The Lotus Series (Part 2)
Category Archives: flowers
Gamer: Lotus Series 2 Continued
This is the current state of affairs: my dining room table has been hijacked by the second wave of three dozen paintings in the lotus series, now called The Lotus Collection. I have added thistle and Japanese lillies to this group, although all flowers are abstracted.
In addition, I have incorporated my game devices, which I totally love. When I was on that Buffalo road trip with Penny, we chatted about verbalizing our visual language. I feel like that explanation should be the same spoken as it is written.
The thing with me though – I know what every brush stroke means. Every choice is deliberate, whether it is conscious or subconscious, and some of that is private, meant only for me. Jasper Johns never really shared his intentions and I love that bit of privacy.
However, this doesn’t sit well with the powers that be who offer art shows in their galleries. They want you to resonate with the masses and lately those masses are chronic malcontents. Complaining about everything in society. And misery loves company.
My paintings are flowers, but they are also autobiographical, and I’m a person who has climbed an emotional ladder. I finally found a belief system that sidesteps fears and all the shitty stuff. Seeing beauty in a colorful brush stroke or femininity in a ribbon, or familiarity in vintage game pieces – that is my art.
Meanwhile, just to be clear, these paintings are not finished. They are on the operating table, so to speak, waiting to be finessed. What I do at this stage is allow myself to walk away and then approach them with fresh eyes, discerning eyes, questioning whether the devices are enhancing the pieces or just covering painting mistakes. The artwork must work as a collective group but also stand alone.
I am also awaiting some supplies that I ordered: more ribbon, the apparatus to add wire to the frames. Can’t really move forward until I have all of the pieces to this puzzle.
Lotus Again
It’s time to purchase more wax, damar resin and colors to continue on the path of the lotus. I have expanded to include thistles this time, as well as Japanese lilies.
I have a thing for Ancient Egypt. I also have a thing for Scotland. And everything Japanese. My paintings do tend to blend these cultures like a reincarnated melting pot of who I might be.
Sharing the current in progress situation. Paintings situated on my living room floor. It is good to take a breather from inhaling beeswax (which is completely intoxicating) and ponder my next decisions.
In a perfect universe, I could have all my pancake griddles going a once so that I can access every color in my repertoire, but I don’t have the room in my studio nor the electrical power to accomplish this – or do I? Maybe I just need more extension cords and another table and another griddle or two….
I will figure it out. Love that art can be both challenging and fun.
More Flowers In Progress
This is happening….
Thirty-six more paintings are currently in progress! I’ve created twelve more stencils, traced them onto the beeswax prepped hardboards and added the paper collage component to all of them. I introduced Monopoly money to this series. Using game pieces in my artwork is my favorite device.
Lotus Framed
The Lotus paintings are framed! I am in love with them! Obsessed!
The Lotus Series
Triplicates Finalized: The Lotus Series
I’ve been busy reworking some of these paintings. They are now complete and I am very pleased with them. I thought you might like to view these before and after pictures and see which paintings changed.
Next up, buying more 8″ x 10″ canvases (they are actually hardboards), as well as beeswax, encaustic cakes and possibly, frames. I feel like I should continue on this floral journey. New floral shapes are percolating.
Triplicates Revisited: The Lotus Series
I trust my living room rug is not horribly distracting. I wanted to do a quick update on The Lotus Series. I want to say they are finished – or I will say they are curing, resting on my dining room table so that I can look at them every day. Do they need more or can I put this series to rest? (That’s me asking myself, by the way).
I am delighted with them. And the beeswax is intoxicating. They smell good! My last series, Fan – Girl, ended up being this crazy six dozen strong group of 8″ x 8″ paintings. These are 8″ x 10″. Do I make thirty-six more?
I used to paint one dozen units in a series. Then it was two dozen, six dozen and now three dozen. While the fans were a dozen each of one shape, these are three each of a dozen shapes.
I will photograph them individually; maybe I’ll do that tomorrow. They are already titled too. I’d love to get them framed but that will have to wait until I decide whether or not I will continue the series.
Decisions, decisions….
So glad I documented my progress! I love seeing the evolution of the process. Some of the pieces were reworked quite a bit and others were pretty much nailed from the start. The paintings seem to tell me what they want; what they want to be/wish to be. It’s a vibe.
Triplicates
Part of me thinks I should not share unfinished work. I am 100% not looking for criticism, help or anything in that realm. I’m sharing because I thought it might be fun to explore the progression of my work for myself and for those who like that sort of thing.
If you saw my last post about this series, you will notice some changes. I thought the stencil details were too busy and that I attribute to me getting into my head about what I think people would want (i.e. a nature inspired gallery) and what is authentic to me and my style.
I eliminated stems as well, and the little buds. I reworked the paper collage items and added more colors.
I ordered more encaustic paints from dickblick.com. I think they’ll be here Monday, if not sooner. I really needed to incorporate more blues into my palette. The original concept for these paintings was blue lotus flowers but I branched out into pink, yellow and white territory plus a few other more abstract choices.
I haven’t smoothed out any of the applications via a heat source. I will re-carve the lines of the iconography eventually, add more color, do the more textured bits and finally, make decisions in the found object assemblage department.
I painted for six hours today. When I am creating, it feels like the most important thing in the world. I feel very impatient, like, I wish I had all the supplies I need right now. But really, I just need fresh air and time to decompress in order to prepare for the next step.
Temporary Process Over Product Situation
It begins with thumbnail sketches. Actually, it starts with a bit of research then sketches.
I then create stencils, prepare the hardboards with three coats of beeswax, carve the stencils into the wax…
add pretty papers…
and begin painting. Once all the boards have first coats, I give them individual attention.
Finally, I add more collage components.
I’m taking a break right now because what usually happens is that I want to do everything right away instead of savoring the process. Encaustic is not an instant gratification type thing. And as much as I have the image of a finished product in my head, there are a lot of happy accidents that occur along the way.
What has already happened is the classic “I know what I don’t want” scenario. The great thing about the wax is that it can be scraped off – chalk it up to a problem solving direction.
I love manufacturing a visual language that communicates my secrets and I LOVE having the only key. <3
