https://artcommission.com/blog/commission-accomplished/santa-barbara-cottage-hospital/

1.  a color whose hue is that of the clear sky

2.  that portion of the color spectrum lying between green and violet

3.  a pigment or dye that colors blue

4.  the far distance

5. Pablo Picasso 1901-1904

6.  cobalt /  indigo /  navy / sapphire / beautiful

bleu . #1 – detail

In 2011 I was an Artist in Residence in Italy.  I was teaching an artbook class and decided the subject of my book, for demonstration purposes, would be the Adventures of My Purple Beret.  I am a knitter, so did a lovely knitted purple beret before leaving for Italy. 

This crazy beret was seen at many places, usually atop a lion statue, a roadside shrine, on a motorcycle in Cannes, and it even got lost in the Sistine Chapel!  Since I was carrying the beret with me everywhere (to capture the best photo-op) it got on a tour of the Vatican.  While in the Sistine Chapel it got lost on a bench.  As we were exiting the Vatican, I realized the beret was missing and since it was the entire subject of my art travel book, I got pretty frantic.  A miracle ensued…..we talked our way in the back entrance, through three guards, and in the “out” exit of the Sistine Chapel!  Impossible!  Looking high and low, we finally found it on a bench.

So while the wait for the white smoke continues….I cannot help reflecting on the big adventure for the Purple Beret, and wondering….if it had been left there, would the yet unelected Pope had found it?

“Going Green” is just smart.  My choice of artistic materials has been guided by green principles for thirty years, yet it has only been the past fifteen that GREEN has become a buzz word.  In the beginning consultants and collectors thought recycled materials meant bottle caps and plastic bags.  It’s been fun informing them of how recycled and renewable materials are available, attractive, and not what you’d expect. To create my mixed media wall pieces I use 90% recycled materials.  While not initially aware that there is a green element to my work… the collectors initially respond to the work itself…when educated about the benefits of using these materials, it becomes a big bonus.  Artist+Collector+Mother Earth…a winning combination!

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

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

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.

This is the third year that I have participated.  Last year my work was selected second…quite an honor.  The piece I created this year has very special significance for me.  The nature film community lost a very special friend in January. Mike DeGruy was killed in a helicopter accident while filming for James Cameron in Australia.  Mike had a special love of the mysterious octopus.  He delighted in his lectures of educating us about these crazy creatures.  At his memorial we all sang Octopus Garden from the Beatles Abbey Road album.  My piece was created in memory of Mike and is titled OctopusGARDEN.  Here it is: