Yesterday I presented my encaustic work at Heritage Farms in Peninsula, Ohio as part of the Peninsula Flea’s Christmas in July show. Peninsula is a quaint historical village set near the beautiful Cuyahoga National Park the Cuyahoga River, and the Towpath Trail.
My vendor booth was indoors atop the hill overlooking the Heritage Farms homestead and rustic outbuildings adjacent to their evergreen tree farm. The weather could not have been better! The wind did kick up a bit and sent some of my wood ornaments into the air, plus my screen almost blew over, but I’ll take that over rain any day of an art show. Here’s a pic of my booth and screen set up:
My Suncaustics™ were well received so I am really excited to do more in the future. They are cyanotypes (photos developed in sunlight) with clear encaustic medium applied on top. Some are colorized with added pigments or tea-stained or bleached as well. A certificate of authenticity is also provided for each one. They are all 5×7 inches, matted to 8×7 inches, and packaged in clear sleeves. Here are a few that sold:
Since it was a Christmas in July show, I brought several wood and ceramic ornaments. I didn’t sell as many as I hoped, but it’s always fun to see people’s reactions when you tell them my art is made with beeswax. Most people have never heard of encaustic art. And the good news is now I have a sizeable inventory of ornaments to sell on Etsy and at holiday shows later this year.
Screenshot
The ceramic ornaments will be new for my Etsy shop, and I’m already scheduled to be at Ransom Sage Farm’s Holiday Market on December 4th and 5th.
The owner and staff were welcoming and provided everything my husband and I needed. We also had a warm welcome by several vendor neighbors – here are some that were memorable:
Last weekend you might have heard I participated for the first time at Ransom Sage Farm’s Christmas Market on December 5&6, 2025. I aim to do at least one local event per year to show my work to northeast Ohioans since a lot of what I do gets sold on Etsy and sent all over the country.
My set up took place Thursday evening. It was cold and snow was everywhere, but thankfully we didn’t get more snow that entire weekend. Chardon is the queen of the snowbelt and could have been a real challenge for us all with any more snow than we’ve had in Geauga County the last few weeks.
The event hosts were very accommodating and open to the type of space I needed for my table and gallery screen. That makes a huge difference in my comfort level with any event. I had ample space on the table to lay out all my new encaustic ceramic ornaments as well as the traditional wood ones and many other small encaustic art pieces. My ever supportive husband was there to help me set everything up and clear out the boxes too.
There were many highlights I recall since I met so many people who were excited to see and learn about the medium. My cousin came with her two children, and I remember several other children who came up to the table interested to see the wildlife images in my art. I handed out many encaustic magnets to the kids who were buying Christmas gifts. I also gave some to beekeepers and other folks who were highly inquisitive about my work.
The most memorable moment I have made me tear up a bit: A man asked me why I named my business Wolf Pup Studio and I told him it’s an homage to my late father whose name was Rolf, which means wolf in German. He looked at me and said “I’m sure he’d be very proud of you.”
Overall the event went very smoothly and I had consistent traffic both days. I sold most all of the ornaments as well as many other art works, new and some old. Here are just some of the pieces that were sold.
Over 40 encaustic ceramic ornamentsWatercolor painting “Low Country Vibe”Encaustic mixed-media “A New Perfume”Encaustic mixed-media “Renewal”Encaustic mixed-media “Stillness No. 3”Encaustic mixed-media “Julia’s Little Things”Encaustic mixed-media “Wings No. 2”Encaustic mixed-media “Wings No. 4”Photo encaustic “Moreland Meadow No. 7”Encaustic painting “Golden Gingko”Suncaustic “C’est la Vie”Encaustic painting “Sand and Sea”
Dozens of wood ornaments sold as well. I was running low on ornaments by Saturday morning, so I set out many of the birds from my Birdtober series linked here. It was such a pleasure to introduce many people to the artform of encaustic. For an ancient process, it doesn’t have much mainstream exposure.
Speaking of exposure, I was also part of a news story done by a Cleveland videographer Friday night. Even though I was not so enthusiastic to to speak on camera, he was very patient and such a good editor that it turned out fine. The advertising worked because many people came in that morning and said they saw me on tv!
I’ll start my post with a happy ending: My largest encaustic art work entitled “Where Now Meets Then” has been accepted into the Gates Mills, Ohio, Art Show, and is on display through April 27, 2025. See the Art for Sale page for location and hours.
