Update on New Series!

I am off to our cottage in central Ontario tomorrow, so thought I would post a newsletter before I go. The new series now contains 15 paintings, 12x12" down to 6x6", the first 5 of which were in the last newsletter. I have prepared a bunch of large cradled panels and am excited to get to them when I get back mid August.

Here are the next three in the series, all 8x10" and showing the 'dry' stage of mark making, inks and collage, and then the final (maybe they are done??) work after being taken into encaustic. The wax is lovely for its ability to yield transparent glazes of colour, translucent veils which partially obscure what is underneath, and gorgeous solid opaques that completely hide what is underneath. The encaustic also gives the paintings a lovely warm glow, and they smell so good! I still don't have a name for this series, so if you have any ideas, I would love to hear them!

Not sure where the puppies came from, but they were so cute, I kept them!

Upcoming shows!

My time at the July Rosebud Artisan Market was so successful, that I have decided to return for a second market on August 14 from 10-4pm -yes, we get in the night before and have to be up at 6 to get to Rosebud in time to set up. Hopefully the vacation will be relaxing!! A new venture coming up on August 21 from 11-3pm is "Art In The Park". This is the first Art Market to be held at the Oakridge Community Hall. We are gathering artists from our area to participate. I have dreamed of doing this for so many years, I am thrilled to see it actually coming to fruition. We will be having food trucks and musical entertainment to go with the market, so it should be a fun time for all. Hopefully I will have a poster about the event to share with you in my next email. And last, but not least, I am in a 2 month show that Art On 9TH is having in Invermere, BC, that begins shortly and runs until the end of October. If you are in the area, I hope you will stop by and see the gorgeous work from a wonderful collection of talented artists! I hope you have a wonderful rest of July and beginning of August! I will write again when I am back from holiday and give you the newest scoop on my series! Blessings Sharon

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Sometimes it takes a long time!!!

"Tree Patterns", 15 x15" acrylic on illustration board
SOLD -finally!!

This is a painting that I did in 2009, and it just sold in my Edmonton show. Sometimes it goes like that -you pull out an old piece that you haven't yet destroyed because you felt it had some merit, put it in a show, and finally the owner finds it there.  I have heard it said that there is an owner for every painting, and it just takes time for the two of them to find each other. Perhaps this used to be true, but I think there are so many painters showing their work out there, that there are far more paintings than buyers these days.

I have a hard time keeping old unsold work after it has been on the rounds of every show I can think of. I destroy some,  but those I really like I either unframe and try to sell them at a lower price, or offer them framed as donations to worthwhile causes. But some I just can't bear to part with, especially if I have had a frame made specifically for the painting, as in this case.

This painting is done on a textured gesso surface, and then fluid acrylics are washed on the surface to see where the magic happens. It also has washes of dilute Irridescent Copper in palaces -I love the way it separates into green and gold in a wash.

Looking at it again, I still like it, and am now especially glad I didn't toss it : )

Enjoy!
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"A Firm Foundation" mixed media collage by Sharon Lynn Williams

"A Firm Foundation", collage (hand painted papers) and acrylic paint
15x15", $490 framed in gold frame with 2" white border
click here to purchase

This is my latest collage painting. I just love the colour scheme of blue-green and yellow-orange! I made all the papers at the recent collage workshop I taught. It is fun to find all sorts of patterns to play with, although many will need to be calmed down with paint glazing in opaques and semi-opaques.

Enjoy!

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"Surge", encaustic painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Surge", 12 x 12" encaustic on deep cradled panel, stained and varnished on edges
$475, click here to purchase

I have been back to playing in the wax, and am thoroughly enjoying the exploration. This painting was an exercise in controling the wax and in using metalic and irridescent pigments. The yellow part (sky) was fused using a flat tacking iron, which allows you to move the paint around, creating a layed effect. The violet section is irridescent violet pigment, which only shows violet when you look at it from a certain direction. The turquoise (water) was fused with a heat gun in multiple layers of colour and texture. It is too bad that encaustics don't photograph very well, and you can't see all the texture, both implied (by various combinations of colours) and actual (physical layers and holes in the surface). What looks brown in the photo is actually irredescent gold pigment, which shines as you look at the painting in different directions. Very cool -but I guess you'll have to take my word for it!!

Enjoy
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"Life's Events" mixed media collage demo by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Life's Events", 16 x 16" collage and acrylic
$475 -on gallery wrap canvas, no frame needed -click here to purchase

This is my latest collage painting, and I thought I would share the steps this one went through on its journey.

In the first step, I gathered together relatively neutral hand painted and altered papers, which had been coated on both sides with polymer medium. The illustration board that I used as my support also had several coats of gloss medium on it. Then I randomly arranged the papers, aiming for repetition of line throughout. Then I ironed them down with a tack iron set on high with a silicone sheet (from labels) between the work and the iron.

I continued to add more papers to get a colour theme going and to break up some of the larger shapes. I was going for composition at this stage -a way to guide the eye through out the painting.

I kept turning the painting around to see how it best worked. I then applied some titan buff fluid acrylic paint with a foam roller around the exterior of the painting to keep the interest in the centre, rubbing some of it back while wet.

Lots of time thinking, turning and painting was spent between the last 2 steps! In the end I decided to cut into the design with a solid yellow background, forcing the collage bits to become one unified shape against the background. I added some balck and white deli paper that I had painted through a stencil to get some bold contrast, and painted over a lot of the paer from the initial layer. Adding the stars (taken from some of the original papers) seemed to create a story for the painting. I began to think of life's events as stars, some big, some small, some that stand out and change the path of your life, while others are just small moments in the overall plan of a life. I just love it when the work speaks to me and guides me to the finish. The joy of pure creativity!

