A whole new direction
December 17, 2011
This past year, I was introduced to a completely new type of painting, using oils mixed with cold wax. Cold wax is a mixture of parafin wax, demar resin, microcrystaline wax, beeswax and ozokerite (?) wax and has the consistancy of shortening or lard. When mixed with oil paints it is a smooth substance much like frosting used on cakes. (Can you guess that I also bake occasionally!) The wax/oil mixture is spread on primed board with a dough spreader (hmmm, another baking item…) and built up in layers. Textures are added in a variety of ways and the painting can be scratched, marked, paint lifted, stenciled and have many more surface treatments applied.
Then comes the best part….
Perhaps a bit of background is in order first. With a career in Graphic Design, my paintings were always “designed” – envisioned, preplanned, usually with thumbnail sketches, often with full size drawings, then painted to the finished state that I had envisioned.
UNTIL NOW!
Now, the subject of the painting lies hidden. I turn it every direction, intently studying the textured surface from every angle. Suddenly, something will be obviously “there”, a face, an object, a scene. I then work further on the painting until I am satisfied that it is complete. This way of painting INTUITIVELY is a very foreign concept to me, but I really love it and has added a fresh perspective to my work.