New Name, Same Location

Yachats Storm                    Oil/Cold Wax/Collage on Arches Oil Paper

I've changed the name of this blog to include readers of Wabi-Sabi Painting with Cold Wax as well as readers of my previous book. I hope you will feel free to post questions about materials, processes, etc. and also to share your own inspiration and techniques. 

On my website homepage you can open a page of oil and cold wax resource information. 

A huge thank you to all of you who have read my books and here's hoping for further interesting dialogue!

Where to Find Re-inkers Now?

Golden Field        Reinker, acrylic glaze, acrylic paint on panel

Now that my book, Wabi-Sabi Art Workshop, has been out a couple of years, lots of people have discovered the joy of painting with dye re-inkers and acrylic glaze medium. In the book I use and recommend Ranger Adirondack reinkers which were my mainstay. Now we discover, Ranger has stopped making this line! Well, I initially panicked as did some of you. 

Never fear, however. Ranger makes another line called "Archival Inks" which are also dye reinkers and also come in rich colors. You can find them on the Ranger site and also get them through Amazon. Whew!

Let me know how these inks work for you!

Join Us for an Enchanting Workshop in Taos, NM!

Leighanna Light and I have an exciting mini-retreat to share with you. We'll be holding a five day workshop at her gorgeous studio in Taos, New Mexico in May! Here's the scoop below. You can register on my website. 


Join me and international art teacher Leighanna Light for a five day workshop her studio in in magical Taos New Mexico! Embrace the wabi-sabi spirit as you learn to use encaustic, Venetian plaster, dye re-inkers, acrylics,oils, 3-D elements and more. You will create gorgeous paintings, mixed media work, and a beautiful and unusual handmade book.  We'll offer exciting field trips as well as playful, inspiring classes.

Leighanna will teach us how to create a gorgeous book like this one!

I'll teach encaustic painting and mixed media work
inspired by the wabi-sabi qualities of Taos!

Tuition: 800.00 This includes a Welcome Dinner at a local restaurant, four delicious lunches, Serena's two-day class on Saturday and Sunday, field trips on Monday, and Leighanna's two-day class on Tuesday and Wednesday. Most supplies will be provided for each class for an additional 25.00 fee to each instructor.

I hope you'll join us for this inspiring workshop at Leighanna's wonderful studio!

"Visual Haiku" at Collage

Here is some of the gorgeous art created at my class, "Visual Haiku" at Collage in Portland OR. Students used re-inkers, acrylic glaze, acrylic paint, and mixed media to create these wabi-sabi inspired pieces. I hope you'll enjoy feasting your eyes on them!

Wabi-Sabi Immersion at Collage This Weekend!

I'm so looking forward  to this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday when I will be teaching at the fabulous Collage store and classroom in Portland's Alberta Arts District. There are a few spots left for the 2-day class on Friday and Saturday and for the Sunday class. 

In our 2-day class, Strata of Time, we'll explore the rich range of texture and color offered by painting with cold wax and oil. We'll use a variety of tools to shape our wax and oil mixtures. We'll also experiment with plaster, oil pastels, mixed media, and more! To find out more go to the description on the Collage website.

I will be signing copies of my book at Collage on Saturday evening. Come join us for refreshments and art talk! 

  

 
Sunday's class is called Visual Haiku. We'll create wabi-sabi pieces inspired by traditional haiku. Our media will include re-inkers, alcohol inks, acrylic paint, vintage papers, specialty papers, and recycled elements. For more about this playful class, go to the description on the Collage site.

A Wabi-Sabi Project from a Reader

 Here's a wonderful wabi-sabi project brought to us by Linda Kunsman. Thank you, Linda!

 Linda says:
 
"The canvas board was prepped by using both a palette knife and a sea sponge to apply a thick coat of Golden Light Molding Paste, creating a rough base for the scene:

  A coat of My Studio Vanilla was painted on the dried surface. Americana Pineapple acrylic was added on the upper third. Some of it was wiped back with a paper towel. Several drops of Adirondack Butterscotch reinker was added and brushed over the lower area. I wrote some of the lyrics in pencil.

