I am fortunate to have been chosen to show five of my encaustic on wood panel paintings at this 1st annual exhibit in Denton, TX.

The works chosen by curator, Katy Crocker are my Johnson Creek, Summer series. …1-5.

This work was inspired by the summer here on the ranch. It was HOT to say the least…many days of 105 degrees, drying up pastures…even almost dried up Johnson Creek that runs into our small lake. My studio looks out over the creek line.  It is always inspirational to me.

These pieces are all encaustic paint on cradled wood panels………10 x 10 x 2 inches.

I hope any of you who happen to live near Denton, will take the time to go by and see the show AND look around at  Earthwise Gardens. The festival should also be a lot of fun. http://wiseearthart.tumblr.com/artists

I now have eight but they still look a little like multiples of two. Maybe if they are re-arranged that won’t be as apparent. The first two have a lot more of an orange in the ground as well but I like them as they are so I hesitate to ‘fix’ them to go with the others.

They are not varnished yet or signed so I can always make a few adjustments but I think I can say these are about done. They will be hung as a group 5 or 7 of them probably anyway instead of all eight.

Ready for something really big next OR get out the wax.

Is this you? I don’t want to just be all alone in this feeling. I know others have the same problem. We all know about it first hand. We also know that we finally just cannot take it any longer and we go and just make that mess we have to make before we can get the groove going again. Even if it’s a little groove and not a long one.

Another thing is that I didn’t have any deadlines or obligations. I think I work better under a certain amount of time constraints if it’s not too stressful.

Last post * I was working on eight little 16 x 16 inch canvases that I was painting over. I do have a number of paintings I could paint over… and I eventually do. I prefer starting fresh though most of the time. This was pushed on me by having so much work in the studio it was good to get some out and it could then be replaced without adding to the inventory. I thought I was going to turn these little babies out in no time. So much for that notion. I think I take longer working on small pieces than I do with large ones. I started by just painting over the whole canvas with a mother color somewhat like variations of yellow ochre. Heck, everything goes with yellow ochre doesn’t it? Then I drew with a long Egbert brush with Payne’s gray… then I drew with Ebony pencils and charcoal…………then I started with black and white paint. Before I knew it I had a couple of them I thought I liked. Man, I was going to be more graphic and more minimalist.

I was wrong… the next day they looked like that stuff I mentioned before in the pasture….and dead as a doornail. SO, I went on to others and started working. I tried sitting down… not a good idea. I have to paint standing up. Finally got back up and worked on two I think I liked. Those are the two I posted last time.

SO…. I kept reading books and making food for holidays, shopping and in the back of my mind were those canvases just up in the studio waiting. I couldn’t do anything else until they were done…….I am built that way. I can waste an awful lot of time with this kind of thing but it has to be or I would have hundreds of unfinished projects.

Today I think I have two more of these eight done. I took pictures anyway to post two more. When all eight are done, then the decision will have to be made as to in what order they are hung.

I look forward to hearing from anyone who can tell me a great way to get through this self-imposed slump……….
*correction………… there was no ‘post’ about the other two canvases… it seems I posted them on FB. SO look there for the first two.

This morning I was going through my email while the coffee was dripping. One of the emails was from Lisa Call. Lisa is SUCH a wonderful writer with so many great ideas for taking control of your future… in art or anything else. I am always inspired after reading her blog. She has two that I subscribe to… one for her art and one for helping out all the rest of us out here needing some inspiration for our own careers as artists.

The link I am going to show today is Lisa’s site called, MAKE BIG ART. If we could all take even a portion of Lisa’s advice, we would make more progress in the coming year. If you just cannot get this organized (and many of us cannot)… then just prioritize and take a few of the tips you will find on this blog and make them your ‘to do’ list for 2012.

If I don’t get back to you before the first of 2012, know that I wish you all a wonderful holiday season and a prosperous, happy 2012.

This is really something to strive for. Nita has some really great information along with projects outlined if you have never done collage. There are as many ways to collage as there are to paint. You’ll have a lot of fun with this book………available from Amazon with a number of pages to preview. I’m prejudiced of course…….my work is featured on two pages and a part of the montage of painting images on the cover.

