Something interesting happened

Something interesting happened in the studio yesterday.

Not having another workshop until August I decided to finally pull out an old completed painting that didn’t resonate with me anymore. It’s a big long panel covered in encaustic, spray paint and R&F pigment sticks. (An R&F pigment stick is oil paint manufactured with enough wax for the paint to be molded into stick form.) Yes, I threw everything at this painting. Oddly, the companion painting of the same size and materials was awarded Best in Show at a local gallery and sold a year later.

It was time to take out the big torch and get going on scraping all the materials back down to the wood panel.

It takes a few moments to get the surface warm enough to begin scraping. Easy going on the encaustic sections, yet, when I torched over the pigment stick area something caught my eye and I stopped. The deep encaustic layer was surging up through the top pigment stick section and creating some surprising results. See left photo.

What’s possible with this effect?

I slowed down and tested other areas. Same result. Was it a result of age?

I tested for that and got a slightly different result. OK. We’re getting somewhere. See photo on right.