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Studio Visit Magazine

21 May
Acrylic, Ink, and Tempera on Paper.

Acrylic, Ink, and Tempera on Paper.

Hello Blogger Friends:)  I’ve been absent from the web, but busy in painting work these past months.  I’ve also just arrived home from a lovely and full visit to Portland this past 10 days and am feeling invigorated by connecting with loved ones as well as the beautiful setting that the Pacific Northwest offers.  Prior to leaving for Portland, I learned that Studio Visit Magazine had published Volumes 21 and 22 and wanted to pass this along to you.  The piece above  along with another painting I submitted for review have been juried into print for this publication by Dina Deitsch, Senior Curator, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum.  To view a copy follow this link to Volume 21.  My work is under Holly Suzanne Filbert and is on pages 56 and 57 but I would recommend checking out the other selections as well.  There’s some interesting stuff there:)  Enjoy and I hope to share more soon.   — Holly

 

Morning Coffee and Watercolor Rain

12 Nov

This morning Nathan and I are sitting at Mead’s Corner having coffee (this is where my work is up this month).  We happen to be positioned in a sunny room right in front of this piece, “Watercolor Rain”, which is a mixed media collage on board.  It suites my mood this morning, so I share it here.  There’s something about the way she stands, turned away, head down.  I experience the piece as a  melancholy calm, with hints of passion and memory, nostalgia and wistful remembering,  Some of my pieces hit me this way.  So much of my experience and way of experiencing are worked out in the making, each artifact a part of an intricate tapestry of being.  So I let it ruminate,  and allow myself to feel.

 

 

Poetic Collage

3 Nov

Standing Alone I
Mixed Media: For my latest show I added a layer of wax, shellac and wood glue to add a textural dimension to an existing ink and watercolor painting that I mounted on a 2″ gallery wrapped wooden board. I used a wet shellac burn to brown the wood glue to represent bark on the solitary trunk. The amber shellac added a lot to the piece, bringing out more of the autumnal colors.

 

Sometimes in my work, after a painting rests  awhile, it calls for something else and the result for me is a kind of visual poetry or collage.  There is a cadence to the work.  It feels otherworldly and seems to take on a life of it’s own.  Some people call this flow; some call it inspiration.  I’m not sure what I call it but it seems pregnant and full of possibility. I liked these paintings before; they felt fresh and alive.  Now they seem mature and full, as if they’ve the capacity to hold and embrace the weight of living.  Perhaps that’s what age does for some people.  It’s certainly something to think about.

Cycles of Life

29 Oct

Cycles of Life
Mixed Media on Board with Resin
18″ x 18″
2012

 

The title of this piece is perhaps self evident.  This piece, constructed with paper, plastic, shellac, wood glue, acrylic paint, and oil was made with the summer fires in Colorado in mind.  Often what we believe will scar the landscape or our own lives actually ends up bringing unexpected discoveries.  The overall topography is something to behold and hold in reverence.

 

This is one of the pieces I’ll be featuring in the show at Mead’s Corner in Wichita from October 31st to December 1, 2012.

Encaustic Collage

1 Jul

Untitled Mixed Media Encaustic Collage

I don’t think there is any limit to what a person could do with encaustic painting.  The first encaustic collage was done on a wood panel using photocopy transfers, paint, encaustic medium, gemstones, etc. all mixed together into a story of sorts.  The bottom encaustic mixed media collage started with an oil painting I completed a couple years ago that has never felt finished and ended with what you see here.

For those of you who are curious….

here is some info on encaustic from wikipedia:

Encaustic painting, also known as hot wax painting, involves using heated beeswax to which colored pigments are added. The liquid/paste is then applied to a surface—usually prepared wood, though canvas and other materials are often used.

The simplest encaustic mixture can be made from adding pigments to beeswax, but there are several other recipes that can be used — some containing other types of waxesdamar resin,linseed oil, or other ingredients. Pure, powdered pigments can be purchased and used, though some mixtures use oil paints or other forms of pigment.

Metal tools and special brushes can be used to shape the paint before it cools, or heated metal tools can be used to manipulate the wax once it has cooled onto the surface. Today, tools such as heat lamps, heat guns, and other methods of applying heat allow artists to extend the amount of time they have to work with the material. Because wax is used as the pigment binder, encaustics can be sculpted as well as painted. Other materials can be encased or collaged into the surface, or layered, using the encaustic medium to adhere it to the surface.

