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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Beginning a New Series!

I am so excited to share a new idea I have for a whole series of new paintings. I shared with you in my June newsletter, that I am taking an online sketchbook workshop with Karen Stamper from the UK, and shared a video of its pages in progress. Well, I have fallen so in love with the methods I am learning, that I decided that I wanted to explore the ideas further in actual paintings. I have made it my goal to produce 25-30 paintings in all sizes as part of this series. I have NEVER done a series of this depth and magnitude before, and I am super pumped by the idea. I thought that I would share some insights into the work with you here in my newsletter -if you are not an artist, you might be interested to see how these things come about, and if you are an artist, perhaps you can be inspired to create a series of your own! I knew I had as my starting parameters that I wanted to work with inks, dry media and collage as the under layers of the paintings. I decided that I would then take these beginnings into my encaustic studio to complete the work. Interestingly, I also decided to severely limit my palette for this series, based on the more neutral paintings I showed you in the last newsletter. (BTW, thanks so much to all who wrote to me to encourage me in this new direction!!)  So now I had the kernel of an idea! The following are the first 5 pieces as they looked at the end of the first stage of the process. I have used blue and black india ink, charcoal, water soluble crayons, brown Artgraf chalk, sepia calligraphy ink, graphite sticks and collage in all of these. The beautiful yellow green was made with black india ink plus some diluted yellow acrylic ink. For the collage, I hit up my HUGE stash of papers that I have hand made, or collected in the case of the text pieces, over the last 20 years. (Did I mention I LOVE making collage papers?)  These are very rough and full of possibility at this stage. I decided to stick with the colour scheme of blue and yellow-green (which I realized later are my branding colours -no wonder I was drawn to them!) and some burnt sienna, plus black and white. It was fun to search all over my 2 studios to find dry and wet media that conformed to these colours. As I decided that I would take these to encaustic, I needed to be careful NOT to select anything that had acrylic paint on it, as wax and acrylic do not mix! As an aside, before I got the idea for this series, I had decided to sell all of my encaustic supplies, as I have a small fortune invested and figured I was unlikely to use them again. So using the wax in this series was to be my final 'kick at the can' as they say. The reality is that I had forgotten how much I loved to work with hot wax! The smell of the melting beeswax, the quick working time and the ability to make changes rapidly by adding or taking away, make this medium so alluring.

This is what the paintings look like now, after several layers of wax, both pigmented and clear. The wax gives a beautiful dimension to the work as its translucency just makes the colours and elements glow.

The first piece is 12x12", the next 3 are 10x10" and the last one is 8x8". I love the challenge of working in a square format These pieces may change further from this point, but I am onto the next 6 pieces, which I will share with your in the next newsletter! I would love it if you would please hit reply and give me your impressions of my series idea and the work I have done so far. Do you find it intriguing? If you want to follow their progress, and see video of the process, tips and insights, I invite you to follow me on IG or FB (links are at the bottom of this page).

Exhibitions

I will be back in Rosebud, Alberta THIS SATURDAY for the Rosebud Artisan Market. I did this market last year and it was a lot of fun. Saturday is supposed to be one of the cooler days in the forecast, so it should be a great day for an outing. I hope you can come out and see the show, especially if you have not yet had the opportunity to see my tent show!!

This is my tent show from last August, just to give you an idea of what it looks like. I will have mostly new work that I have painted since that show on display!

Here is a short video of last year's market!

I will 'see' you in a couple of weeks, but in the meantime, I wish you a  happily memorable summer.  Blessings Sharon

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"Fall Remnants", encaustic painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Fall Remnants", 12 x 24" encaustic on panel
$895 beautifully presented in a hand crafted frame

This is my latest encaustic painting, which captures the scene on one of my daily walks. Here, the weaselhead area of the Elbow River is seen through the large aspen trees growing on the cliff above. 

