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 can’t say I like all of Pablo Picasso’s work (and there is lot of it), but I have always loved his “line drawings,” which you can see on this linked web site dedicated to the artist. To be able to represent a person or animal so simplistically is quite a feat. I set out wanting to create some flowers in that same style, but taking it a step further by carving the drawing in beeswax.
There are many ways to transfer an image to an encaustic surface, but I have a unique “connect the dots” process I like to use. First, I made a sketch of the flowers, then I made a more detailed line drawing of it on paper cut to the basic size of my canvas. The blank wood canvas had already been layered with dark then white pigmented encaustic medium, so the next step was to tape down the drawing on top of it. I heated the surface just a tad then began poking holes with the needle tool along the lines through the paper, right into the warmed wax surface as shown in this video.
Once that was finished, the canvas looked like a connect the dots page from a kid’s coloring book. (There’s nothing better than feeling like a kid again in my studio ha ha!) I set to work connecting those dots by carving deeper lines into the wax surface with the help of a flame. Those deep lines revealed the dark pigment underneath the white wax.
A very interesting effect I hadn’t expected was the dots merging with the carved lines and creating a unique textured pattern once I added more heat. I wanted to accentuate that texture as much as possible, so I applied black powder pastel then removed a lot of it with some mineral oil.
I like the dramatic results of leaving some of the black smudges and smears. This also depicts a contrast to the floral outlines, and it shows off the distinction of encaustic medium as compared to flat paintings and illustrations.
“Idle Charms” Encaustic Painting by Rachel Rivas-Plata
The title of the piece is “Idle Charms.” That came from my idea of taking colorful flowers from nature and abstracting them to just a few jagged lines. The 12×12 inch canvas has been framed and is available on Etsy linked here as of the date of this post.
We’ve all heard or even know that art is a journey, not a destination. For me it’s about immersing myself in the process – exploring, experimenting, and expressing. In 2021 I signed up for the Essence of Mulranny Painting with Fire nine-month series. I cannot praise this set of courses enough, and I have only purchased one year of them.
Essence of Mulranny Arts linked here is an art studio and classroom located in (as their site says) “sheep country” of Ireland. (In case you’re wondering, I’m not being paid to write any of this. I currently do not have any endorsements or monetize my web site. All my business income is from art sales.) I did not travel to Ireland, but I purchased the Painting with Fire video courses in April of 2021 and found a few favorite instructors: Elise Wagner, Pamela Caughey, Ezschwan Winding, and Lyn Belisle.
Elise Wagner has a very interesting background in collagraph printmaking and has used encaustic wax surfaces as the basis for prints, which I find very fascinating. I kept her techniques in mind when working on pieces where the texture is a focal point, like my encaustic painting below, “Beyond.”
Ezschwan Winding taught me how to approach a portrait and after watching her course, I ended up making the following piece, “Heavy,” which was accepted into the Lakeland May Show a couple years ago.
Abstract encaustic master Pamela Caughey’s course was my inspiration to make the Waterfall series. They were created all at once by first binding all the canvases together. The photo below shows them right after they were separated.
And Lyn Belisle’s course highlighting faux surfaces made me experiment further with metallic powder pastels in my work. I love when I can make beeswax look like burnished metal, such as the following piece, “Straw Into Gold.”
The handful of courses I have viewed have been so enriching to me that I have yet to finish watching all of them. They never expire, so that has been a huge benefit as well. I better catch up because more courses have been released every year since 2021!
I’ll always be striving to learn more. Looking back, it’s satisfying for me to see how I’ve learned from many sources and forged my own unique path with encaustic medium.
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
You’ve probably learned one of my favorite combinations in the studio is cyanotype plus encaustic. I refer to them as my “suncaustics” since cyanotypes are images developed with sunlight. I dedicated one of my first blog posts (linked here) to the topic of cyanotypes. Over the last couple years I have successfully used a few different techniques I’d like to share. As with other encaustic mixed-media art, the variations of these two media put together can really be mind blowing!
This piece began as a photo I had taken looking up at some trees in the spring while on a Girl Scout hike with my daughter’s troop several years ago. I made a digital negative of it and printed it on a clear plastic sheet, then made a cyanotype. After covering it with encaustic medium, I applied some orange and yellow alcohol inks to the surface, then fused it with heat.
The next piece was created with another negative photo I had taken of some of the plastic net bags used to hold onions, of all things. After I rinsed the cyanotype I knew it had to be an aquatic image since it looked to be underwater. I added an image of a koi on top, layered with encaustic and here’s the result. The man who purchased it reacted with so much admiration for it, I’ll never forget that!
This little bluebird began as a watercolor painting I did, then scanned it to make a digital negative. I added some metallic copper PanPastels then fused with heat. I love the simplicity and contrast of the copper, white, and dark blue. It sold at the 2021 Holiday Market at Reithoffer’s Gallery in Auburn Twp., Ohio.
This next piece was sold at a former local gallery MC Studio in 2021. They put out a call for art with the theme of the moon, and I got to work drawing seed pods of a lunaria plant aka money plant. I printed a negative of my drawing to create the cyanotype. After the encaustic medium was applied, I carved some lines and added metallic pastel to give it a pretty moonglow to go with the plant’s name.
The next suncaustic had a very humble beginning. Every spring I like to take a day and create a whole batch of cyanotypes from botanicals I find walking around my yard. Here’s what the sun print looked like as I rinsed off the developing chemicals.
