Where to find me this season

Oh boy the time is just flying, isn't it? I'm getting kind of nervous about all the things I need to get done. Why isn't there 36 hours in the day?

Today I thought I would let you know about where you can find my work this season. Just in case you needed some awesome and cute gifts for your family and friends. *wink*wink*.

From Nov.15-Jan 15 I will be showing some original monotypes and a series of encaustic   paintings at the Langley Centennial Museum. The theme is moons and mushrooms and I have numerous pieces there under $100.

One November 24th I will be back at the Steveston Christmas Craft Fair 10am-4pm. I will be selling one-of-a-kind prints, ceramic tea cups and saucers, silkscreened napkins sets, magnets, tree ornaments and more.

If you're out in Coquitlam I have some silkscreened onesies and t-shirts, Xmas cards, napkin sets and some really cute polymer clay bird ornaments at the Place des Arts  Christmas Gift Boutique.

If you can't make it to any of those events you can always get up-close and personal with my work at Bird on a Wire on Main St.

As for my own Christmas shopping I will be checking out some of the local craft fairs in the neighbourhood. Time to see what kind of creativity is hidden in Langley.

FK IT DUDE

This weekend is going to be a busy one. Lots goin' on. If you didn't have anything planned you might want to see me on the Langley Studio Art tour. While I man my table and chat visitors I will be preparing for Christmas. There's not much time left you know.

If you wanted to start this weekend right I suggest you go see FK IT DUDE which will be showing at the Hot Art Wet City Pop-up Gallery on 752 E. Broadway. This multi-artist show will be an homage show to the cult classic "The Big Lebowski". I don't know about you but I love that movie and when I saw the call for submissions I jumped at the chance to create something. 

I did a mixed media piece on cradled board that let me use a little digital painting and a little encaustic work. My piece references one of my favourite characters, "Jesus Quintana", and his love of a shiny bowling ball. Although John Turturro's part is quite small in the movie  it's just fantastic.What's your favourite character?

Digital and encaustic

I polished the encaustic so it was really shiny.

Work in progress

Now that we're well into January I thought I'd show you what I've busily been working on. For ages now I've been wanting to work in encaustic but I've been too intimidated by the process and the expense to try. It always seemed so mysterious and potentially toxic. Alas, I couldn't shake the interest in was and started researching it more.

This January after having realized that I had double-booked myself for art shows, I thought it would be a fantastic opportunity to create an entirely new series of work based around encaustics. This new series will continue with the mushroom theme I've been doing but it will incorporate linocuts, encaustic paintings, monotypes, drawing and watercolors. I will be tackling many new techniques that I've never tried before and it's gotten me wishing that there was some way I could get rid of sleep and work so I could work in the studio more.

Above are a couple of photos of a encaustic painting in the process. The second one is of painting being carved with my linocut tools to help me create details. The wax really is magical and it's always on the verge of being out of my control. I love that kind of creating. So what do you think? Do you work in wax? Do you have any hints or tips for me? I would love to hear them.