I am planning some encaustic classes for this spring to be held at Swinton's Art Supply here in Calgary. I will let you know the details as they are finalized.

Enjoy! 
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New Encaustic Paintings by Sharon Lynn Williams

 "A Walk In The Park", 12x24" encaustic
$895 beautifully presented in a hand crafted frame

I have been in the encaustic studio a lot lately and have found a method that really works for me. I saw this scene on one of my daily walks, and came right home and painted it. In this painting, I made an underpainting in complementary colours using gouache on the raw panel. So under the burgundy trees, there is green and under the green trees there is red. Bits of that underpainting shine through in spots and gives a nice sparkle to the painting. Gouache is compatible with putting wax on top, unlike acrylic or oil paint, and isn't affected by the heat used to fuse the wax.

"Montana Gold", 18x24" encaustic
$1225 beautifully presented in a hand crafted frame

I did this painting at a friend's cabin in January. On our drive to Montana, we passed this scene and I knew right away I had to paint it. I began without an underpainting, but put the first layers of colour right on the raw board without putting several clear layers of wax first, as is the 'normal' technique. I find this makes the colours float around less when fused -a definite aid when trying to paint representationally, albeit impressionistically. There is a good amount of texture in this piece. The only problem with encaustic is trying to capture the colour and luminosity with a camera! You really need to see this work in person to appreciate it.

These two paintings will be in the upcoming FCA show this Saturday, as well as the previously posted "First Snow II", which I am thrilled to say, won an honourable mention. I will also have 2 plein air oil paintings at the show. I am doing an oil demo from 1-3pm, so please stop by and say hi if you can.

Enjoy!
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First Snow i in new frame style

"First Snow i", 12 x 24" encaustic
$895 beautifully framed

What a blessed lady I am to have a wonderfully supportive and creative husband!! He just finished this gorgeous frame for my new encaustic painting. He designed the frame to be a shadow frame with 1/4" show around the edges, so that none of the image is cut off. It is set back into the frame which will protect the wax from damage due to rough handling. We went through a bit of a learning curve trying to find the correct finish for it, and ended up with a satin black that just makes the painting glow. The painting was done on a standard 2" thick cradled birch panel, which he sawed down to a 1" cradle on his table saw -YES this was risky but he is meticulous so I had no almost no fear. And just in case you thought that was all, with the remaining 1" cradle he made me a new panel!

As I want to be as helpful to other artists as possible, I am including a photo of the back of the frame so maybe you can make one for yourself (or if you have a significant other who is handy).

It is wrapped up for delivery to my gallery in the morning, but you get the idea. He used 1'3" Radiata Pine for the top and then he glued and screwed on a lip of hardboard on the back to screw the painting in. It is all very secure and sits flat to the wall. His next project is to make me a similar frame for the 24x48" version.

Enjoy!
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"Coming Home", encaustic painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Coming Home", 12 x 12" encaustic on panel
$450 framed

I just returned from a wonderful trip to Montana to paint with friends for a week. Unfortunately we were plagued with problems: a death in one of the families plus power outages on two days (spells disaster for working in encaustic!) However it was a rich time of bonding, sharing art techniques and sharing our faith. I did this painting first there, and was able to do one more which I will share later, once I am sure it is finished.

If this weekend taught me anything, it is to expect the unexpected, and that LOVE really does hold us all together.
Enjoy!
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new encasutics First Snow i & ii

"First Snow i", 12 x 24" encaustic on cradled panel
$895 beautifully framed

So now that it is winter and it is too cold to paint outside, I am back in my studio working with the wax. I painted this in my friend, Tracy Proctor's beautiful encaustic studio. When I brought it home my hubby said "I REALLY like this -wish it was bigger!" He immediately went out to the lumber store and bought me a 24x48" piece of baltic birch and made a cradle for it so it wouldn't warp while painting. It took me 16 hours, but I just completed it, the largest encaustic painting I have done to date!