Now for the beginning: The inspiration for this piece was the cover of a Jan Brett book I bought for my daughter years ago. I discovered the children’s book author and illustrator in our weekly visit to Hudson Library looking for books to intrigue a preschooler. I was fully intrigued this time – I fell in love with Brett’s art work accompanying the familiar fairy tales which I had been so enthralled with as a child. I still keep many of them in my studio, and often gift her books to my favorite young people.
One sketch I did looking at her book “Beauty and the Beast” which had a large tree trunk and branches with a few plump roses placed about the tree. A couple years ago, after looking at my sketch again, I went a step further and conjured an image through Ai synthography. This was a more gnarly, textured large oak tree with several roses like big apples nestled all about the boughs. I digitally edited one Ai image to make it my own style, then used it as a reference for my largest encaustic piece.
The 24 x 24 inch blank wood canvas had been sitting in my house for well over a year. I was frozen on what to do with it for a long time – I knew once I had this tree idea on paper I was ready to work big.
I prepared the canvas surface with a couple coats of encaustic gesso, then layered it with encaustic medium. I quickly learned when working on a large encaustic, it’s necessary to work in smaller sections in order to add and fuse the wax properly. Next I had to transfer my reference image to the wax covered canvas. I used the grid method, and drew it in nine separate sections. Once the drawing was complete, I went back over it with a needle tool in order to create deeper lines.
After the lines were carved, they magically came alive when I covered the canvas with black powder pastel. The powder sinks into the carved lines when wiped away to show a fairly detailed drawing.
The oil and powder pastel pigment palette changed quite a few times, adding frustration to the process at certain points. I ended up keeping the leaves various shades of green and blue from the start, but the trunk and branches were gray at first. They morphed in to a bronzy brown and taupe mix which I really think looks great with the walnut frame I chose.
The roses were initially bright red, then became coral and then orange. I finally settled on yellow once I decided to keep the scheme more analogous. Adding some gold metallic pastel also gave the tree a sense of being a monument. Changing the roses to yellow was the point at which I really started to connect with the piece in a deeper way. The yellow roses said “remember” to me, so I began to think of those blooms as beautiful memories situated on a weathered tree of life.
The background had been a light blue sky for most of the time I worked on the piece, until the yellow roses were done. This is where my intuitive autopilot kicked in. You can’t plan for the intuitive work or explain it, but other artists surely know what I’m talking about it. It’s a bit like when you’re driving somewhere and after you arrive you can’t recall any of the specific motions/turns that got you to your destination.
I also do not recall how I came up with the title exactly, but I often read poems online to get the best words or phrases for my art titles. Emerson is a favorite simply because he wrote a lot about nature, coinciding with my muse. All I remember is after reading an Emerson poem I settled on “Where Now Meets Then.”
The tree is life now, the roses are the best of memories, and the sunrise and barely finished landscape in the background is what is ahead in life. Or, perhaps it’s a sunset and the landscape symbolizes a past that is mostly forgotten. You decide, and finish the story your way.
On November 3rd & 4th, I was busy selling my art and jewelry during the Holly Days Artisan Boutique held at the West Woods in Geauga County, Ohio. I have done a couple markets per year since 2021, and this was another success!
The event ran a few hours on Friday evening and most of Saturday. This was the first time I used my new gallery wall (a white folding pegboard) which held many of my original pieces on cradled wood canvas. The table was then freed up to hold a few more larger works, some jewelry, and a white lighted tree decorated with ornaments.
All around me the other vendors had beautiful displays of some art and lots of Christmas themed decor and candy. It was great to get the holiday season rolling so soon after Halloween. My husband was kind enough to come along and help me unload, set up, and make small talk with everyone. He even picked me up a delicious burger from Manna Food Truck at the end of the night. He’s a trooper and I’m always so thankful for his help!
I debuted all thirty-one birds of the Birdtober 2023 project at the event and sold twelve of them. I even got some orders for more ornaments including a bluebird, two herons, and a monarch butterfly. Since I was asked to create these birds, I decided to list them on Etsy – currently there you can find the bluebird, the blue heron, and the hummingbird in the Ornaments section of the shop. They are made to order so if you want them for gifts, get your orders in soon!
