Panel Prep

Yesterday I decided I had procrastinated enough with some recycled panels my daughter found me...both 24 x 48. I want to use them for encaustic since good panels are expensive. I also want to paint with wax larger. I knew that whatever was on them was not going to be conducive for working with wax as it has to be an absorbent surface. I thought at first it was gold metallic paper but it turned out to be canvas.

SO, instead of heating and sanding it off, I just sanded it and covered it with some of the roll Arches paper I have here and am not using. It turned out that I'm about 3 1/2 inches short on the long end with 44 inch wide paper. But, why not use something else there? That way I won't have to cut up all that paper into unwieldy strips. I used Nova gloss medium pretty heavily on the panel and weighted down the paper until I could roller/brayer it out. I actually found that the big 12" wall board knife worked great for this.

This morning I looked and it looks like it is going to stay flat and looks great. SO, will need to do the other one but I will wait until I get this one going first so see if I want to leave that extra edge a little different than on this one so they will work well together as a diptych or pair.

Woo hoo...should be fun to work BIG.

Art Calendar | How to Network on a Daily Basis by By Ligaya Figueras http://ping.fm/ChuKG

Johnson Creek, Pasture Land

I just didn't know what to do with the first painting I started at colony. It was going the same way as many of my Little Pieces of Land paintings. Toned it with a warm ground and drew marks and shapes in my usual mode. That's the problem...I need to get out of my usual mode now and then. i can't find the picture here in the house on this computer as I think it is on my laptop in the studio.

This canvas is 48 x 36 and I just broke out a couple of brayers and some left over neutral mixtures of paint I had out from a previous painting and was going to just paint over it and start again. What's another layer, huh!

Anyway, in the process of covering up, I found something else........that little bit of land peeping out of the colors I just kept mixing up intuitively. I like it. It's softer than my usual pieces but that stronger design does come though here and there and marries with the top layer to become its own.

The ranch where we live is about 200 acres and I look out on all this every time I look out the windows in the house or in the studio. There is a creek that runs through named Johnson Creek............SO, this painting is titled, "Johnson Creek, Pasture Land".