"First Snow ii", 24x48" encaustic on cradled panel
$2895 beautifully framed

It is really different working this large. I found I needed to make small containers of a bunch of colour variations so I had enough of each colour to cover a large space. My usual practice is to have one griddle with large containers of a few key colours that I use to mix other colour variations from, as well as a large pot of clear medium and a container of soy wax to clean my brushes in. I use the other griddle as a mixing palette, where I put out small amounts of colours from manufactured or home made wax pigments and then add small amounts of other colours to get a huge range of colour options. In my work I love to have a range of lights, mids and darks of equal value so that I can get colour variation =life. If you click on the large painting image, you can hopefully see what I mean. For example in the snow shadow area there are 5 different values (light to dark) of blue grey. I bought some small stainless steal condiment cups at a local restaurant supplier, so I could have a container of each of those values. Add to those multiple cups of lights including creamy whites, yellows, greens and blues that appear in the sky behind the trees, as well as multiple mid-value cups containing yellows, oranges, reds, blues, greens and violets. But I think all those colour variations is what brings pop and life to the painting, so it is well worth the work. I was thrilled to find some silicone mini-muffin cups at the store, so now I can put the colours that are left over into those, allow them to cool and add the blocks to my collection of colours, rather than having to throw them away.
My son commented that I need to do a series of these, so I think I will take him up on that idea -stay tuned to see more .

Enjoy!
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Merry Christmas!

"Cold Call", 8x8" encaustic on board

I know I have been gone for a long time, but I hope to return in the New Year with lots of new paintings, artistic insights and tips, and maybe a video or two if I can get that all figured out. I wanted to tell you how much I appreciate you reading my blog posts and generally being an engaged and generous viewer. You mean the world to me, and I am so fortunate to have you as friends.
I wish you the happiest, healthiest and loving Christmas imaginable.
Blessings my friends!

Enjoy!
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New Encaustics by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Indigo & Rust", 24x24" mixed media encaustic on finished cradled panel
$1250

As you know I have been playing with wax for the last few years, so I wanted to share with you two of my more recent paintings. This one has a piece of collage paper in the bottom that I made. I rusted some metal objects and printed them onto japaneese paper, then I folded the paper into patterns and dipped it into a vat of indigo. The paper was then collaged onto the panel with wax and wax added on top. The middle band is roofing ashphalt, and the top part is wax and pigment stick using a technique I learned from master 'ruster' Pam Nichols. There is also some collage paper on the upper right side.

"Sienna & Rust", 24x24" mixed media encaustic on finished cradled panel
$1250

This is the second piece I made in this series. Another piece of rusted, indigo dyed piece of paper is used in the lower section (this time the rust was from a large old gear). The ashphalt was used on the edges and the upper part was done in the same way as the first piece, and another piece of rusted paper was collaged to the surface. Then I incised the circles and filled them with orange and blue encaustic paint and added metalic copper to the outside ring.
One of the problems of encaustic is trying to get a good photo which shows all the depth in the work, and I think it is impossible. You really need to see these in person to appreciate them!

I am off in the morning for a private 3 day encaustic workshop with a hero of mine, Dale Roberts, in Philadelphia. Dale has several wonderful videos on Youtube that are accessible from his website, so if you are interested in encaustic and how it's done, you should check them out.  After the workshop I am off to the Big Apple with my son Evan for 4 days of art museums and live theatre. I know, poor me!

Enjoy
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"Creekside Winter" encaustic painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Winter Colour", 10x14" encaustic on cradled panel

$450.00 framed 

I have been on a real roll with my encaustic painting. I have been working from old paintings, and this one came from a really old watercolour that I loved -so glad that over the years I have always taken the time to document all of my work! I made a large version of this painting because I was so pleased with how the smaller one turned out, and it is posted below. 

