Goals for the day - absorbed in expression, try new techniques

"Tempest" oil paint and cold wax medium on golden gessoed board, ©Laura Gable 

I've been setting daily goals for my artwork with this Art-a-day challenge. Today's is be expressive and try new techniques. I've been playing with this cold wax medium for a bit and still have a lot to learn but it is fun and forgiving. I've been mixing oil paint with cold-wax medium and then working in layers. The wet or dry layers can be manipulated with scratching tools, and the paint sometimes goes on with knife, spatula or brayer. It gets messy. (Yay for messy. Who likes messy??)

This painting has been in progress for a while - just put some finishing touches on it today. Next time, I will post progress photos since the process is quite interesting. Today I introduced oil pastels for the squiggly strokes (some blended with fingertips), added more white mixed with wax, and scratched through dried color. The bright gold tones peeking through is the base coat of gold gesso. I love gold gesso.

So why cold-wax medium? I had free Gamblin samples, and purchased Dorland's last year. I sometimes use it to coat covers in my book arts projects (hides fingerprints, gives a buttery feel). Unlike Encaustic, it doesn't need heating (and not recommended). Mixing it with oils allows one to work thin layers over thick ... so the traditional "fat over lean" can be ignored. I usually mix 50-50. It can be buffed when totally dry for a waxy look.

Even though this is non-representational I see the suggestions of a landscape back in there, so I chose "Tempest" for the title. I love the word. It's my grandmother's middle name. She was a force to be reckoned with. Thanks for looking!!

Forward Motion

I like the "whatever" painting that Michael did the other day, so thought I would travel a bit down that road too. This was also inspired by a John Salminen video I watched recently. He took 4 arbitrary objects and did overlapping contour drawings of them, then pulled shapes out of these intersecting lines. He colored them with a hierarchy based on value: white, black, and mid-tones. The largest shape was white, and the others were supporting. Mine isn't quite as dynamic as his, but his required an amazing amount of thought. So even these seemingly freeform compositions can use the ole noodle. A good mental exercise as well.

"Forward Motion" 12x12 oil pastel and oil paint on board, ©Laura Gable

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