I will be teaching a Mixed Media Collage workshop at Swintons Art Supply in Calgary April 11-13. Please click here for the details and to register.

Enjoy!
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"Menagerie" Encaustic Mixed Media painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Dancing In Time", 6 x 6" encaustic mixed media on gallery wrap canvas
not for sale

I have been playing around with combining collage and encaustic painting lately. It is interesting to see how the encaustic reacts to the elements, and it is fun to be able to not have to wait for things to dry before progressing the painting.

Just a reminder that the 10% coupon for purchases on my website comes to a close on Monday, March 31st. Just enter 'celebrateslw' when checking out. You can chose between a digital download of my plein air painting book, 1 of 2 watercolour instruction dvd's, or even an original piece of art to hang in your home. If there is a painting you would like but it is not in the shop, please contact me to see if it still available.

Enjoy!
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"Products of A Busy Mind", abstract mixed media painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Products Of A Busy Mind", 12 x 12" collage and acrylic
$575 framed, click here to purchase

Finally, new work!! This painting began as an abstract collage in shades of grey, black and white, but I just cannot paint without colour, so I added some papers painted with my favorite colour Quinacridone Gold (I still have some of the original formulation). I varied the temperature of the black by using cool Paynes Grey for some and warmer Carbon black for others. All the papers in this are hand painted by moi. Somewhere along the line, I detected what could be a profile of a face, liked that direction and then it was smooth sailing from there. Once I have an idea of where a piece is going, it is much easier to make the decisions that are needed to bring it to a finish.

Once the faces made their way into the work, I decided to send the painting to the jury for the travelling ASA exhibit this year, and sadly, I just found out that it was rejected. That hurt, and for a few minutes I was really feeling bad about my art, and myself in general -you know how it is... It lasted for about half an hour and then got blasted away by my wonderful friends who cheered me up on Facebook. I'm afraid that I am not very objective about my own work, especially when it is newly birthed. All babies are beautiful -just ask any new mother!!

Onward and upward (I hope) -Enjoy!
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Mixed Media Collage #4 by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Composition #5", 7.5x7.5" mixed media collage

SOLD

FRAMED ARTWORK PRICED FOR EASY CHRISTMAS GIFT GIVING!!

Enjoy!

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Mixed Media Collage #3 by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Composition #6", 7.25 x 7.25" mixed media collage

SOLD

FRAMED ARTWORK PRICED FOR EASY CHRISTMAS GIFT GIVING!

Enjoy!
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Mixed Media Collage #2 by Sharon Lynn Williams

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"Composition #7", 7.25 x 7.25" mixed media co9llage

$150 FRAMED in solid oak frame with 1" white mat border, click here to purchase

PRICED FOR EASY CHRISTMAS GIFT GIVING!!

Enjoy!

Back to Abstraction!

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"Composition #8", 8x8" collage and acrylic paint
SOLD

So we have just had the 4th big snow storm of the season, and it looks like it will be a long winter. I always look forward to this time of year to explore some of my other artistic passions, now that the opportunity for plein air painting has been severely restricted. The winter is a time of "incubation" for me, taking all the input of the landscape from my plein air experiences, and figuring out new ways to reinvent them.

Every once and awhile I return to my love of abstraction, and my favorite medium for that is collage. I have been very inspired by the work of Laura Lein-Svencner over the past year, and that has really sparked my interest. She has some neat methods of painting paper that I have now added to my repertoire. I am also inspired by Jane Davies, Sherrill Kahn and Anne Bagby, as diverse as those artists are. It is good to refresh my personal sense of design, and for that, nothing beats collage.
I have done a series of 8 of these small paintings -4 are at Centre D'Arts Visuels in Edmonton and the other 4 are at Art & Soul Gallery in High River. They are specially priced for Christmas gift giving, so if you are interested, please pop me an email. I will be showing the remaining 7 here over the next week.

Enjoy!

"Flow", encaustic abstract painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

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 "Flow", 18 x 24" encaustic on cradled birch panel
SOLD

More playing around with the possibilities that encaustic painting allows. I began with the painting shown below, all done in coloured wax. I used a part of a previous abstract painting that I did as a sketch that I tried to follow with the encaustic. At this point there were up to 7 layers of colour on the panel. I wasn't happy with how it looked and thought I would melt it all and start again. As I was melting it, amazing things began to happen and the painting took on a life of its own. I went with the 'flow' (hence the title) and added more blue and white as it was beginning to look like a waterfall. Then I placed some geometric elements to contrast all the organic stuff happening, and added the letters. This medium is incredible, and not one to be tamed too much me thinks!

Happy Easter everyone!

Enjoy!

To purchase this painting, commission your own painting or contact me to do a workshop in your area, please email me at williamsdotsharonatshawdotca (insert characters for the dot and at!)

"Autumn Blues" collage and acrylic painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Autumn Blues", 11x11" collage and acrylic painting on board
SOLD

I have loved playing around with tons of stuff this winter!! This began as a demo for a class I was teaching, and then put 'in the pile' for another time. I thought it was a good idea to hit that stack to see what I could come up with, rather than beginning a new painting. You can see the process shots during the workshop here (its the one on the left). If you look at that older post, and compare it with what you see above, can you figure out the changes I made?? Kind of like an artistic 'Where's Waldo' :-P

Enjoy!

To purchase this painting, commission your own painting or contact me to do a workshop in your area, please email me at williamsdotsharonatshawdotca (insert characters for the dot and at!)

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