Tuesday, 09 October 2007

waxing lyrical

I have been experimenting with wax on my canvasses, to add texture to the paintings... I just love the subtle effects that can be achieved when paint is applied and then rubbed off again, as the wax only retains some of the pigment. The 3 paintings in the previous post had some wax on them, and these three do too. After some experimentation, I have settled on a wax called microcrystalline, used by scuptors. It is very flexible, much more so than paraffin wax, and handles well when carved. Great fun!

Title : Red and Blue 2
Size : 1500x1000 mm
sold...commission
This was commissioned for a beach house in Port Alfred. I stained some wax red and dripped it over the grassy areas for extra texture.


SOLD
Title: the circle of life
Size: 1000x1000mm
There is subtle writing on this one, running around the spiral. It reads "it takes time and careful listening to unravel the meaning of life.... but most of us are on a hamster wheel whizzing around and times rushes by too fast... so we forget to look around and listen out for clues." The fact that the writing is not obvious or easy to read mirrors the message that we need to work at finding meaning in life.
here are a few details showing the textures created by the wax.

Title: lest we forget #3
Size: 1000x1000mm
SOLD

Yet another in the series dealing with the meaninglessness of war, and how pointless all the deaths really are.

I have included a few details below to show some of the textures, and the interplay of silver leaf, paint and wax to create subtle textures.

4 comments:

Oswegan said...

I like your paintings. The one to the right - Are those baobab trees maybe? I'm not sure if that's what they're called. I saw a photography show on Madagascar and there were beautiful large trees there that looked like they were upside down with their roots facing skyward.

~Oswegan
http://oswegan.blogspot.com

Suzi-k said...

Hi Oswegan, thanks! You are quite right, they are baobabs. The ones we have in Southern Africa are slightly different to those in Madagascar, but the same upside down look! I absolutely love them and have painted them often. Those little ones in the sidebar were cropped from a large painting, you can see the whole thing at http://arty-farty-musings.blogspot.com/2007/05/whew1-week-to-go-before-my-exhibition.html,
and more baobabs on http://arty-farty-musings.blogspot.com/2007/06/ecclectic-mix.html

Oswegan said...

Cool. I'll check it out. Thanks for the thoughtful question last today.

~Oswegan

Oswegan said...

"last today"?!?

What the heck does that mean?

I guess I can't figure out if it's today or last night over there.

~Oswegan