I used gold in the backiground…very interesting…it behaves differently..the other waxes melt at 180 degrees…gold needs 200

so this is sometimes how I decide to create a composition…I did not crop this photo —see the gray? well, I think this would make an interesting painting later …maybe with circles in that gray?

Isn’t this interesting shape-wise? I had a teacher once…carla O’Connor…a really wonderful teacher and friend…who taught that you must divide the edges of the
canvas with different shapes..works here I think

This was my first in the series and actually I was so excited with her that I decided to do the whole series

needed some blue flowers…used to not like blue flowers (I thought) now I can’t get enough of them in my garden..delphenium/plumbago/larkspur

so down the road from our home in North Carolina is a guy who grows dahlias…lots and lots…and he has red dahlias that are just so very exciting…I like doing the flowers close up mostly…but then do some multiples for the overall piece

gives me chills

so…every painting I am thinking about the whole piece of 64 (or 36 if I get too tired of flowers) and so keep switching colors/backgrounds/shapes

I love the lavender!

the other good thing about doing a series and working small is that I can experiement freely…I mean, who really gets worried about a 1’x1′ painting? But I am going to make this into a larger painting..I have a 30″x30″ cradled encaustic board that I think I* will try…will keep you posted…when I first started encaustics I was taught with crayons…do you know how many white crayons this would take? and you have to buy a box of 8 for one….soooo..this is with R&F encaustics…way more expensive but easier