"Creekside Winter", 18x24" encaustic on cradled panel, sides stained
$1050.00

I am happy to announce that this painting was one of 5 accepted into the next Federation of Canadian Artists' show coming up (please see invitation below)

Hope to see you there!

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"Winter Reflections", encaustic painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Winter Reflections", 24 x 24" encaustic on cradled panel
SOLD

I was so excited by the last encaustic painting I posted, "More Colours of Winter", I felt it deserved a mate, so I made this one to line up exactly with the first one. I found out the other day that "Winter Reflections" was sold by the lovely Janet Armstrong at Just Imajan Gallery in Cochrane, AB.  To top that off,  I just found out that the owners came back today to purchase the other painting, so now they have a matching set! I am over the moon and SO encouraged to continue in the hot wax. Luckily we have a long winter before the plein air season begins, so I have lots of time to explore.
Enjoy!
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"More Colours of Winter" encaustic painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"More Colours Of Winter", 24x24" encaustic on cradled panel
SOLD

I have not been very good at keeping my blog up to date this year, and I am trying to rectify that situation. I have been trying to balance not sending you too much email (for those who have generously subscribed to my blog) with keeping you up to date on what I have been up to in my art career. I have just cancelled my membership in the two online art galleries that I have been in for the past 3 years, as they just weren't worth the expense -it seems that there are way too many folks out there who want to pay so little for original works of art, and I just can't and don't wish to compete. I work hard in my career, and it deserves to be compensated -if I don't respect my own value, then how can I expect others to?

I have been spending time almost daily in my studio working in encaustic -inside winter work -it is a fascinating medium. Basically I make my own paint (beeswax, damar resin for hardening and powder pigments). The paint is then kept molten on a griddle at about 200 degrees. You apply the paint with natural hair brushes, and the paint cools and hardens as soon as the heat source is removed. Each layer of wax must be fused with the previous ones (I use a heat gun or butane torch) so that the layers will not delaminate -here is where the tricky part lies -if you heat too much the bottom layers become molten and rise up through the new layers (an effect which leaves very cool effect, but control is totally lacking). I love the way the molten wax flows, a lot like watercolour, my first love. The advantage is that you can can continue to work on a piece because the layers cool so quickly, there is no drying time involved, unlike oils. The colours are incredibly vibrant and the luminosity of all those layers is something that is totally unique to the medium. Many people work in abstract fashion in encaustics, I believe because of the limitations of control -also many come to encaustics without a full understanding of art -anyone can do it, but not everyone can make 'art' with it! I have been spending hours and hours learning the ins and outs of the medium, seeing what I can do with what I already know about creating a painting. It is tremendously exciting now that I am getting the results I want to achieve. My goal is to use the medium to create paintings that bridge all of my other interests -my plein air oil landscapes, watercolour 'puddling of colour' effects and my work in collage (encaustic is a wonderful medium for collage as the wax acts like a glue). I have also begun to work larger, which brings its own challenges.

Todays post is based on a watercolour painting that I did a number of years ago that I just loved. At this point, I am recreating some of my most favorite paintings done in other mediums. It is enough for now to concentrate on the medium rather than adding all the other challenges involved in making a good composition with solid colour harmony! Here is the original watercolour FYI:

"The Colours Of Winter", 19x19" watercolour, SOLD

So the artistic journey continues -please stay tuned for more!!
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"House of Dreams" encaustic mixed media by Sharon Lynn Williams

"House of Dreams", 16 x 20" encaustic and collage
$895 beautifully framed, click here to purchase

I had a lot of fun with this painting and I think it has opened up some new doors for me -producing more 'happy' and 'fun' paintings than the usual more serious stuff. And boy is that a door that needs to be opened for me!! The central piece is actually an encaustic monoprint that I made at Encausticamp last summer. I collaged it over the blue background and then began to play with the paint. Soon it took on an offkilter house feel, and that led to the next thing, and the next. This painting will be on display at the FCA show this Saturday.

