wendybachiu.com http://wendybachiu.com Sat, 17 Dec 2011 22:24:15 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 A whole new direction http://wendybachiu.com/2011/12/17/a-whole-new-direction/ http://wendybachiu.com/2011/12/17/a-whole-new-direction/#comments Sat, 17 Dec 2011 22:13:43 +0000 http://wendybachiu.com/?p=214 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.

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