Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Encaustic Painting at Snow Farm

I've been away for 4 days. I took a three day workshop at Snow Farm: The New England Craft Program in western Massachusetts. Here is one of the barns at Snow Farm. I was quite taken with the fence/trellis made of old bicycles.
Our teacher, Debbie Nathan, demonstrating a painting technique.

A pancake griddle can serve as an inexpensive heated palette on which to melt the encaustic colors. Paintbrushes must be kept heated too. In the tins are clear encaustic medium and paraffin which is used to clean brushes and palette.

A bin containing unmelted medium.

An array of encaustic pigments. Delicious colors and texture.

This is Debbie's professional grade palette with a brush rest. In my next post I will show some of the paintings I created.

16 comments:

Annie said...

Suki, I am happy you are home, I missed you! I have always wanted to do encaustic, perhaps one day I will add it to my talents :-).
Can't wait to see what you did.

~Babs said...

Wow Suki, that looks intensive!
Was this the kind of workshop where you stay on site?
How fascinating,, all these supplies and the equipment.
Me too,,,can't wait to see what creations came off your griddle!

Love the bicycle fence, and I'm jealous of your massage!
Glad you're back.

sukipoet said...

Annie, thanks for your kind words. I dont know why i am so taken with wax but i am.

Babs, yes we stayed overnight although you could also stay in a motel if you wanted. It was cheaper to stay at the farm. Also you paid for three meals a day if you wanted. The food was delicious.

Blue Sky Dreaming said...

Looks like an interesting class...lots of tools! Nice to work with others...a way to inspire one another!

Cris, Artist in Oregon said...

Looks like you had a ball. Nice to do something you love with others. Good you got out and away from being alone for awhile.

sukipoet said...

BSD, yes quite a few tools but you can do it with a minimum of hardware store bought things too. Just remember, your brushes are forever ruined for any other kind of painting.

Cris, i did enjoy the people who were all so wise and kind and funny and hardworking. i also loved the food cooked by two young men. yum. homemade breads, grilled veggies etc.

studio lolo said...

Oh I've always wanted to try encaustic painting! I hope to take some workshops in NE when I get back. Good for you Suki!

marianne said...

Wow This seems like fun!
Glad you have been doing something nice for yourself!
It looks great over there!!!!

After 3 weeks with cold wind we had our first warm day today and I worked in the garden and enjoyed the weather.....
Hope you enjoyed yourself!

sukipoet said...

lolo, i was just looking at the Castle Hill catalogue (Truro) and they have an encaustic class in july. Sounds fun but i think i'll be in the middle of moving by then or at least i hope so.

Marianne, we have had cold and rain interspersed with sunny and warm. today is the latter and i bask in it.

Katiejane said...

Oh gosh, Suki. This looks like it was so much fun. I wondered where you were. I forgot that you said you were going away. Looks like a neat place.

Mary Richmond said...

I love Snow Farm! I used to go there all the time when it was still Horizon's. I always came home so energized and full of new ideas.....so glad you went!

sukipoet said...

katie jane, it was very fun and good to see a different environment and locale. i loved the sort of shabby barns where the workshops took place and also seeing so many people so happy to be making things.

Mary, wow guess you've been going a number of years. i put down i'd like a papermaking class/bookbinding class under suggestions.

Wayne Pitchko said...

very nice blog...I will follow

sukipoet said...

thanks Wayne.

Lisa at Greenbow said...

I don't know what encaustic painting is but I see by your results in the other post about it that it looks difficult to do. I think you are brave to even try this style of art. I like the collage best. Your room looks like a nuns room. Too bad your roommate snored. Nothing worse than a bad nights sleep.

sukipoet said...

lisa, encaustic painting uses pigments encased in beeswax which you have to keep hot to paint with. it was fun. yes, the roommate thing was hard but next time i'll know to get a single.