We live in one of the most beautiful areas of the country, and with fall approaching, what could be better than visiting the Cazenovia Art Trail this coming weekend? I’ve been busy making new work all year, along with some landscapes inspired by my recent trip to Italy. Many new encaustic pieces are available. My paintings range from 4 inches square to 3 feet square, so a lot of options! 

I exaggerate. But I’m back at Chautauqua Institution for the summer (studio #15, if you’re close by), and what a hot one this is so far. The studios are in an old historic building — inspiring to work in — but without, shall we say, the comforts of home. Such as air conditioning, doors that close all the way, or screens on the windows. I had a squabble recently with a bird that was trying to nest in the rafters just above my work! 

I am currently in a show at the Gandee Gallery as the featured artist with ceramicist Kelly Justice. Jen Gandee had a hunch  that our work would look good together, and I think she was right. Take a look at  some photos from the show.

I’m talking encaustic painting here. Most of you reading this would probably not question how to produce a watercolor or oil painting. If you are already a painter working in encaustics, this may not be for you. But for those of you who aren’t totally sure, here goes!

The Good: It's been a gorgeous summer, the best weather ever! I had the opportunity to teach encaustics this summer through the School of Art at Chautauqua Institution. There were 3 workshops, two for the public and one for the artist's residency program here. We converted the Print Studio into an encaustic studio, and no one seemed to mind the heat too much?

Warmer weather inspires me to paint landscapes — I love taking my easel outside and painting directly from what I see, but larger canvases are done in the studio. Barcelona Harbor was painted right on site, and Forest was done looking at the view directly out of my studio window.

I’ve been thinking a lot about PATTERN as I work in my studio lately. There are many definitions out there, but let’s make it easy and define pattern as repeating shapes. I'm hard-pressed to find any recent work of mine that doesn’t have an element of pattern in it. I took a little trip into my archives to find examples...

The Cazenovia Art  Trail is back on this year! Please visit me on the weekend of September 25th and 26th for the Cazenovia Art Trail — I will be exhibiting at the Route 20 Sofa Company,  a short drive outside of the village, between the hours of 10 am to 5 pm.

I can’t pinpoint when it all began, this fondness for adding gold and silver to my work. It started with small amounts of metallic paint and morphed into full sheets of 24 carat gold leaf, edible. It’s that pure, but please do not lick the paintings. Mind you, I am equally enamored of silver.