Wonky Bowls, The Pomegranate and Fabulous Cubes - Making Encaustic Art with Plaster Gauze

View 3
encaustic mixed media 4 x 4 x 2.5"

What do balloons, florist foam and plaster gauze all have in common?  A lot of fun, and a great start for 3D artwork for encaustic.   

Plaster gauze - the stuff we used to make casts for broken arms.  It is sold by the pound and is one long continuous strip about 4 inches wide.  I bought a 5lb box at the art store.  I also picked up a couple of bags of balloons and some florist foam at Hobby Lobby and I went to town.  I rolled up my sleeves, and wet strips of gauze in water and started wrapping around the balloons and foam forms.  The result was a lot of wonky bowls (big and small), one pomegranate and some fabulous cubes that I'm really excited about.

Pomegranate
encaustic mixed media 5 x 4 x 4"

 My sculpture skills are a bit rusty.  The last time they were called upon was ummmmm - 7th grade art class and paper mache.  So, I have several wonky bowls in my collection now.  I could pass it off as character - but really - nope... just wonky I'm afraid.  But the cubes - oh yeah - love those.  Seems that I can wrap around a block and have it come out OK.  I can even add little spit ball like things as feet.  Seems I had a little experience with spit balls in that same 7th grade art class :)

Stag
encaustic mixed media 4 x 8 x 2.5"

So what's so exciting about the plaster? - well, its the perfect ground for wax.  Its porous and formable, sculpture-able and allows for 3D form.  It dries over night and its as simple as that. 
Being that I am exploring more mixed media stuff- the blocks are lending themselves quite well to that.

Cat & Mouse
encaustic mixed media 8 x 4 x 2.5
(side opposite mouse)

Cat & Mouse
encaustic mixed media 8 x 4 x 2.5
(side opposite cat)

  Speaking of mixed media - as you read this, I will be in a Mixed Media and Encaustic class at Pratt School of Art here in Seattle.  The class is taught by Larry Calkins and I am over the moon excited about attending.  So, next week, I'll give you a little peek at what came of the fabulous two day workshop. 
Happy Birthday to Paint Party Friday - Thank you to Kristin and EVA for hosting the past three years.  Its a wonderful place for artists to come together and share each week.  Happy Friday Everyone! 

Inspiration, Getting from A to B, and The Couple's New House

The Couple
This is their house - on the back side of their cedar block
encaustic and oil on cedar block 6 1/4 x 11 x 5 1/2

 Remember The Couple from last week?  Well, they have a house now.... and a picket fence.

I decided to leave the sides with only the fence for fear things would get too complicated and busy
encaustic and oil on cedar block 6 1/4 x 11 x 5 1/2

Ever wonder how it works to get from A to B? How does the creative mind work to get from the concept at A to the finished piece at B? I thought for fun I would show you all the inspiration that went into how this 3D piece of art came about and some insight on how my creative brain gets from A to B.

I saw Kathy Taylor's 3D encaustic art blocks Here



Kathy Taylor Fine Art





My cedar block came from a friend's scrap pile.  I went to Home Depot and cruised the knob selection and landed on the silver knobs for the feet.  I had two critera - smallish and ones that would sit flat once attached to the bottom of the block.  The selection was a little slim - but I decided the silver ones would work.
 
Next came the power tools - the drill and also the dremel.  I had to sheer off the top (head) of the screws for the knobs so that I had just the threaded portion left.  I used the dremel for this, but a hack saw would also work.  I drilled 4 pilot holes into the base of the block and screwed in the threaded screws leaving enough of the screw exposed to then screw the knobs on flush to the wood. Taped them for protection, then started adding the wax coating to the block.

Next, I needed a subject for my 3D block.  I tried a few horses a la Kathy Taylor, but they weren't working for me.  So, I turned to some other inspiration.

In my studio, I keep the art of others that I find inspirational.  Diane Culhane, a local Seattle artist, is one artist that I have a couple of her paintings.  She tends to add cute little couples in her artwork.  I have this painting of Diane's which put me on to the tangent of painting a couple.

Artwork by Diane Culhane

The Couple then, just sprouted from my imagination.  I set in their shapes and just painted from there.  But, I'm not well versed in painting men, so I searched Google images and found this couple for inspiration.  I really liked his suit and the 60's vibe.  Although, my guy looks a little like Mr. Bates on Downton Abbey.

More about them Here

Then, I needed a house - so, once again I turned to Diane's work - my other painting of hers has this darling red house (and a cute little couple). 

Artwork by Diane Culhane

Plus, I found this house in the newspaper the morning I was going to launch my house artwork for The Couple. 

Photo by J.D. Pooley

I still needed a little more house inspiration so I also found this house

Artwork by Warren Kimble

and this one

Artwork by Michael Holland

The picket fence also needed a quick reference to Google Images.  I searched on white house picket fence and found exactly what I needed.  I also remembered that David Hockney had a painting with a house in it - so I went on that tangent and oogled over Hockney's work on Google images.  Love his stuff and it was a fun distraction to spend some time enjoying it.

It's an interesting path getting from A to B.  Sometimes its straight forward and simple with one reference photo and other times, it takes a lot of little pieces to make the complete picture come together.  I'm curious to hear how you get from A to B.

Also, a big heartfelt thanks to all of my PPF friends and the lovely comments left on Eva and Kristin's site last week.  It makes me happy to have shared my story with you.  I'm away at my encaustic class this weekend - so please forgive me for not getting around to visit everyone this week.  Can't wait to tell you all about what I learned!!