Blog

Heads up all art collectors.  Two of my works have been stolen by a dealer…. I mean con artist… in Scottsdale Arizona.  Promises of returning my sold artwork has been going on for months.  Now he (Garry Smith) no longer has a gallery, email address is cancelled, phone disconnected.  If either of these pieces show up, please advise me.

The red piece, highWIRED, steel + copperwire & oil + encaustic    72” x 48”

and blue piece , aguazul, steel + copperwire & oil + encaustic   23” x 46”

I get many questions regarding the encaustic process I thought I would offer an explanation about one aspect of the use of wax as an art medium.  Most of the time people ask, “will it melt if the sun comes through the window on to the art?”  This is a completely reasonable inquiry so I offer a simple answer to that.

First a short introduction to encaustic:  The material/process has been around since the Egyptians painted on their sarcophagi. When I was in Egypt several years ago, one of my main interests was to see this wax surface firsthand.  There it was….fresh as the day it was painted.  Wax is a very stable medium.  When pigment is added to the wax, it fuses together and voila….a very permanent and stable surface.  That is unless it is gouged, melted, or otherwise mishandled.

Think of encaustic as something like our contemporary crayons…. brightly colored, transferable to another surface, and luminous.  However, if handled poorly it can be scratched, roughed up, and melted.  This brings us back to FIRE, and the question…”will it melt?”  Yes, it will melt.  That is exactly how I work my multilayered paintings*.  The molten wax is applied to the substrate and manipulated (gouged, scratched, scumbled, fused) until the painting is declared done!  However, it will NOT melt under normal circumstances.  Normal meaning inside our homes in an environment hospitable to people.  If an encaustic painting is hanging on the wall, and is melting…there are much larger issues to worry about, such as the house being on fire!  Even with the sun coming through a window, for those short hours, nothing will happen.  If left on the patio in the desert sun, yes, the surface will get very soft, but still would not roll off the canvas.  That takes about 150 degrees of heat.  All that said, it is not advisable to put ANY painted or multi-media work in an area where it gets direct sunlight. Pigments can be fugitive…..that means it can fade. This is why museums are not exposed to daylight coming through windows.  The best protection for your valuable investment in art is to avoid direct sunlight, and if you find it is melting, time to call the fire department!

* for a visual on the molten wax process, click on my video at the top of the page.

Please come to the Santa Barbara Museum of Art event this Friday night.  OFF THE WALL is a fundraising exhibition and “acquisition” opportunity featuring prominent artists.  For the price of admission you will be entitled to select one piece of art and take it home…literally OFF THE WALL!  Numbers will be given to participants and selected at random.  When your number is chosen, you get to select an artwork of your choice.  First number drawn gets first choice, and so on until all art has been spoken for.  (more…)

Ricardo Legorreta passed away on my birthday December 30th.  In my amateur passion for architecture, he was a hero.  I loved his bold use of color (he was, after all, a student of Luis Barragan), large flat expanses of color, unexpected textures, and above all, simplicity of design.  (more…)

Hot off the easel!  A new copper and encaustic artwork for fabulous collectors in central California.  A month ago a couple came to the studio to see what I was up to.  They fell in love with everything and we began a dialog about a potential artwork for their home.  Photos of their room and drawings from my table flew back and forth over the internet.   (more…)

Hooray!  A year’s worth of talking, six months of work, three weeks of stress, and two days of installation work….it is finished! (more…)

Preview the latest collection  by Shel Jewelry, on exhibit at Jett Gallery’s ongoing show, LIFE LINES.  Designer Shelly Mantler will be fusing her sexy, exotic designs with the vivid and gravitating works by artists Fred Gemmell, Joel Vaiasuso, and YOURS TRULY!   (more…)

The four new “landmark” works for Cottage Hospital are finished and will be installed on December 9th.  There is a opening party scheduled to view all the artworks in January, a month before they move the patients to the new rooms. Until then, here is a teaser of one of the images.  It is from my “slanted” series in which the slanted paintings create an illusion of slipping shadows, hence the title: slippingSHADOWS.  2.5′ h x 7′ long.   (more…)

All welcome to the opening of fellow artist Fred Gemmell at the JETT GALLERY in San Diego on Friday November 18.  Two of my works (zonaROSA and fracturedSHADOWS) will be on exhibition (more…)

 “A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something”     Frank Capra

I have been a film buff as long as I can remember. Sometimes getting lost in the story, seeing how the music moves the story forward, or just watching the production design.  I love this old quote from film director Frank Capra. (more…)