I really didn’t like the print, so I covered most of it with powder and oil pastel. The resulting blue undertones of the green background and vibrant flowers were a wonderful surprise to me when I was done. It sold at the last Nature & Arts Fest at West Woods in Novelty, Ohio.
And this one was pushed a bit farther. I painted over the wax with some pink, green, and gold set in carved lines, then mounted it on another cyanotype image to give it a unique backdrop in the frame. The acid wash blue effect in this piece also keeps it really interesting!
My latest suncaustic was made from one of my backyard prints. I covered the white leaves and some of the background with oil pastel – I love the blue and green combo. Then to put more life in it, I painted some yellow leaf stems on the surface. The final framed piece is listed for sale on my Etsy site linked here.
I can’t wait to see what my mixed-media experiments in the studio will bring in the future – stay tuned!
I thought I’d share some of my history just to let you know where I’ve been. I think it also helps me close the chapters for good and continue forward into my next art phase. In my last blog I told the story of how I spent a lot of time in the art room in high school and why. The art teacher had suggested I could get a scholarship to Cleveland Institute of Art but I looked at him like he was crazy thinking my grades were too good to “waste” on art school. So, I was not intending on being an art major when I applied to Allegheny College in Pennsylvania. I wanted to be an art therapist. Looking back I clearly see I didn’t pick the right college, but at the time I had no clue how to pick the best school for my intended major. It was a good “liberal arts” college so I was assured no matter what I majored in I’d be guaranteed a career in whatever I wanted to do after I earned a Bachelor’s. I’m not sure if I was misled or had no common sense at the time, but that’s how I perceived my options. The campus was pretty, the tour guide seemed friendly, and they gave me hefty grants based on my grades. I was wait listed at Oberlin and Dickinson, so I accepted my fate and matriculated at Allegheny in the fall of 1988.
College was difficult for me to say the least. They expected me to show up early in the morning, do lots of reading, participate in class and spend hours studying. I will let you in on a secret, I didn’t do much of that in high school at all. I would study the night before tests since the teachers usually told us what would be on them. I did like to read a lot, but was more interested in Anne Rice and Stephen King novels than Immanuel Kant or Thomas Merton books. Then there was my new social life. I went from talking to literally two people in high school to having a nice group of friends in college based on our mutual love of loud keg parties and drinking any form of schnapps we could get our hands on.
At Allegheny I felt some support of my new friends, but did not have any connection with my advisor or my professors. I avoided them as much as possible, certainly because of the shame I felt in not attending classes and not doing well on tests. I had never struggled in school so I didn’t realize I should have reached out to them for help. I didn’t even know a tutor was an option. It did not improve either when I spoke with my advisor in the middle of my Freshman year and she said “Maybe Allegheny isn’t the place for you.” I’m still angry about that after all these years, but writing this does help get it off my chest. She was probably right, but she never offered me help or ways to improve my situation. I think that’s when I first developed my tendencies of imposter syndrome.
I spent the next three years feeling like I wasn’t good enough to be there. I went through some very tough emotional and financial struggles my junior year and considered dropping out after I failed an 8 am class I rarely attended – Geology. Quite honestly college was boring me too. It just seemed like work, and I was having too much fun with my new friends for that. With encouragement from my good friend and roommate, I decided to bite the bullet and take an extra course my senior year to finish my degree. By that time I had a few art courses under my belt including a multimedia class where I hand built this clay piece modeled after a glass bottle with candle wax dripping off the sides. It was about 18 inches tall.
I thought my choice of majors was between English and Studio Art based on the classes I had done well in and felt encouragement from the professors when I did show up and do the work. I learned to mix the clay and glazes and how to fire pieces in an enormous gas kiln. I can’t say I felt like an expert after those classes, but I knew I loved it and enjoyed the process more than anything else. Here is a piece I did in beginning ceramics course when we had to depict the fortune after opening a fortune cookie in class.
I never felt connected with the other art majors. They seemed weird to me ha ha. Now I realize I would have fit in perfectly with my own weirdness if I had just accepted my differences rather than try to hide them. I did not spend a lot of time at art events, but I do vividly recall when the art gallery receptionist bought a raku fired cup and saucer I had made. I was in shock since I had always given my pieces away for free to family and friends.
Here are a couple of the pieces that were part of my senior year project. Some lost soul broke off the points of the yellow triangles in the top piece, so I had to just go with it when I discovered the damage in the studio the next day. The platters are about 20 inches wide and I still have some of them.
That senior project was another experience that added to my imposter syndrome. We were supposed to find an artist that inspired our work and I had settled on Wassily Kandinsky. I read a little about his work and was inspired by the bold shapes, colors, and lines. His use of the abstract to transcend the physical world resonated with me. I was not able to convey this to the art history professor though – he quickly shot me down and said my work was no comparison to Kandinsky. True, but I don’t know where these professors come off being so mean to young people.
Fast forward to early 2000s when I enrolled in pottery courses at Lakeland Community College. Once again I was in my element spending hours in the studio each week. Throwing pottery was very fun and was something I was ok at, but never mastered it. I lacked a lot of the strength needed in my hands and it is very hard on your skin. Hand building came much easier to me. Here are some of the pieces I made at Lakeland. The teacher was very good, and I loved the classes. He showed us the technical nuances but let us run free with our own ideas and projects.
I have not done ceramics or pottery for roughly twenty years now. I don’t really miss it since I found encaustic to be very satisfying, inspiring, and full of possibilities. If you’ve read this far, thank you so much for your interest. I don’t spend too much of my time looking back, but I needed to chronicle and appreciate the learning experiences that brought me to where I am right now.