I ran another art giveaway at this event. Two of those who signed up for my email updates got the chance to win their choice of Birdtober ornaments. One winner chose the common tailorbird, and the other chose the goldfinch. I sent those out this week. If you’re interested in getting my studio update emails (about one per month), click here to sign up. If you change your mind, it’s easy to unsubscribe.
Art that Sold
The art pieces that sold at Holly Days were quite varied in subject and process. Following is the bulk of them with a comment on each one – they are in no particular order.
“Woodland Raccoon,” 8×8 in. wood canvas. This is the 2nd or 3rd version I’ve done. People fall in love with the face of this masked creature.
“Generations,” 10×10 in. wood canvas. I like this one so much I want to do more versions of it in the future. Ever since I read about “Hibaku,” the ginkgo has been a favorite tree of mine. Click here to read more about Hibaku.
“Hinterland No. 7,” 8×8 in. wood canvas. This is not a picture of the exact one that sold, but it is another one of which I’ve made multiple versions. I like to place the fox in different settings and keep it somewhat transparent and ghostlike.
“Lilies of the Valley III,” 8×8 in. wood canvas. This is a piece done with Midjourney AI. After covering it with wax, I embellished it with some oil pastel. I did a similar one which is quite popular on Etsy.
“Orphic Landscape I,” 10 in. round wood canvas. This was an encaustic painting I did using a Midjourney AI image as a reference. A lot of AI looks surreal and I think that aesthetic comes through clearly in this one.
“Summer’s Edge,” 8×10 framed. This one was hard to let go. It ended up selling before the show even opened! I absolutely love making suncaustic works and plan to do many more – they always seem to bring out the best of my creativity.
“Moreland Meadow No. 8,” 9×12 in. wood canvas. This landscape always made me think of Ireland since it somewhat mimics the colors of the flag. It’s got some gold and it’s just about to reveal a rainbow. Moreland Meadow was a favorite place of mine that was captured in a few photos in 2020.
These last three on 6 in. round wood canvas were part of a Female Bird Series I did last year. I painted them with watercolor, then covered them with encaustic medium.
As always, I’m very happy when people stop by and look and ask about my work. I’m so grateful to those of you who liked my work enough to take it home. If you ever see a piece you’d like me to recreate, or have a request for something new, please reach out to me via email: rachel@wolfpupstudio.com
Encaustic medium is made from beeswax and damar resin. When working with the medium, I’m reminded of the connection to nature just by the sweet scent of it. I don’t keep bees, but looking at a photo similar to this one inspired me to pay some homage to the work of the bees.
Photo by pagala on Pixabay
I was not only struck by the beautiful pattern, but by the tones and contrast created with the empty and full cells. It got me thinking how the honeycomb itself embodies so much work and history of the bees that is so beautifully preserved by the structure and the beeswax.
In my studio, I keep boxes of antique books and periodicals which were left in our attic in our house in Windsor, Ohio. My dad’s family were descendants of the original settlers (Griswolds) that came from Connecticut to the Western Reserve in Ohio after the Revolutionary War. My late great great Aunt Sarah (Sade) Griswold was an active member of Windsor’s Historical Society and collected and donated many artifacts to the museum there. She also collected newspaper clippings which look as though they were gathered when she was quite young. She was born in 1886, became a nurse who never married, and lived to be 100! When I was a kid I used to poke around the attic and remember seeing many dusty letters, postcards, books, and photos but never really studied them. Now I take the time to really look at what Aunt Sade and my grandparents collected and think about why they thought them valuable enough to keep. Perhaps they were just hoarders? Perhaps they wanted their descendants like me to find and study them? I’ll never know.
So this piece began with some of the antique clippings from our attic. I scanned them to create digital copies which were then printed. As I cut the images from the copies, I was immediately placed in Aunt Sade’s shoes, looking closely at each clipping, literally reenacting her process. Once they were cut out, I decided to randomly paste them onto my wood canvas with no organization or reason – I suppose that represents the mystery that exists between her life and mine since I never knew her. I did not take a photo of this part – I really wish I had – but alas my composition will always remain a mystery as well since my next step was to cover the clippings in encaustic medium.
Once covered in the milky, slightly pigmented beeswax, I dusted areas of the surface with oil powdered pastels called PanPastels. I liked how they added to the mystery of what was hidden beneath the wax.
