When you are already swamped with work and wondering how you will meet all of your deadlines, but a friend gifts you her spot in an amazing oil and cold wax workshop with the fabulous Lisa Pressman at Ephemera Paducah, you decide to give up sleeping for the next week or two and quickly scrounge for supplies!
I’ve been wanting to try to loosen my style a bit – not always, but really just to see if I can! When I work with media that I’m really familiar with, it’s really hard to not fall into what’s comfortable and known, which for me is tight line drawing and very controlled use of materials. I’m not great at letting go of control. And when I’m working with my usual media, in the limited time I have for my art, I feel pressured to make something that I can sell.
When I’m not doing my precise line drawings, I’m designing logos and building websites. These are VERY precise, controlled things!
This workshop should be exactly what I need to take me WAY out of my comfort zone and help me loosen up! I haven’t used oil paints since one undergrad painting class – 32 years ago – and I’ve never tried cold wax. I’m excited and a bit terrified of using both. The best thing about trying new media and techniques is that I don’t feel the pressure to actually create finished work and can let myself loosen up some. Hopefully!
This piece is probably the loosest and most abstract piece I’ve ever made. Encaustic and trash (discarded drawings, orange and banana peels, spilled wine, cranberries, muffin wrapper, etc.)