The Open Road   (5" x 7")

  Adirondack alcohol inks in Stream, Citrus, and Watermelon were dropped and blotted to form the trees. I mixed my own concoction of reinker glaze using a drop of Adirondack Watermelon, Burnt Orange and Ranger Distress Tea Dye along with Golden Acrylic Glazing Liquid and lightly brushed it in areas and wiped away. The edges of the canvas were sponged with Distress Tea Dye ink."

 

 

Linda Creates More Wabi-Sabi Work

Linda continues to be inspired by my book to create work in her own style. Here's what she has to say on her blog:

 "I'm also continuing my series of wabi-sabi canvases inspired by Serena Barton's book and Keith Harkin's original songs. You can see my previous projects here, and here.

  This week I chose techniques from Chapter Two. 

  Background Layers:

 

  Layer 1 began with a combination of Golden transparent Iron Oxide, Iridescent Bright Gold and American Bright Yellow mixed together. Layer 2 I added My Studio Vanilla and wiped back. Layer 3 I added Country Accents Soldier Blue and as I was wiping away a happy accident occurred . I had my fingertips on the canvas and when I lifted them away they also lifted the paint, causing the whitish blotches you see. In true wabi-sabi form I embraced it and left it be :). Next I mixed Adirondack Watermelon reinker with water and with an eye dropper allowed the mix to drip from top to bottom then from side to side. A wet cloth was used to spread some of the color and add into the background. A heart shape was painted in the center with US Artquest Duo Adhesive then a scrap of gold leaf sheet was applied over it. A little more tweaking with paints. Stamped compass (Judikins) onto tissue paper with Jet Black Staz-on ink, torn and adhered to lower right. Typed sentiment (the song title), aged it with inks and paint then adhered it to the heart:

"Don't Forget About Me" -  5" x 7" canvas

  On a final note, Bill and I will be celebrating our 30th anniversary this Saturday. Not bad considering we only knew each other 5 months before eloping and it was the best decision I ever made. Love you dahling ;)"

Thanks for keeping us up to date on your wabi-sabi creations, Linda!


PS: To see what went on at last weekend's workshop. "Buried Treasure", go to my other blog!

More Wabi-Sabi from Linda!

Here are two more wabi-sabi pieces from Linda Kunsman. She's doing a series based on projects in my book. I love how she's using the projects as starting points while creating her own style and switching out some of the materials. If you want to see how she did this piece and the one below it, visit her blog to learn more. Thanks, Linda!

Daisy Fields   5" x 7"

A Reader's Wonderful Wabi-Sabi Art

Reader Linda Kunsman posted the following on her blog recently. Thanks, Linda! I love your piece and am delighted that you made this project your own.

Check out Linda's blog and see her other wonderful work.

 Wabi-Sabi

  One of the two art technique books I took with me on my beach vacation was Wabi-Sabi Art Workshop by Serena Barton. LOVE this book! First of all I love the wabi-sabi (Japanese) theory of  "an approach to life and art that's in harmony with nature, one that values handmade and rustic and recognizes the impermanence of life." Embracing imperfection. That's a good thing. Serena's many techniques and projects provide great springboards in creating your own art using a wide variety of mediums-including cold wax (which I'd never heard of before). There are detailed step outs and product explanations through out, as well as lots of gallery art showcasing these techniques. Also, Serena has chosen the most beautiful haikus which are sprinkled over 120 some pages for further inspiration. Thumbs up!

  This is the first project/technique I pretty much followed on pg. 74:

                                                    Things Both Ancient and Modern (5" x 7")

  Products used: 5 x 7" canvas board; gesso; soft matte gel med.; Yellow Ochre Fluid Acrylic; water soluble crayons; walnut ink; coffee granules; champagne mica flakes; Distress Vintage Photo and Black Soot inks; white mulberry paper; fiber/yarn strand; found object.
  I found that rusty round object on the ground on a walk recently and immediately knew I wanted to work it into this particular project. 

Cold Wax Painting for Sor Juana

I did this oil and cold wax painting recently, inspired by the poetry, plays, essays, and life of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz. I painted it over an old acrylic painting I did of this great writer of Spain's Golden Age. I loved the wabi-sabi process of recycling this wood panel while keeping the essence of the original painting.