To apply the honeycomb pattern, I had first printed it onto paper then poked hundreds of holes with my needle tool into the surface, as shown in this process video.
The final step in the process was to choose some cells to carve out and reveal parts of the clippings underneath. Even though revealed, the images are still highly unrecognizable, strengthening the veil of mystery.
I called it “Preservation” since the beeswax will help to further preserve the history my Aunt Sade so fervently valued. I’m very happy this piece was awarded by the Geauga Arts Council, placing 3rd place in the Other Media category. It’s currently being shown at the West Woods Nature Center in Novelty, Ohio until October 3, 2023.
I’m very pleased to announce that my encaustic piece “Heavy” has been accepted in to the 12th May Show at Lakeland Community College in Kirtland, Ohio. The show runs from May 19 through July 15. Here’s a link to the Lakeland CC web site where you can see gallery hours along with the option to purchase the pieces in the show that are for sale.
Once in a while a piece will take on a life of its own, and that was really the case here! It began as a playful portrait sketch I did after watching Eschwan Winding create one of her beautiful figure drawings. I did the sketch with white pencil on a black background just to try something different. I liked it, but was not nearly satisfied – I continued to add some oil paint, then encaustic medium. I mounted it to a larger wood canvas, then covered it more encaustic medium, a crazy amount of texture, and then some panpastel matte and metallic pigments. Once the wax was slightly heated again, the oil based paint and pigments set in and became part of the medium.
“Heavy” by Rachel Rivas-Plata. Encaustic on Wood, 11″x14″ (2022)
The results incessantly interest me – the mysterious expression, various textures, bright orange hair against the dark, weathered background. There is also a subtle contrast between smooth and rough wax, and matte and metallic finishes seen as you move left or right of the piece. I deliberately compounded the 2 pieces of wood with the medium to seem as though they were one. She’s a bold and bright figure, and forever bound to some darkness and wounds, both physically and in her neutral gaze.
I paid close attention to how the piece made me feel rather than how it looked as it progressed, which I find very interesting and gratifying. That signals to me that the art work transcended its physical state.
Here are some process photos and videos.
The initial sketch
The painting in process
After mounting to second wood canvas
Covering with encaustic medium
Texture in the cooled medium from brush strokes
“Heavy” by Rachel Rivas-Plata. Encaustic on Wood, 11″x14″ (2022)
The show at Lakeland’s Gallery in Kirtland, Ohio, runs through July 15, 2022.
2021 ended up being a really good year as far as my taking the leap to sell in person. I’m a card carrying introvert but the shows have given me wonderful experiences when I see how people react to my work. And, it’s the best feeling in the world when they hand over their hard earned dollars for what I create – Every sale sparks a celebration! Pictured below is a cyanotype encaustic (or what I call “suncaustic”) that sold at the holiday market a few weeks ago. I hope to never forget seeing the buyer’s excitement when he saw the piece and knew he wanted it.
I remember when I was in my twenties, feeling angst about my occupation in publishing and wanting to make a living at something that felt more in tune to who I am. Working for other people, you eventually realize you are serving their goals, not your own. I do have a day job in the tech field now (and love it), but I use the income and experience to serve my goals as well. I’m lucky enough to work with people who encourage me and appreciate my creativity, too.
As my beloved Dr. Phil once said, “The difference between a dream and a goal is a timeline and accountability.”
What is my goal? You will just have to stay tuned and I will tell you when I get there. For now, art work keeps me grounded, present, and fulfilled. Happy New Year! Looking forward to what I can manifest in 2022. There is no beginning or end to artists, we always have been and we always will be.
I just finished up a fantastic holiday market hosted by Auburn Arts District and Cleveland Art in my little town, Auburn Township, Ohio. There was a daily admission fee of $10 that paid for appetizers and beverages. They even served food and beer from our local pizza place, bakery, and brewery. Here are some photos of the building and surrounding scenes – a very old, very artistically renovated space which was able to accommodate a dozen or so vendors and hundreds of patrons this past Friday and Saturday.
I had a space upstairs next to a lovely lady selling handmade soaps and a gentleman selling maple syrup goodies. Of course I bought some natural soap as well as some tasty bourbon maple syrup! And, I purchased a beautiful print from a nature/animal artist who was also among the group upstairs. Here’s a video of my setup.
