some new works...

Secret Sky
encaustic painting in a vintage wooden game board

5.5”h x 9”w x 1.5”d closed
5.5”h x 18”w x .75” open
©C. Nash

I am constantly thinking about things, contemplating how to create around an inspiration....trying to recreate an inner sensation after being in the woods or the desert...passages from certain authors or poets can invoke imagery.



Peephole
encaustic painting in found weathered woodworked cylinder
1.75” h x 3” diam.
©C. Nash

I can plan an entire work in my mind as I am traversing my busy non-studio days. Perhaps it comes from my beginnings as a printmaker, where so much has to be preplanned to create a color litho or a woodcut.

It carries me to the point when I finally do close the studio door and start to work...then I have a beginning point from which to jump. I have learned to let the initial idea get me started and then banter back and forth with the work. It has taken me many years to shed the control issue.

Sky Within (No. 70)
encaustic painting in a vintage mechanics machine parts box
9”h x 6”w x 2”d closed
9”h x 11 1/2”w x 1”d open
©C. Nash

I teach. The whole "happy accident" spiel I spout to students from kids through adults, I am still striving to embody. I can finally flow when the mind quiets, "I" is lost and creative action becomes an intuitive dance.

It's about trusting...

"I learned you have to trust yourself, be what you are, and do what you ought to do the way you should do it. You have got to discover you, what you do, and trust it.

-Barbara Streisand

From the Outside In
encaustic painting in found weathered woodworked board
8.25” x 9”w
©C. Nash

Wax and the Artist Book

Liz Mitchell, Observations (right)
An accordion fold book in a collapsible box. Book is 5” X 4 1/8” X 1/2”. The box is 5 5/8” X 4 1/8” X 5 1/2”. The pieces are made of collaged paper, bees wax, bark and flax.

Raymond Papka, Newton II (above)
10”Hx 7”Wx 2.5”D
Mixed Media Assemblage. An old book, encaustic medium, paper, pigments and found objects. A space has been sculpted in the book for insertion of a wooden ball, representing the globe. Embellished with a brass triangular piece from a old clock, leather “hinges” and copper.


wax and the artist book
I loved presenting about the book artists who incorporate encaustics into their works at the Annual Encaustic Symposium this past June at the Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, MA.

Dorothy Simpson Krause, Many Truths (below center)
4.75'' x 10.5'' x 5.25'' Digital print on black paper with encaustic in iron box on wooden stand.
Learned so much. If you haven't discovered it already, I compiled the participating artists in a downloadable e-booklet with all the artists included on the article page.

Laura Wait, Middlegame, 33" x 15", Encaustic and mixed media on paper. Hangs on copper rails. (below)

It inspired me so much seems all I can think about are books of late. Got two in process in the studio right now... Lots in process in fact. A paper sculpture. Several larger encaustic paintings. I do want to officially thank those artists who sent me images for Wax and the Artist Book! It was great fun...

Great thanks to the artists:
Jody Alexander, Santa Cruz, CA
Nancy Azara, New York City, NY
Jeanne Borofsky, Groton, MA
Patricia Gaignant, Westbury, NY
Julie Johnson, Portland OR
Dorothy Simpson Krause, Marshfield Hills, MA
Liz Mitchell, Pittstown, NJ
Ray Papka, Versailles, KY
Marsh Scott, Laguna Beach, CA
Alice Simpson, New York City, NY
Lynn Sures, Silver Spring, MD
Mary L. Taylor, Marshfield Hills, MA
Laura Wait, Steamboat Springs, CO
Beata Wehr, Tucson, AZ
Daniella Woolf, Santa Cruz, CA

Learn about the upcoming Fourth Annual Encaustic Painting Conference at Montserrat College of Art

Wax and the Artist Book

Bookworks by Catherine Nash
left: Dark to Light, 2009

This is a first entry about this subject...I am learning so much about what other artists are doing with combining the media. Did a nation wide call for artists incorporating wax into their bookworks last fall and will lecture about it at the upcoming International Encaustic Symposium at Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, MA in early June. I am honored to be included in a concurrent show curated by Director Joanne Mattera there called Wax Libris...should be great!

right: This Too Shall Pass, 2009

Not that I am an expert...just was completely curious about what was going on "out there". Received a lot of wonderful entries and am currently organizing it into a power point lecture format. Once I get it together, I will blog again with images from some of the included artists.













In the meantime, I have been focusing on my own bookworks, some with the inclusion of wax, some without and thought to post them now. I will be showing in a book exhibition entitled The Book: Wide Open from May 22 - July 3rd at the Business of Art Center in Manitou Springs, CO with some wonderful artists!

below: Within, 2009