This technique was notably used in the Fayum mummy portraits from Egypt around 100-300 AD, in the Blachernitissa and other early icons, as well as in many works of 20th-centuryAmerican artists, including Jasper Johns.

Kut-kut, a lost art of the Philippines implements sgraffito and encaustic techniques. It was practiced by the indigenous tribe of Samar island around 1600 to 1800.[1]

In the 20th century, painter Fritz Faiss (1905-1981), a student of Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky at the Bauhaus, together with Dr. Hans Schmid, rediscovered the so-called “Punic wax” technique of encaustic painting. Faiss held two German patents relative to the preparation of waxes for encaustic painting. One covered a method for treating beeswax so that its melting point was raised from 60 degrees Celsius to 100 degrees Celsius (from 140 to 212 °F). This occurred after boiling the wax in a solution of sea water and soda three successive times. The resulting, harder wax is the same as the Punic wax referred to in ancient Greek writings on encaustic painting.

Encaustic art has seen a resurgence in popularity since the 1990s with people using electric irons, hotplates and heated stylus on a variety of different surfaces including card, paper and even pottery. The iron makes producing a variety of artistic patterns elementary. However, the medium is not limited to just abstract designs, it can be used to create complex paintings, just as in other media such as oil and acrylic.”

 

I strongly recommend it!

Enjoy the night-

Holly

 

 

 

Remembering some early works…

23 Jun

I picked up my paintbrush a few years back after a long lapse in practicing the art of painting.  It took a major life event, namely a catastrophic multi-vehicle accident, to slow life down long enough to rediscover my love.

These paintings are some of the early work I completed in those first few months of recovery.  I was wheelchair bound at the time, healing from multiple fractures to my pelvis.  It was a time of healing on many levels, and a time of looking into the future without clarity as to what it would hold.

I’ve found a way through that time, much to my delight, and my life is richer and fuller for it.

I’ve completed a number of works on the theme of this crash and my process. Click here to see more.

Posteresque

21 Jun

This is a collection of large poster sized dresses I made using spray paint and butcher paper for a show featuring other work on the dress.  I thought I’d feature them here to follow up on the CanadianArt Junkie’s feature yesterday.

If you like them prints are available at Fine Art America.  I only have one of the originals left.

Enjoy the day

Holly Suzanne

My Trinity

15 Jun

Encaustic Triptyk: Love, Health, Happiness
Mixed Media (paint, ink, clay shards, shellac, wood glue, and encaustic and resin) on wood. 2012. -Holly Suzanne

 

I found these wooden boards (12″ x 12″) at a resale store.  They had markings on them signifying Love, Health, and Happiness.  As is always my preference for materials, I found a ready “canvas” in these pieces.  I decided to add to these pieces without erasing their history and the result is what you see.  In a lot of my work I enjoy adding layers of texture and color to build up transparency and complexity while keeping things simple enough that the piece is unapproachable.  This is of course unless my aim is to disturb:)  These pieces are not for sale as I’ve already gifted them to people I love, but there are prints available if you really like them.  Click through the first picture to the link if you are interested.

Have a wonderful day!-Holly

Watercolor in the Rain

11 Jun

Image

Holly Suzanne-2012,  Watercolor on Rice Paper

Thoughts on Artistic Process

9 Jun

Sometimes in the artistic process I find that what I’m going for gets away from me.  I set out with something in mind, and I may even like several steps along the way, and then before I can stop the momentum, I’ve lost it altogether.  I’m in the practice of photographing some of my work as it’s in progress, and sometimes when I revisit it I find something that moves me.  These are moments of simple satisfaction.

 

“All pleasures are born out of some sort of communion…

it is always what bounds or limits a thing that gives it its character,

precision, distinctness, perfection.

It is what isolates it, encompasses it, separates it from the rest,

encloses it within itself and leads it back to itself.

Thereby it subsists, is distinct, is known…”

-Joseph Joubert-

The Sunshine Award

7 Jun

Dear Readers,

I have been nominated by a very talented artist/blogger , Ute,  at   http://atelierscheune2012.wordpress.com/2012/06/06/werksplitter-ein-paar-neuigkeiten-kurz-berichtet/,  for the Sunshine Award.  Her work is really amazing and I hope you check it out.  She posted four sketches as answers to seven questions about herself that are very thought provoking and cause one to pause awhile longer over them.  Her site is in German so turn on the translator!