Wolf Pup Studio LLC
And here is another short video showing some of the beautiful handmade glassware sold by Cleveland Art.
Cleveland Art Glassware
I sold quite a few encaustic pieces, but more jewelry and ornaments than I had ever sold. Some of my favorite pieces incorporated vintage buttons and beads. It was so nice that people liked and appreciated my unique jewelry creations. I began making them many years ago when I was at home full time raising my daughter. I never sold many on Etsy because of all the competition, so it was a great feeling to finally sell most of the pieces that have been in my studio for many years.
My relatives and friends came and bought some art too, so I’m really grateful for their support as well. It was a wonderful feeling to recognize their faces as they arrived.
Before the sale, my goal was to make enough money to buy myself a new printer, and that’s just what I’m doing this week. And, as always, to give back to my community I made a donation to NAMI of Geauga County today. It really is the best part of selling my work!
I have listed all my work on Etsy again for now. If you want to attend their next Holiday Market, it is planned for December 10 & 11, 2021. I will not be there, as I only signed up for one, but I’m looking forward to being among the vendors at an event again next year at this warm and eclectic space.
I am happy to announce I have completed my final bird of Birdtober 2021, a chance for artists of Instagram to show off and/or improve their bird art skills for each day of the month of October. This challenge came from a super talented Texas artist who has my gratitude for the inspiration and education: Andrea Holmes, whose web site is linked here. She brought awareness to the TCA Texas Lights Out for Wildlife campaign, which encourages turning off non-essential lights from overnight during the four months of peak migration, September, October, April, and May. More information can be found at tcatexas.org.
If you are interested in purchasing any of my encaustic birds done on 3 inch wood ornaments, you can find the remaining few in my Etsy shop linked here. Encaustic is something that is far more interesting to experience in person. It has a glow, texture, and scent you obviously don’t glean online.
Here are the 31 birds, keep in mind the photos are in descending order:
Thank you for looking! This ended up being a super rewarding challenge, and I will probably do another one next year. Here are some of the valuable lessons I took from the month’s work –
Work at art. I often create new pieces just as experiment or “playing” in the studio. It’s quite different in a good way for me to have assignments. I’m not often motivated to create lots of art, so this has helped me generate a lot more items to sell than I normally would in a month’s time. I think I should pay attention to that and set more goals for myself in order to bulk up my inventory.
Don’t rush. I didn’t make many mistakes, but I did when I rushed through the work and/or was not “in the moment” but thinking of something else. This proves the fact for me once again that multitasking does not work, and the ability to focus is a wonderful asset. Lists help me stay on track and not forget steps such as signing my drawings. Yes, I forgot to sign one before applying the wax – hopefully just one. I also forgot to paint the edges black on a few.
Be prepared. This was probably my biggest lesson learned. In order to post daily, I created a system to work on groups of birds, usually four at a time. The encaustic ornaments required several steps, including drying time for the paste, so it was always better for me to repeat each step four times in a row rather than work on the entire process at once. My brain is wired that way and I work efficiently like this at my day job, so it was easy for me to create a system and follow it. Giving myself the time to do it was the challenge. I had to look at my calendar weekly and plan which days were available to spend a few hours at a time in the studio.
Don’t compare. If you search the hashtag #birdtober or #birdtober2021 you can see the beautiful work posted by all the participating artists. I’m not the best and I’m not the worst. Where I fall in the middle does not matter to me because when someone looks at the work I create I know mine stands out as unique. Encaustic medium also gives the pieces distinction. I think most encaustic artists have their own unique style and process and that’s one of the reasons I love the medium. My pieces are truly one-of-a-kind.
Last weekend, I had a wonderful time showing my art and jewelry at the Nature Arts Festival at Big Creek Park in Chardon, Ohio. Thankfully, my art was accepted into the juried event, which gathered many, many artists from NE Ohio and beyond. I had requested an indoor table and ended up sharing one large room with a jewelry artist, Anne Nelson, who does some incredible things with metal. I also met another encaustic artist, Stacy Cook, and I very much enjoyed seeing her work and hearing about her process. I had a great conversation with another jewelry artist, Cynde Hujarski, who has a really unique style. Many thanks to my husband, Raul, who is becoming quite the art show professional! Once the event began at 10 am, I was pretty much tied to my table. I was hoping I would get more time to venture outdoors to see the other artists – I’ll have to make it a point to do that next time. I did have a chance to see the work in Carlene Holtz’s tent outdoors. She had some really beautiful floral art done on glassware. She is also the owner of MC Art Studio on the corner of Bell and 306 in South Russell/Chagrin Falls, Ohio. Full disclosure: I have some pieces in the gallery there, and it’s a very charming space, so check it out!
