weeks and months.  Here's hoping you are finding time to create and savoring moments of quiet amid the chaos.

xx-

b

The rabbit hole...

talking blocks

wild hare (indigo)

 no.1&no.2

This is by far the longest I've been away from this blog.  I fell down a rabbit hole of endless words, wood and wax.  Throw in two college visits, a quick trip to see old friends and a family vacation and there you have it...total immersion in the be here now thing.  I have just over 500 word blocks complete and I need to start on the picture blocks.  Pop X 2016 opens September 22 and the installation date is just over a week away.  I'm not really stressed but I am working non-stop to get things ready.  But...every now and then I need a little creative diversion.  I worked late and woke up early to finish up this pair of wild hares.  Nothing like a little bunny love to set the refresh button.  I have all the basic words covered and more but I'm interested in knowing if you had to pick three words to tell your story what they be?!?  Mine would have to be 'back to work'. 

hand stitched support...

#imwithher

I spent all last week sanding, gluing and waxing over 200 talking blocks while watching the Democratic National Convention.  Yesterday I took some time off  and ordered a lawn sign, made a donation and made a shirt Alabama Chanin Style.

Use your words...

A friend came to visit over the weekend and she helped me get started on my Pop X installation.  As we sat out on the back porch for hours each morning and afternoon sanding blocks, cutting paper and pasting paper onto wood we talked about the power of words.  Looking at the roots of words, words hidden in words and words that mean different things to different people.  As I mentioned in my last post, I am creating this installation to engage the Ann Arbor community in conversation, to let people tell their stories and for people to hear what others have to say.  The weight of this idea really hit me hard as we talked about recent events here in this country and abroad and I realized just how important it is that we all do a lot more listening and a lot more speaking up.  

Summer color and summer news-

Water's Edge

8x8"

Night Garden

8x8"

Summer is in full swing and the 5 of us are scattered to the wind.  Between us, in June and July, we are in Ann Arbor, Nebraska, Northern Michigan, Southern Illinois, Chicago, San Francisco, New York and Ontario...and this is not counting C's work travel!  Lots of fun and adventure kicking off this season with breaks in between where we are all here to hang out and catch up.

I have another week and a half off before I start teaching summer classes at The Ann Arbor Art Center and I've been in the studio every day painting with cold wax and oil paint.  I am totally addicted to this new to me medium. I love the depth of color and the gorgeous texture the thick buttery wax creates and the brightness and clarity it maintains when applied that is very different than my encaustic work.  I have quite a few pieces in the works in a variety of sizes that I will continue to share as they are completed...which may be awhile given what I am sharing in the next paragraph :)

I am super excited to share two new bits of work related news.  The 1st is that I have been invited to participate in Art Prize 2016.  'The Art Of Mending' will be shown in the main Lobby of the FifthThird Bank/ Warner Norcross and Judd LLP building.  If you are in or near Grand Rapids or are looking for a late summer adventure that will feed your soul I highly recommend exploring this art filled community event.  The 2nd bit of news is super, super exciting.  This year I submitted a proposal for POP-X 2016 which is a 10 day public art installation that is up in the heart of downtown Ann Arbor September 22nd to October 1st....and I am one of eight artists that have been chosen!!!  It is hard to describe my project so I am including my actual proposal (and mentioning that 500 blocks will not be enough and I am now up to 700...yikes!)

For POP X 2016 my proposal ’Talking Blocks’ is a dynamic and interactive art installation that invites the Ann Arbor community and its visitors to express themselves in short phrases, six word stories, poetry and full sentences.  The installation will be made up of a tall, free standing, black, four sided wood structure with multiple long black shelves on all four sides. The freestanding rectangle structure will be centered inside of the 100 sq ft house so that the public can enter the structure and walk all the way around it.  Having the structure centered, rather than lining the walls will take advantage of the natural light inside and will allow the installation to be viewed through the windows from the outside.  The interactive part of the display will be five hundred 2” high reclaimed wood blocks of varying lengths.  Four hundred of the  blocks will have words on them and the other hundred will have images form my work on them.  Things like, but not limited to, houses, boats, water, butterflies, rainbows, roads, people and birds.  The words and images will be printed on archival paper, bonded to the blocks with bookbinding glue, the block will then be coated in four thin layers of encaustic medium.  Each layer will be fused to the layer below creating a finish which is durable and impervious to water. I will then cover the blocks in black oil stick and wipe the excess away, leaving the black to fill in the bubbles and lines in the wax highlighting the texture and depth of the layers.  The words and images can be combined in infinite variations creating an ongoing conversation that will change by the hour and the day.  ‘Talking Blocks’ offers a way for the community to share ideas and to be heard, and will introduce many people to the ancient art of encaustic painting.  On it’s own each of the 500 blocks isn’t really much but when put together they will say a lot.

And while we're on the subject of new I wanted to mention a few other things I am exploring.  The 1st involves a new company I think many of you may have heard from if you are a working artist.  VIDA and Co. is a new style licensing company that is very interesting.  I have used three of my 'Art Of Mending' paintings to design long cashmere/silk scarves.  Check them out and let me know what you think and if you have any information or experience with this company I'd love to hear about it.  I have also ordered a 10" square print of one of my larger paintings on wood panel.  I'm not sure how the work will translate as a print but I'm hoping I will love it.  I experimented with prints on paper many years ago and wasn't thrilled with them but I think the wood will help keep the image more dimensional.  And lastly, I'm looking into getting some temporary tattoos printed with my artwork.  The night swimmers are begging to be first :)

Here's hoping your summer is off to a great start and that you are soaking up the sunshine!

land o'lakes (cold wax on wood)

land o'lakes

12" x 24"

cold wax and oil on wood

Ready for summer :)

whole lotta love...

whole lotta love

5"x 5"

loveisloveislove...what he said. 

cold wax on paper-

they look like illustrations, don't they?

These are the 1st two cold wax paintings I did while at The Vermont Studio Center.  I wasn't really happy with them while I was working on them because they felt so flat and I wanted texture from the wax. Working on paper is very different than working on wood and I had to allow myself the time time to play and experiment freely. After working them over a few days time I was able to get some movement and texture in each piece by using oil pastels between layers of wax. Partially because I taped my edges I think they look a lot like illustrations. Theses two pieces have grown on me but I've switched back to working on wood now that I'm home.  I am really loving painting with the cold wax, oil paints and palette knives...messy in a different way than encaustic and it's nice to move between the two mediums.   Have you worked with cold wax and oil paint?  Love it or hate it?