Many of you know with these awards that it is a way to get to know one another and to get to know one another’s sites and work, as well as noting exceptional work and blogs that stand out to us personally, which is in itself another way to get to know each other and increase community. The rules are to nominate 7-10 blogs and to share 7 things that others won’t know about you.  If you would like you can follow Ute’s lead and share works/images/etc. that you’ve not shown before, or works in progress, or something of the sort.

Here are three self portraits completed awhile back in answer to the seven things you don’t know about me…..

 

Here are the wonderful blogs I’d like to acknowledge and appreciate with the Sunshine Award….

Drawing Room Days

http://ediliociclostile.wordpress.com/

Experiments in Experience

Post Card Fiction

Celebration of Now

Elena Caravela

http://photographyofnia.com/

There are so many of you that deserve this.  Thank you and pass it on as you see fit.  Here are three self portraits in lieu of the questions.

 

-Holly Suzanne

 



Capturing a Storm…

6 Jun

“Winter Tempest I and II” 2012,  Ink and Acrylic on Canvas.  -Holly Suzanne.    Click on Images to See More.

When I painted this I wanted to capture my experience of an emotional storm and it’s reverberation through space.  The two halves fit together this way, although I’ve often felt as if they should be placed vertically, as winds blow from many directions.

How do we take account for the many influences on our lives?  It’s a question I often ponder and struggle with.  -Holly Suzanne

10pt arial; text-decoration: underline;”>abstract mixed media

rounding out the week…

2 Jun

 

Sometimes in my studio I force myself to work with the materials I have at hand.  Usually the end of the month brings me naturally to this place as the budget for supplies often dries up mid-way through:)  So…these paintings were done using what I could find, which included the last few feet of a roll of Waterford #140 lb cold press watercolor paper available through Jerry‘s Artarama online.  It comes in a roll 5′wide and 10′ long, and handles almost anything you can throw on it.  I’ve used it for mulit-media pieces that have included layer after layer of latex paint.  Trust me…it’s good stuff!  Anyway, I was thankful I remembered to check the roll.  I also scraped the bottom of my artist inks and acrylic paints, which I water down and use kind of like watercolor.  Now that it’s the beginning of the month I’ve a few more materials to work with, but I have to admit there is something to using what you have and creating from that instead of adding to it.  I really do like simplicity.  It’s like a breath of fresh air.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

 

Holly

 

 

 

New Work In The Studio: ENCAUSTIC COLLAGE

30 May


Untitled Poppy Collage # 1, 9″ x 12″ Encaustic, Repurposed watercolor painting on rice paper, acrylic paint,  and sharpie on  Board.


Untitled Poppy Collage # 2, 9″ x 12″,  Encaustic, Repurposed Watercolor on Rice Paper, Sharpie, Acrylic, Poppy Pods & Stem on          Board.

Untitled Poppy Collage # 3, 6″ x 9″,  Encaustic, Repurposed Watercolor Painting on Rice Paper, Sharpie, Acrylic, on Board.

Untitled Poppy Collage # 4, 9″ x 12″, Encaustic, Repurposed Watercolor on Rice Paper, Acrylic, Sharpie, on Board.

In these works I started by cutting a failed watercolor painting  on rice paper that I then  collaged with an acrylic medium onto paper.  When that was done I cut it into pieces and composed pieces on four separate panels.  The panels had been painted previously as well and set aside.  The collages were then assembled using encaustic medium, which is a wax medium applied with a certain technique.  I added additional pieces of painted rice paper drawn on with a sharpie to add contrast to the composition.

If you are new to encaustic I suggest checking it out.  I absolutely love encaustic.   It can be mixed with pigment or used as a semi-transparent layer.  I use bleached natural bees wax in these pieces to adhere layers of paper to my board, which was first painted.  To see more of my encaustic work check out this link:  http://hollysuzannefilbert.com/collections/42779.

 

Photographic Inspiration from the Natural World and Three Paintings

29 May

The natural world is a constant inspiration to my being, feeding my spirit and my artistic passion.   Here are photos taken on some of my adventures in the outdoors followed by several paintings inspired by such trips.  Kanopolas Lake and Yellow Stone Park are the sites for these explorations.  I’d encourage you to figure out which ones come from where! Following are three paintings completed recently from a few of these places. Enjoy!

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