Inside, we had a steady stream of visitors, some purchasers, some browsers, and some friends and family. It was very nice to be able to inform people on what encaustic is and the versatility that it brings to my artmaking. Being indoors was definitely a good decision on my part, because it was terribly muggy outside and I believe it rained for a bit as well.
As always, it was so nice that my friends and family came to see me – I appreciate it so much! And it was very nice to meet some fellow artists as well as local patrons who enjoy nature-inspired art. The beauty of our parks is irreplaceable and I love that people are so passionate about spending time outdoors and observing nature. I can literally get dozens of ideas from a few pictures that I take on a hike through the park. Here are some photos of my display, before and after, along with photos of some of the items that sold.
“Luster Leaves”
“Sunflowers”
“Electric”
“Moreland Meadow No. 6”
“Moreland Meadow No. 4”
“Her Royal Highness”
“Through the Trees”“Pattern Revealed”
The best part of selling my work is that allows me to share a portion of my profits with NAMI of Geauga County. I gladly made the donation today. I’m looking forward to my next local show … I hope to see you there!
I am so pleased to announce this piece along with the sailboat painting I did a few months ago have been accepted into the Geauga Arts Council’s West Woods juried exhibit opening on August 20, 2021. It’s called “Hibaku,” and it’s a 12 x 12 inch encaustic on wood canvas. I made a smaller version of it initially titled “Beyond,” then decided I liked it so much I wanted to make a larger one. I think it could be translated into an even bigger piece some day. It’s basically a representation of some gingko branches with a cloud filled, sky blue background.
I’m sure many artists have pieces related to or depicting how they feel about the pandemic. I knew I wanted to document some of my feelings about it, but never sat down and planned something out. This piece came as a surprise from a stream of consciousness. When working on the study, “Beyond,” I made a conscious choice to keep the leaves equidistant, incorporating my feelings on social distancing. Showing that while we are distant, we are still largely connected via lines of communication. I also wanted the hard, straight lines to boldly contrast with soft organic lines inside the leaves – depicting contrast of science and nature. The deep cuts represent our illness, the beautiful sky beyond is our hope.
The title “Hibaku” came from my research of the ginkgo tree. I like to incorporate symbolism into my work – sometimes overtly, sometimes subtly, but it’s usually there. Ginkgo trees are largely symbolic of strength and longevity. You can read an interesting web page about it linked here. I read there a shocking yet wonderful fact that after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, “Even though scientists predicted that nothing would grow at the site for 75 years, the ginkgo trees and several others fully recovered, and ginkgo is now regarded as a symbol of endurance and vitality.” I knew when I learned that fact, I had to reference the history of the horrific bombing along with our own struggle with this “bomb” of a virus that has been dropped upon the entire world. I am an optimist, and I needed to share this amazing fact through the title of my work. In the words of Peter Del Tredici who published a paper on the subject linked here, “Hibaku is a Japanese word meaning ‘something that has experienced a nuclear bomb.’ Typically it is used in the form hibakusha meaning ‘people who have survived a nuclear bomb.’ ” While I never want to diminish the pain and suffering of the victims of the bombing in 1945, I am a firm believer in the importance of learning from history.
Now turning to the actual process, unlike most of my prior works, this one began with charcoal gray chalk paint on the surface of the wood canvas. Having a dark base, allowed me to carve into the top wax layer to reveal that base color later in the process. I really like this effect and plan to continue using the dark base in the future. It pretty much guarantees there will be some depth to my work.
Next, I coated the canvas in white pigmented beeswax. I believe I built up four layers or so, fusing with the heat gun between each layer. I then lightly carved the outlines of the branches and leaves onto the cooled wax. After that, it was time to add the blue sky color in the form of PanPastels. I love working with them, but they can be a bit unpredictable. It’s always best to test the color combinations on a separate piece of paper before using them on your work. As you’ll see in the following video, the coolest thing happens when you add the pastels – the pigments get caught in the carved outlines and accentuate them.
