I have just learned how to hand-decorate paper in a stunning way and doing this is my obsession this week. Diane Havnen-Smith and I spent a wonderful day in her Clackamas studio where she taught me some of what she learned from paper artist Jackie Crist. Above you will see a section of Diane's paper (third image down) and a section from my first attempt. I went out to Beaverton yesterday to pick up some "re-inkers" from The Peddler's Pack. (Re-inkers are one of the vital ingredients in this paper-designing process.) This wonderful store has more stamps than I have ever seen in one place as well as tons of other art supplies. Even if, like me, you fear the suburbs, it is well worth the trip. I found out from the owner that Jackie Crist will be teaching her paper decorating process there in January. I strongly recommend this class--this process is unusual and very relaxing, and you end up with amazing paper to use in collage, with painting, with encaustic , to cover books, wrap special gifts, and on and on...To register, contact http://www.peddlerspack.com.
Along with several co-members of the Portland Chapter of International Encaustic Artists, I am participating in a challenging exchange called, "The Diptych Project." (In case you don't know what a diptych is, it is a painting in two parts.) How this project works is that each of us West Coast artists receives a painted encaustic panel and a blank one of the same size from our "partner", one of the members of New England Wax. We have to complete the blank panel in a way that will make our partner's panel and ours become a complete work in two parts. We West Coasters paint another encaustic and send it and a blank panel to our New England partner. So we end up with one diptych here and one in Portland Maine. In February there will be a simultaneous show in Portland OR and Portland ME. Ours will be at Brian Marki Gallery.
This is a way cool idea and is more challenging than many of us thought. Many of us here in Portland have received paintings done in a very different style from our own. My partner's amazing encaustic can be seen above, the first image. Her name is Dawna Bemis. I just love it, but she does paint differently than I do. She's neat and I'm messy. I can't even figure out how she did some of the painting, like the dotted circles. And is that a comb at the bottom? So, after a period of being completely overwhelmed and having to come up with my own painting for her to complete, I wasn't so sure about this. I managed to lighten up and now I'm excited again and eager to play with the challenge of making a panel to go with hers that is still true to my own vision. There are some tiny words on her picture that say, "What if they find out". This gives me some interesting ideas for the other half of the painting.
The second picture above shows the completed panel I will send to my diptych partner, together with a blank panel. I even managed to use some of my handmade paper in it! I was inspired by Dawna's words to add text on my painting. Mine says, "I thought there was more time." I can't wait to see what she does with her blank panel!
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