This is also a beautiful book, made to be used. The book has spiral binding inside so it will lay flat while you are using it and referencing demos.

New Creative Collage Techniques by Nita Leland 

Gregory… a special thanks to you for climbing up and down to measure and hang the work.

This time I was not looking to do away with the horizon line as I did when I was working on the “Meander” series of paintings………but what I got is still a version and continuation of that meandering. This time my take off point was to do some gestural, automatic drawing, both with drawing implements like charcoal, pencils and art crayons as well as a large well-loaded brush of dark paint. I prepped my canvas in the usual manner with lightweight modeling paste and chose a transparent yellow, Transparent yellow iron oxide. I didn’t have any black with me so I chose Payne’s gray for my dark paint. I just started with a 30 x 30 inch canvas on the first one. It’s hard to say what else I did as I was using some of the suggestions in a book I have and have not really used before………. Steven Aimone’s, Live & Learn: Expressive Drawing: A Practical Guide to Freeing the Artist Within.

This is the result of that first painting. I liked it.

Meander 12

So, on to do another. I only had two 48 x 24 inch canvases left. Since they would not go on my easel side by side, I used them as a diptych vertically…………same size overall anyway, 48 x 48 inches.

I used much the same automatic drawing and painting but with a larger surface and different marks and gestures.  This one might be my favorite……..at least for now.

Meander 13

Generally, all I ever take is totally blank canvas. Knowing I was coming back to an  ’in progress’ diptych from me starting to paint over an old one, I decided to take them with me as well as the blank canvas.

So, the first morning I set to painting and finishing this diptych… that only has a working title of Johnson Creek, Blue, green, violet. It is acrylic on two canvases, 36 x 60 inches total.

After I set that one aside to work on a new painting…. this is what I am ending up with so far………acrylic on canvas, 36 x 36 inches……..Little Pieces of Land, with Magenta is the working title for now.

The next one I worked on during the week was a piece I am still considering doing more to….line some drawing lines over the paint. Of course that will call for more paint back into the lines and so on and so on…. but here it is as it is right now. VERY colorful, for sure. I already posted it on FB during the week.  acrylic on canvas 24 x 36 inches….working title of Red-orange.

I’ll post the next ones on the next blog post………. I was determined not to stay in a rut and got into some drawing exercises and had a lot of fun with them..

Until then, thanks for tuning in.

]]> http://www.cherylmcclure.com/2011/10/03/back-from-an-inspiring-retreat-in-mississippi/feed/ 0 http://www.cherylmcclure.com/2011/09/03/hot/ http://www.cherylmcclure.com/2011/09/03/hot/#comments Sat, 03 Sep 2011 18:06:38 +0000 admin http://www.cherylmcclure.com/?p=996 I’ve been working on a number of small pieces lately…both oil and cold wax medium and hot wax and oil sticks. It has been fun, but I really LOVE working large. SO I got out one of the two inch depth canvases I ordered recently…….a 50 x 40 inch one. I could really slap the paint around on this size…and with the acrylic paint in various consistencies.

I think it’s finished as I already took the pictures. So far, I can only think of HOT HOT HOT… so that is the working title until something else might occur to me to sound better. It was a lot of fun………….and this is the result.

I loved that sheet music,too……… Oh well……….if the path turns, it turns. You should not look back as it is all for the best usually. I won’t discuss the times is not.

I looked at those beginnings and kept avoiding them by working on other paintings. Finally, the time came to just “DO IT”… add the encaustic paint and get going. After all….it is just paint and panels.

I added and added…scraped and scraped. Fell in love with the oil painting sticks I had from the encaustic conference and R & F paints. OMG, they are so creamy and they manipulate so wonderfully………then add some encaustic medium and fuse. Oh my.

Layer after layer…some with more, some with less………….until I think they are done. I hope so as I have a new canvas already on the painting wall waiting and calling to me.

The series of 5 is called………… “Johnson Creek, Summer’…. surprise, surprise!