La Ruespuesta     20" x 16"

Michelle Gets Wabi-Sabi Inspiration

It Made My Day!

I received a wonderful email the other day from an artist, Michelle, Wecksler, who disovered my book by accident at the Denver airport. Heres what she has to say on her blog about this discovery:

On one of my recent trips through the Denver airport, I stopped in a shop on concourse B called Mosaic. The shop carries art created by many different artists - jewelry, pottery, glass - and they also have a section in the back with books. Since I had time before my flight, I started looking through the books and came upon one called Wabi-sabi Art Workshop by Serena Barton. I was immediately attracted to the title since the Wabi-sabi philosophy was something I had recently been investigating. It didn't take long to decide that I was going to purchase the book and take it with me on my trip! I am still only half-way through the book and I am bursting with inspiration and motivation!!!!!! 

In the book, Serena presents a wonderful technique of combining glazing fluid with reinkers to create beautiful landscapes. As soon as I got home this week, I decided to give it a try in my art journal! It started out slow, but I followed her step-by-step instructions and improvised a bit and this was the result! I am sooooooo happy with how it turned out and I can't wait to begin work on a canvas or panel that I can hang in the house! Thank you Serena for the amazing inspiration! And for those of you fortunate enough to be going to Art and Soul in Portland in September, I wish I could join you! Serena will be teaching a few classes that I would LOVE to take!!!!! And maybe one day I will because after all...if you put your mind to it, anything is possible!!!!! 

I love that Michelle did her first wabi-sabi piece in her journal!

Wonderful affirmation! And delicious use of re-inker glaze.

Here's the delightful work Michelle created. Visit her blog and her YouTube videos and you will see that while she is an accomplished artist, wabi-sabi was new to her. Her bravery in trying something new was certainly rewarded by the process and the result of her free flowing experiments! 

I love seeing your wabi-sabi work, so keep it coming through my website.

Some of us Art and Soul instructors are having a blog roll to celebrate the upcoming Art and Soul Retreat. I get to be first! Visit my other blog where I'll be telling you about my classes and offering a giveaway. Here's the lineup of all the blog roll participants and blogs:

 August 20: Clarissa Callesen

http://clarissacallesen.blogspot.com 

August 21: Liz Kettle 

http://www.textileevolution.com

 August 22: Jen Crossley and

http://amarkintime.blogspot.com/

Barbara Worth Rainey

 http://fireflypress.blogspot.com/ 

August 23: Jill Berry 

http://jillberrydesign.com/blog/

Some of these folks are having giveaways so check them out and learn about their upcoming classes!

 I'll be teaching two Wabi-Sabi based classes at Art and Soul. You can see a full description on the other blog, but here are some images from the two classes.

Papers Wabi-Sabi

Papers Wabi-Sabi

Wabi-Sabi Wax

Wabi-Sabi Wax

Get thee to Serena Barton's Blog, enter the giveaway, and check out my classes!

Reader Questions

Reader Sandra asks if Bombay acrylic inks will yield the same results in wabi-sabi pieces as the dye re-inkers I use in the book. Understandably, she wants to use the materials she already has. I haven't yet used Bombay acrylic inks, though they sound intriguing. I do have Daler-Rowney acrylic inks so I tried a little experiment.

I used a pre-gessoed canvas board to try out the experiment. The lighter side of this board, on the left, shows Red Pepper Adirondack Dye Reinker mixed with acrylic glaze medium. The larger section on the right shows Scarlet Daler-Rowney Acrylic Ink mixed with glaze medium. I sponged both areas with a paper towel.

It seems that the re-inker is more transparent. I also noticed that it stayed wet a little longer, so that I could alter the surface of the paint more. It may be that when using the acrylic inks, water would be a better choice than the glaze medium. This would likely give a more watercolor effect to the piece. Sandra says she is used to using watercolors, so she might like this effect a lot.

