Unveiling Nature's Emotions Through Encaustic Expression
Continue on the art journey with me! Today we collage our tea bags to our encaustic pieces with encaustic wax. If you are following along, don’t forget to share your own work!
I have added a Tea with Tammy page here on my website where I will list every episode. Just click the Tea with Tammy picture below or go to https://tammyhaman.com/tea-with-tammy/ and scroll down to Episode 3. Grab a cup of tea and I’ll see you over there!
Are you near Woodstock, IL (you know, the place where the movie Groundhog Day was filmed?) This is a diptych that is in the Seeing Double Exhibit at the Woodstock Old County Courthouse. They have 3 rooms with exhibits in them and their hours are Thursday – Sunday from 11am to 5pm. Wear a mask, social distance, and enjoy some unique art by local artists!
A diptych is two works that are very closely related to each other or created together. My pieces are 6×12 and are for sale for $150 each.
The work is done is encaustics, mica powder, and pan pastels.
These hydrangea leaves were taken from my backyard. I don’t know if you have any in your yard, but they sure are finicky! We don’t get any flowers on our plants. We googled it and found out if your soil is off, the flowers won’t grow. So we tested our soil and sure enough, it was too acidic. We added something to the soil that was supposed to help. We have 3 large plants. The smallest one finally had 2 flowers on it!! We were so excited! But why didn’t the other plants have flowers?? Back to google…I came across something that said if your plants are in shade, you might never have flowers. That’s what I have decided is the case for us! Too much shade!
In the meantime, we have these huge, beautiful plants growing these big beautiful leaves!
This past Saturday, I enjoyed Inspiration Corporation’s fundraising Gala so much! I am honored to have found this event and have been able to be a part of it for 2 years now!
“In an atmosphere of dignity and respect, Inspiration Corporation helps people who are affected by homelessness and poverty to improve their lives and increase self-sufficiency through the provision of social services, employment training and placement, and housing.” inspirationcorp.org
Here’s a photograph of me with my piece of art at the Gala, One Inspired Evening. The chefs and servers for the evening are people who have gone through the Inspiration Corporation and have turned their lives around. It is fascinating to meet and greet the people who are benefiting directly from your contributions. The ones I spoke to were so appreciative that we were there supporting them and helping them get back on the right track.
A silent auction is held for the artwork that is donated and quite a few other corporate sponsors, like White Sox, Cubs, or Bulls tickets. Instead of doing it the old fashioned way where you write your name on a piece of paper, you use an app on your phone to do the bidding.
There were five artists from the Artists’ Association of Elk Grove Village displaying a piece at this event. If anyone is interested in attending this event next year, let me know and I can forward you the information when tickets go on sale.
I do have a few personal family situations that will take away some of my time and attention away from my art, but hopefully I will be able to get back to my normal routine in a month! Stay creative!
Here’s my last video in my Birthday Blessings series! Hope you have enjoyed getting a sneak peak into my process!
Onto our next week with the Birthday Blessings Project! This video shows how to add layers of wax, how to scrape away layers, and how to make indentions in the wax and then fill it with R&F pigment sticks. So fun!
This week we are experimenting with adding color to encaustics using alcohol inks. This is my favorite technique!! Let me know if you try it!
It is week 3 and time for another encaustic technique video! This one will explore using pan pastels and mica powders to add color to the encaustic layer. The pan pastels that I used are tints which means that they are all pastels. Pan pastels also come in full saturated colors and metallics.
The mica powders are from USArtquest. They are a small business located in Michigan and online. The mica powders come in a wide variety of colors and have many uses.
Enjoy this video!
Welcome back to week 2 of the Blessings Project! This week I’ll be showing you how to start your encaustic pieces. This video will demonstrate the first 3-4 layers of encaustic medium and fusing but the remainder pieces I will complete offline and then just work on different techniques on each piece.
Collage using music paper and red tissue paper will be shown.
Let me know if you have any questions on any of the techniques!
I am starting a new project called Blessings. I am going to do a video each week documenting my process. This is my first video so please be kind!
The cutting with an X-acto knife was much more difficult than I was expecting! I got them all completed (a little wabi sabi) but I love the first marks on each of these.
Just a little background about how I chose black alcohol ink for my lettering. In order to use encaustic medium on a piece, it needs to have an absorbent ground.
The illustration board is absorbent, but if I were to start my lettering with acrylic paint that substrate would no longer be absorbent. Alcohol ink is still absorbent and you could also use india ink, charcoal or even watercolors as an underlayer before you add the encaustic wax.
If you didn’t want to use illustration board, you could use a cradled wood panel or even a piece of raw recycled wood. You could use a piece of watercolor paper but it would need to be adhered to a rigid surface. Wax is heavy and it would weigh down a surface that is not rigid.
Start your own mixed media project! Use the supplies that you have on hand to make your first marks. We’ll start next week with our first technique.
Life is so busy! I’m sure everyone would agree that you always have more to do on a daily basis than you have hours in the day. My to-do list drains my creative mojo! There are so many other things I need to get done, when I sit down to my creative work, sometimes I can’t get started.
I have to admit a deadline helps me. Does a deadline help you? If you are creative, I highly recommend joining an artist association or art guild in your area. I have talked about my artist association here before but I cannot stress enough how important it is to join an association of like minded artists to get you inspired.
The current exhibit at the Artists’ Association of Elk Grove Village is our annual tree exhibit. I have to admit, I usually don’t sit down and think I really want to paint a tree today. This exhibit has pushed me into my creative zone to get my mojo back! My work is definitely whimsical, sometimes abstract, and always colorful. Having a deadline to make a tree was an excellent way to get creating! Here’s my piece.
This exhibit will be at the Elk Grove Village Public Library in Illinois until June 2nd. Stop by to see all the amazing local artists doing their thing! All work is for sale. The exhibit is open whenever the library is open and the large meeting room is open. If you door is closed, just ask at the front desk if you could see the artwork. They love to have visitors walking through the exhibit!
Next month our exhibit will be Small Works! If you’re looking for an affordable piece of art done by a local artist, this is your chance! Let me know if there are other exhibit themes you would like to see!