Kristen`s World

This is a  gift I painted for our daughter. She had changed jobs and just completed West Jet's rigorous Flight Attendant training. She has travelled quite extensively outside of work and would like to see a lot more of the world. This painting is based on seeing the world without borders, just as colourful continents.

I have painted the outside side edge of the canvas with the English words ``Travelling the world, growing and meeting many new friends that become one family``. These words are then repeated around the side edge in Bulgarian, Croatian, Danish, German, Italian and Swedish. These are languages from countries that she has yet to visit.

"Kristen's World"

Mixed media on canvas 32" x 24"

click on painting for a larger view

This painting was hard to photograph as it has 2 layers of high gloss epoxy finish which is thick and shiny. I also put some glitter over the water areas within the first layer of epoxy to make the water sparkle. I am very happy with the way this came out and so was she.

Fall Memories - Encaustic Painting #5

"Fall Memories"

16" x 16" on cradled board with 1 1/2" sides

click on picture for a larger view

This painting was done at an FCA encaustic painting workshop with Ken Bourassa. The great thing about a workshop is the variety of art everyone produces. Over the 2 day workshop I did 5 paintings, this one was the last. As you can tell I had fun with textures. As a reference, I used a picture of 3 flowers that had been frozen with the first frost in the fall. The shiny parts reflecting in the painting is gold and bronze paint.

This is a closer view of part of one flower head just to give you an idea of the texture.

"Winter Blooms" - Encaustic painting #4

"Winter Blooms"

16" x 12" encaustic painting on board

Some of the artists in the FCA Encaustic workshop with Ken Bourassa were doing very smooth layers for their painting but as you can see, I was really enjoying making and developing textures. The whole board was covered with coloured paper and ironed into the wax base. I negatively painted around the vase with various layers of colour. The flowers are made with cheesecloth, wax and paint with 1/2 circle glass beads for centres. The stems are made of string. I even had to carve my name into the wax layers as a signature (bottom left).

The picture above shows one of the blooms in better detail as well as the varied background. The painting below is a side view to give you an idea of the thickness of the flowers. The flowers also have bronze and gold highlights to match the vase.

Beach Games - Encaustic painting #3

"Beach Games"

12" x 16" Encaustic on board

click on painting for a larger view

I took a FCA workshop with Ken Bourassa on Encaustic painting. I wasn't sure I would like to work and paint with heated wax, but really enjoyed myself. Painting this way felt like fun playing and made me think of the games we played in wet sand at the beach.
I layered the board with different colours of tinted wax, one colour at a time and then drew into it with wet wax and paint to get the tic tac toe lines. I added sea shells, sand and more layers until I had the texture and look that I was after. This painting itself was like a game and you guessed...I won!

"Stormy Okanagan Lake" - Encaustic painting #2

"Stormy Okanagan Lake"

12" x 16" Encaustic painting on board

click on painting to see a larger view

This is the second painting I did in the FCA Encaustic workshop with Ken Bourassa. I grew up in Kelowna B.C. and boating was a family pastime. The Okanagan Lake can become stormy very quickly and the waves get very large which made for a lot of fun playing in the water, but down right scary in the boat. We would try to get near the shore quickly as the waves would come over the front of the boat and up the windshield. The hills are very dry in the summer and I always loved the "dry & wet" contrast of that beautiful area.