When I was satisfied with the addition of blue, I went on to brush the green pastels onto the leaves. Here’s what it looked like after the above steps.
Then it was time to carve lines into the leaves, tedious work but it can be meditative.
Next two photos, you’ll see me struggle with the background. Initially, I was unable to mimic the floating clouds that I had loved so much in my original study, “Beyond.” I even erased the entire background at one point.
Even when you erase something on a wax surface, there are remnants left, so it can add to the overall worn feeling and patina of the piece. I was able to get the desired background eventually after a couple more applications. I also added some red and warmth to the ginkgo stems and leaves which helped contrast them with the sky even more.
This final photo is of the initial 8 x 8 inch study I called “Beyond.” It’s currently for sale in my Etsy shop – linked here.
To see both of my accepted pieces, along with several other local artworks, visit the Geauga Parks West Woods Nature Center from August 20, 2021 through October 5, 2021. Center is open daily 10 am – 4 pm. “Hibaku” is 12 x 12 inches and priced at $88.
Yesterday on Auburn Road, 8×8 in. mixed media encaustic by Rachel Rivas-Plata
(posted 06/19/2021)
This is one of the very first deliberately planned encaustic pieces I ever did. It began with a very old photo of my late grandparents’ home. I digitally altered it, then pasted the print onto a wood canvas. Then came the most difficult part – painting forsythia with beeswax. I knew I wanted to paint these particular flowers with the house. It is a long held memory of mine that when we used to visit my grandparents at Easter, my grandpa would cut a few branches for my mother to take home. It was such a small, sweet gesture, but it is one of the only memories I have of my late grandfather. We did not go to see them very often. We lived only about thirty miles away, but since my father (their son) had died when I was only two, we saw them only twice a year: Christmas and Easter. I pass the house every now and then, wishing I could stop in to see my grandparents to ask the dozens of questions I never had when I was young, but only the shadows of memories live there now with the new owners.
I had to look back in my Instagram posts to find that my first draft of this piece was in May of 2018. I had originally drawn the home on a blank canvas, then added photos of the flowers over the top. It wasn’t until I reversed the process and painted the flowers over the photo, that it looked to me more like my memory. I labored over the flowers, painting and removing them several times. This process actually ended up adding a worn, gouged layer that I really like. The flowers are close, but still unclear in their detail. The home is far and unfinished, but some details remain. Dreams and memories are so difficult to capture, but I think I did grasp much of what I wanted to portray. Below are images of the first drafts in process.
Fast forward to a few months ago, and I saw the call for art for Lakeland’s May Show. I had never entered an actual show and I decided that even though it was not finished in my mind, that I should just throw my hat in the ring. It cost $15 per entry, and I entered this piece as well as an abstract. Neither got into the May Show, but this one did get chosen for the Extended Show at Stella’s Art Gallery in Willoughby, Ohio. I found out after I entered the pieces that the juror was American postwar and contemporary artist, Jae Jarrell.
Yesterday, I browsed both the May Show at Lakeland’s Gallery and the Extended Show at Stella’s Art Gallery. I saw some works from local artists I have befriended on social media and was very happy to see they had been chosen. I saw many pieces that I thought were phenomenal, and others I thought were not nearly as good as mine. I have a feeling I’m not alone in this regard, and I learned that I need to develop more of a callous when it comes to being judged. For many reasons, it took a lot of nerve to start calling myself an artist. Now I have to really act like one and roll with the punches.
I have come to realize why this creative/artistic aspect of my being is so vital. It unlocks much of the confidence within myself. I also learned that how I see my work is often not nearly how others see it – For good or bad. I need to further research who my audience is and see more art shows to better understand what is expected and accepted in particular venues. And above all, I should not hesitate too much when putting my work out there. The more irons in the fire, the easier that rejections get and the more chances I have of getting my work and name recognized. No magic nor rocket science required. I believe hard work and gratitude will carry me along this artist’s journey.
The West Woods Nature Center in Novelty, Ohio, is hosting an art exhibit featuring works inspired by insects! I submitted five butterfly pieces – one is pictured below. I also made some butterfly ornaments which will be for sale in the boutique. The show opens on February 13, 2021, and runs through April 26, 2021. Social distancing and masks are required. Follow this link for more info
