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Sunday, June 29, 2014

Making a Book

"Entrusted"     Oil/Cold Wax/Vintage Letter on Panel

This new piece was inspired by the haiku below:

 The rains of May

Here is a paper parcel

Entrusted to me long ago

--Sampu



I'm hard at work on my new book for North Light. This involves working on several things at once. I'm creating a bunch of new pieces and working on many at a time. It's exciting for me to see some new developments in my work as a result of experimentation and working in the studio more often. Since my website is not working well (it is about to be updated) I am showing these new pieces here.

"Senza Titulo"      [Untitled so far]  Oil/Cold Wax on Panel


In addition to making art, one of my recent tasks was to create what's called a Page Plan. This means that I layout where everything in the book will go, although the North Light Book designer will improve on this a great deal. Doing the Page Plan is useful for seeing what will go where, what order to put things in, how much art I'll need, the materials I'll need to take, and what I can fit into 143 pages. Needless to say, I've revised over and over, and more revisions will come later on.




"Route 66"      OilCold Wax on Panel


I'm also in the process of writing the "Stepouts." These are the captions for the step by step instructions for each chapter in the book. These instructions will be different from the last book. I will not attempt to show how to create a particular piece. Rather, I'll show lots of techniques and weird tools to get certain effects for the reader to play with and to use to create their own unique pieces.This fall I will go to Cincinnati to have pictures taken of my hand performing each step. Before I go, it will be manicure time!


"Below the Surface"     Oil/Cold Wax on Panel




" My Mother's Clothes"
I'll tell you later what all is in the above piece--I want it to be a surprise:) Very soon, another step in the book making process will be sending questionnaires out to my twelve talented guest artists and collecting their images for the book. I'm having fun with this process, but am trying to remember to come up for air periodically!





8 comments:

Karin Goeppert and Kenneth Burns said...

Beautiful paintings and I am looking forward to your new book. :-)
I have one question: does cold wax also work with acrylics?

Serena Barton said...

Thanks for your comment!

Cold wax doesn't work to mix with acrylic to paint with. You can use oil paint and cold wax over a dried acrylic painting. You can also use cold wax as a final coat over an acrylic painting or collage. It gives a really nice natural looking finish.

Trace Willans said...

I am looking forward to the new book.Just started playing with oil and cold wax myself

Karin Goeppert and Kenneth Burns said...

Thank you very much.

Dennis Kendel said...

Can you use the water soluble oil paints with the cold wax?

Lorraine

Serena Barton said...

Hi Lorraine,
I'm so sorry to be so late in responding to your excellent question. Yes, you can use the water soluable oil paints with cold wax!

BJ said...

Just received my copy of your book and am very impressed. I had not know of you or your work and am so very delighted to be introduced. Look forward to following your blog and your work.
Thank you...

Anonymous said...

Just recived your book and am very impresseed.. and so pleased to be introducted to you, your work and the many artists featured in the book. Look forward to following your blog and your work.