I love the re-inkers, but if you have other materials, go ahead and try them! It's all about experimenting, and I'm sure you can produce excellent work with re-inkers, acrylic inks, acrylic paint, watercolors, and more. I don't  think the effects of all of these will be exactly the same, but they should all work well.

Sandra, I suggest that you could get one or two re-inkers in similar colors to your acrylic inks and do some experiments. I'd love to see the results!

Sandra also asked about airbrush inks. Again, I haven't tried these. I see online that Golden airbrush inks come in opaque and transparent colors. I imagine that the transparent colors would work most like the re-inkers  used in my book. I also see that Golden makes a special mediums to go with these inks, so those might work similarly to the glaze medium I use.

By all means, dear readers, try out the wabi-sabi process and aesthetic with supplies you have and see how you like the results. You can always send me an email through my website and I'll reply back giving you an email address where you can send your photo. With your permission, I'll post your images on this blog so that we can all enjoy them and learn about the products and processes you used.

Anyone have experience with using acrylic and/or airbrush inks that you'd like to share?

Pam Carriker Creates a Wabi-Sabi Artwork

My lovely friend, Pam Carriker, wraps up my blog hop today by showing us the step by step process of a piece she made using techniques from my book. She added her own special touches and came up with a  gorgeous piece to commemorate her and her husband's anniversary!

Here's Pam's finished piece--check out her blog to see how she got there!

You'll also find on Pam's blog today a very funny photo of her with me at Art is You last year. We've never been able to explain how this optical illusion came about. It's the "little chair", I know it is:)

My Blooper! New Giveaway!

I have inadvertently caused confusion (and perhaps wailing and gnashing of teeth) by ending my giveaway before the blog hop ended! Some of you commented  after the previous giveaway ended. You and future commenters will be enrolled in a new contest! This lasts through the blog hop! Thus the new random winner will be selected on June 11. This time you could win two 8" x 8" high quality reproductions of my work--see below!

If you entered for the last prize, enter again.The game is still afoot!

On the Riverbank

Four

Giveaway Winner!

Morning Dove is the winner of the giveaway! Congratulations! You can visit her at her blog, Morning Dew, to see her delightful art.

A heartfelt thanks to all of you who entered the giveaway. I hope you will continue to visit this and my other blog. I'd love to see what you are doing and will post pictures you send of your work and your wabi-sabi photos.

Slowly but surely I'll be checking out your sites and blogs also!

As I say in my book, "If you're making art, you're in the parade."

Nervous but determined, Serena first joined the parade at age 4

Companion Chapters of my book are now up online! I wrote more than could be published in the book, but now you can see the rest, including a chapter on wabi-sabi papers. It's fun to see these projects again--like old friends! 

In these bonus chapters you can learn how to use molding paste, self-leveling medium, alcohol inks, and mulberry paper in your wabi-sabi work!
http://www.createmixedmedia.com/wabi-sabi

Learn how to create "Literary Map Paper" in the bonus chapters online!

 

Liz Kettle and the Tuesday Tarts do Wabi-Sabi

Today's blog hop host is Liz Kettle. She and her art group, the Tuesday Tarts, played with a project from my book. I love how they all turned out different--and all are delightful! That's wabi-sabi! 

 

Here are the blog hop hosts again--all wonderful and diverse artists!

6/1: Sara Naumann
6/3: Jill Berry
6/4 Carol Sloan 
6/5 Liz Kettle
6/6 Joanne Sharpe
6/8 Seth Apter
6/9 Alicia Caudle

6/10 Pam Carriker 

A Wabi-Sabi Afternoon

Sarah's First Cold Wax Painting

 Three members of my women's art group met this afternoon at my studio. Kelly worked in encaustic, Cindy in acrylic, (see my other blog for their work) and Sara and I did wabi-sabi abstracts in oil and cold wax.

Sara did a lot of incising and scraping back in this piece

Sarah's abstract landscape. When she got to this point,we all yelled "stop!"

I did the oil and cold wax pieces below. I surprised myself by using pink in the second one shown here. I think it's good for me to experiment with a cooler palette sometimes. (Hide the transparent red oxide, someone:)

I'm definitely using more bright red these days

The group told me to stop here, so I did!