Wroking toward September

It's been a busy time in the studios and much of the work will be going to Lansing Art Gallery this weekend. I'll be Artist of the Month - which means a mini exhibit. This will be an exploration of the landscape, mostly in ceramic. I've really enjoyed working on these pieces which celebrate the natural tendencies of clay and how, like bonsai, small shapes and patterns mimic large ones. I've also experimented with obvara - a Russian technique I learned from Janet Smith after seeing her discuss it on Facebook.

Then - there'll be a number of encautic pieces done in a range of approaches as part of the Individual Artist Grant I received. On September 9 from noon till 2 I'll be offering a hands-on demo (that means people can try it) of encaustic techniques. There will be handouts about encaustic to take. I've very much enjoyed working in these different media over the last several months and hope people will enjoy the results.

As always - the process is the joy, but it doesn't hurt if the product's pretty cool, too!

About Encaustic

In preparation for a September demonstration of encaustic, I've put together a sheet of information, which might be helpful to those who'd like to learn a bit about the medium.
Click here to take a look.

Hoping for a Mackerel Sky

This piece was done for the Mackerel Sky 20th Anniversary Exhibit which is hanging now. In the months before the event I knew I wanted to do something in encaustic involving a mackerel sky cloud formation. Every evening as I walked the dog I watched the clouds and a few times thought they might be headed in the mackerel direction, but not once did I get the real thing. The quest itself became fun and meditative and I got to see some really beautiful skyscapes.