Shroomscapes: My Paintings at the 39th Annual NEMF Sam Ristich Foray

"Portabello Blues" 

Oil on panel

8" x 10" 

Eight of my "mushroom paintings" will be on display at Crozier-Williams Center on the Connecticut College campus in New London, Thursday, July 30th - Sunday, August 2nd New London for the 39th annual Northeast Mycological Association (NEMF) Sam Ristich Foray. Connecticut Valley Mycological Society (CVMS) is hosting the event this year at Conn College. 

My friend Laurie Gorham told me that She'd seen my earlier mushroom paintings and thought I could come up with more "portraits" for the conference.  Thank you Laurie for the heads-up!

Check out the organization's FB page here for more infomation on the conference, updates and   photographs by NEMF member of locally foraged mushroom, morels and fungi. 

"All in the Family"

Oil on Panel

8" x  8"

                                        

"Reflections at Dusk" - Second in my Cigar Box series now on ebay

Mixed Media

Dimensions of box:

7-1/4" L x 4-1/2" W x 4-1/4" D

As promised in my previous post, here is another of my painted Cigar Box featuring my original oil paintings, now up for sale on ebay  . This land/waterscape in also an image from Bluff Point State Park in Groton; in addition to being a wonderful local place for hiking (the woods have endless trails that all eventually lead back to one another, so my walk is never quite the same twice), the variety of woods and water and beach provide a lot of inspiration to me as an artist.  And it's right in an urban area, but can feel very far from the city.

Check out my auction for this item, or go to my main ebay page to see all my current auctions.

Winter Heat

Winter Heat
11"x 11 " encaustic on panel

This is one of several encaustic ( hot wax + pigment) paintings I have recently started.  Abstracted landscapes of winter,  finding some bright color in what feels like grey monochromatic winters.  Ususally the most colorful part of my day is sunset.  Often the only time during the day I get to see the sky is on my drive to and from work.  Luckily for me, that means being able to enjoy the vivid sunrises and sunsets.

Other Artists/ Encaustic and Mixed Media Painting

While googling about small torches for encaustic painting I ran across this website:  Rebecca Shapiro Art.    I really enjoyed the luminosity and soft depth of her encaustic paintings.
And thank you Rebecca for your article about your encaustic painting techniques and creating a green studio which I found very helpful.  I am trying to improve on my studio air quality and safe disposal of materials etc and I would love feedback from you or other artists how and what they are doing to achieve this.
Also, check out , on Rebecca's website,  links to artists like:   Kim Edwards Keast , a multi media artists which appeals to my three dimensional side with no holds barred with whatever material works, she uses.   Please check out these artists and enjoy.   Happy peaceful holidays.

Building a Pochade Box

bottom of box with t-nut inset for tripod attachment

hinge detail

This is a pochade painting box I started building two years ago, and just recently finished after reading and viewing Jim Serrett's blog. His blog http://www.pochadeboxpaintings.com/2009/02/how-to-build-your-own-pochade-box.html gives detailed directions with great photos of how to build the pochade box and panel carrier. I also constructed a carrier which looks pretty much like his so I did not photograph mine. I have a small $100.00 table saw that I use but one can go to a real lumber yard if possible and pay to have the major pieces cut if you do not have a table saw. Since I made my box over a period of time, I do not know how much time it took and I did not keep track of the cost. I enjoyed making it and Jim's cost seems fairly accurate. (Scavenged materials probably helped keep the cost of mine down.) Thank you Jim for your great directions.

I put my hinge together about two years ago from brass pieces I found after looking at a lot of photos of ready-made pochade boxes. . It actually seems to hold if I make sure to tighten it well. I will probably use a small bungee sometimes to hold a painting instead of the two wood pieces in the photo. If I paint a small 4 x 6" painting I cannot use the bungee, as it is too big to hold the panel tight. I then have to use the two pieces of 1/4" thich wood pieces that slide up tight to the 4 x 6 painting. I am gradually fine tuning the box.