Circles and Markmaking: 5th Annual Encaustic Invitational @ Conrad Wilde Gallery

work by Margaret Suchland:
"Collecting found objects, old printed ephemera and other of life’s artifacts has been a part of my life since childhood. What intrigues me about these relics is not only the mysteries which surround them but the evidence of past ownership in the form of random marks, nicks, specks, smudges and worn edges. They are proof of life’s existence – a presence of an absence – an indication of one’s mark by someone known or unknown to me."

Zipped down to the Conrad Wilde Gallery 15 minutes after teaching on Saturday just in time to hear a number of artists speak and for the opening reception...wish I had brought a notepad... and a camera for that matter. Their words were elegant, heartfelt and moving, discussing issues from the technical to idea: what inspired the work; life experiences that invoked the image. I was honored to speak too.

Barbara Gagel
Gwendolyn Plunkett

Catherine Nash

What a fantastic show! There was a real unity within the exhibition even with disparate subjects: the flow to how the work was hung is masterful. It does real justice to the beauty of each painting, I must say. Circles and markmaking seem to be two of the links between these works.

Deborah Kapoor

Eileen Goldenberg

Nancy Natale

Fanne Fernow

Mari Marks

above: Diana Gonzalez Gandolfi
Molly Cliff-Hilts

Exhibiting artists and their fans from California, New Mexico, Colorado, Texas and others flew in for the event. I loved having the time to talk with Gwendolyn Plunkett and Laura Wait and Paula Roland and others. You know how openings go...slightly on the blur, but this one was great fun! I will indeed go back to really look at these beautiful works in quietude.

below - work by Laura Wait

There is only so much room for images here, but please take the time to peruse and research the artists of the Conrad Wilde Gallery's 5th Annual Encaustic Invitational:
Debra Blair
Mari Marks
Emily Clawson
Catherine Nash
Molly Cliff-Hilts
Nancy Natale
Fanne Fernow
Jane Allen Nodine
Barbara Gagel
Gwendolyn Plunkett
Diana Gonzalez Gandolfi
Margaret Suchland
Eileen P. Goldenberg
Donna Talman
Cari Hernandez
Rodney Thompson
Deborah Kapoor
Laura Wait
Allyson Sanburn Malek
Deanna Wood

Daniella Woolf in the studio!

Daniella Woolf at the sewing machine

How exciting to have Santa Cruz artist Daniella Woolf here in our studio, Desert Paper, Book and Wax, teaching a workshop in Encaustic with a Textile Sensibility. Participants from as far as the mid coast of Maine, Farmington, NM, Palm Springs, CA and way up there in Phoenix :-) joined a number of us Tucson IEA (Int'l Encaustic Association) members: wonderful and talented artists who really made our time together quite stimulating.

Daniella, Rae and Sherrie

Dipping a sewn collage in encaustic medium strengthens and makes the image cohesive. Swoop 1 2 3...

Daniella demonstrated multitudinous techniques that inspired and enriched our technical vocabulary. We started off rather neat and tidy, but as all intense creative ventures should go, the studio gained a wonderfully energizing atmosphere, with lots going on in every corner...


A final wrap up with a walk through to view and learn from each others' art clinched the experience. Thanks so much Daniella!

Artist Beata Wehr discusses her work with Daniella
below: admiring the work of artist Sharon Pettus

Thanks to Sherrie Posternak for all her hard work in making this happen!

Have I ever invited you in?

Our studio!
Desert Paper, Book and Wax and Studio Renfrow all under one roof!

Rob and I are gearing up for a new season of teaching and he just started his first workshop today. Snuck in the back door and took a shot:
I was asked to take some photos by Lisa Pressman for a talk she is giving in June on artists and their studios. Even though she said not to clean up I couldn't help myself....! I won't give them all away, but since there is also an article I have uploaded to our articles section on my creative process that includes studio views, I thought to put a few of them up now. Musings on Art and Nature is the title. Just go to papermakingresources.com towards the very bottom.
Well come on in!

sculpture in lower left by Kitty Wales

How do others set themselves up? I find that stations work well with kindergarteners...and they work great with me! Where I work at two face to face tables: the one on the left is for thinking, drawing and designing, on the right for assemblage and scraping back waxes. A few things in progress:

why do people love to see these messy tables? :-) although I have to admit...'tis a bit straightened up! My painting station:


and to the right, ventilation out the window,

A papermaker might be able to recognize some things...there is a pot full of just cooked kozo waiting to be rinsed on the floor. A dry box tucked under the counter, a little screw press and an encaustic monoprint box. (The large hydraulic press is out on the back porch.) My studio can instantly convert to papermaking...that door on the far right is to the beater room where I store all my fibers, vats and screens, etc, etc... I usually make paper for specific projects rather than production sheetforming. Love to embed painted on Japanese style sheets in wax!
Looking back out into the teaching area from my section...that is also where lots of paper is made! And where we will completely rearrange for Daniella Woolf's workshop on Friday Feb 19th/Sat Feb 20th. All credit and thanks go to Sherrie Posternak of the Tucson IEA for doing all the organizing work!
Robert's darkroom is around to the left. But I just love that he can also make the entire studio completely light free. Turns into one huge darkroom for making huge cyanotypes.

Robert Renfrow, Caterpillar Infestation Cyanotype and redeveloped cyanotype on fabric. 9ft.h x 8ft.w

This work by Robert is incredible in person...made from a life sized bloomed-out agave along with computer generated negatives. Statement on the blading of the desert, the ousting of native plants and animals for new "development". Note the golf clubs that the work hangs from. And if you look very closely, you can see tiny caterpillar bulldozers climbing the agave stalks!

That's the tour!

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