Transformations in Oil and Cold Wax

Kudos to my talented and adventurous students who took my oil and cold wax class over the past two Saturdays! The first session of the class involved starting many pieces and learning techniques like scraping, incising, using a squeegee and many weird utensils to produce texture. We used birch boards and two kinds of paper for the pieces. Each student also put a textured layer of Venetian Plaster on a cradled board so they could paint over it at the second session. Finally, they learned how to add collage in the form of images on tracing paper for added interest.

Using a palette knife to add a new layer of paint and cold wax

Using a pottery scraper to reveal previous layers

The invaluable squeegee

During the first session, students had to work on trusting that their pieces would turn out to be paintings. Oil and wax pieces undergo many changes and at first they may not look so great! By the end of the two sessions, the work was looking wonderful. I managed to get photos of most of the finished work and there are many more pieces waiting for more oil and wax.

This student let me guide her toward eloquent simplicity in her work. Here's a piece on plaster with a touch of collage.

This student explored rich colors with subtle pattern and movement. The incising is a perfect accent.

Here she lets earlier layers come through.

Rich color appeared in many of this student's pieces. Again, you can see a touch of collage here.

In earlier stages

The finished piece

                       

This student created dreamy imaginary landscapes. Stillness and movement combine in this piece.

An abstract landscape-again a perfect blend of stillness and movement

A student incises into her layers with a bamboo skewer. The edges of the paper are taped.

Here's what the piece looks like when the tape is removed. The border sets off the pieces on paper beautifully. We had a lot of fun at the end of the second day when one student peeled the tape off her paper piece. It made such a difference! Others were going to wait, but we ended with a frenzy of tape-removing.

The first reveal!

Here are some more reveals:

I'll be teaching a one day oil and cold wax class at Art and Soul Retreat here in Portland, OR on March 6. Only two spots left! People are loving this medium!