Hearing the fireworks go off New Years eve, advertising another year had ended, left me reflecting about what I had achieved in 2017 and what I could expect in the year to come.
2017 was a cracker of a year for me. I felt with both my daughters now settled in school I had more time to be creative, to explore new ideas and to get back into teaching art.
I have loved getting back into teaching. When you are so passionate about a subject it is fantastic to be able to pass it on to others.
I have found this past year has held no bounds for my creativity and as well as teaching I have enjoyed developing my own work. Delving more into mixed media abstract painting as well as bookbinding, art journaling and the odd portrait thrown in for good measure. I have explored new mediums and revisited old ones that I had long since forgotten. I feel myself getting more and more excited with my work as I continue to develop as an artist.
This year I have been exploring encaustic painting (having been bought the kit for Christmas) Encaustic is an ancient art form dating all the way back to Egyptian art 100-300 AD The word encaustic originates from the Greek word enkaustikos which means to burn in, and this element of heat is necessary for a painting to be called encaustic. It uses a mixture of beeswax and damar resin with different pigments mixed in. You use a hot pallet, working with melted wax and heat guns to melt and blend the different colours together.
I used wax a lot back at University to create sculptures so I feel like it is going back to an old friend and yet I have never attempted encaustic painting and working with a hot pallet holds new challenges for me. I was a little nervous to start with but I am starting to get into the flow of it now and I love it! It is quite addictive watching the wax react to the heat and pigments.
Here are a few photos of my attempts so far… (above and below)
Lisa Goddard