Enjoy!
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"Blessings" encaustic painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Blessing", 12 x 24" encaustic on cradled panel
not for sale

As this weekend is Easter, I thought I would show you a painting I made for a dear friend. The backdrop is the second day of creation when God separated the water from the sky. The Hebrew text is from Numbers 6:24-26

-“The Lord bless you

    and keep you;

25 

the Lord make his face shine on you

    and be gracious to you;

26 

the Lord turn his face toward you

    and give you peace."

This is my Easter prayer for each of you. 

Enjoy!Share |

"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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"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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"Waiting For Robin" encaustic painting by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Waiting For Robin", 8x8" encaustic on 3/4" panel
$250 unframed, but painted with the green encaustic paint around the edges
Available at Fallen Leaf Gallery, Canmore, click here to purchase

More playing around with encaustic paint -just love the richness of the colour and the texture that is SO easy to get. I bought a tiny creme brûlée type torch so that I could make the eggs smooth without destroying the texture of the nest next to it -worked like a charm.

Enjoy!
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"January's Colours", encaustic by Sharon Lynn Williams

"January's Colours", 12 x 12" encaustic on cradled panel
$475 unframed with wood stained edges

I have been playing around with encaustic painting again, this time trying to work more in the style of my plein air oil paintings, to see where that would go. It is quite a different medium and it always surprises you as you cannot totally control things!

On a personal note, I just had an amazing time at Breakforth in Edmonton with my new friend Margaret. I have heard from the Lord and now will be taking my art in perhaps new directions, certainly with a renewed focus of working for His glory and fame. Risky, I know, after a decade of trying to get where I am in my career, but I am excited to see what He will do! It is all in His hands and I am trusting Him with the results.

My wonderful artist friend Crystal Marie Neubauer posted this on her blog for the new year, and she has nailed my sentiments exactly:

"My word for this year is HOPE. Hope for a future. Hope for my own life's purpose and a plan to help get me there. Hope that I have redeemed value and worth, that I have a voice and can be used by and for a cause much greater then myself. Hope in promises given to me years ago and the desire to instill and pass on this hope to others. Hope that brings freedom, and new life and purpose, that strengthens identities, binds up and heals old wounds, restores, redeems, and brings about long lasting change.

This kind of hope has nothing to do with empty wishing, or white knuckled determination or resolve. It is the kind of hope that knows it is not all up to me, and that there is a God who sees me and is taking my flaws and turning them into one of His treasured works.

No this year I don't want the shaky ground of resolutions, I want to stand on the promises of hope.

"He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners."

Thank you Crystal for your beautifully expressed words!

Enjoy!

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"Poise" encaustic and ENCAUSTIC WORKSHOP by Sharon Lynn Williams

"Poise", 12 x 7" encaustic painting on panel
$395 framed, click here to purchase

I know I said I would post Haida Gwaii paintings today, but I have just finalized arrangements for an encaustic workshop to be held here in Calgary Oct 17 & 18th. I just had to post a recent encaustic painting to advertise it!(please see the sidebar on my blog for the details)

The above painting was done by using a pastel pencil for the figure and a stencil was used to develop the lower pattern. I think she looks like she is sitting on grass in front of a flower garden.

Enjoy!
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Encaustic painting "Iris" and demo this Saturday!

"Iris", 12x12" mixed media encaustic
$495 -click here to purchase

I have been playing around with encaustic since Christmas, and am really enjoying the ride. In this painting I collaged an original watercolour painting onto the cradled board and then made a textured encaustic border for it. It is an interesting combination of implied texture (in the atercolour) with actual texture.

I will be doing an encaustic demonstration tomorrow (Saturday) at Atlantis Fine Framing (4515 Manhattan Rd SE) from 10am to 3:30pm, along with demos by Ken Bourassa and Tracy Proctor. I am honored to be included with such talented encaustic artists, and to take part in the Calgary Artwalk event!

Enjoy!
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