The Tree Is the Real Thing
Encaustic & Mixed Media on wood
24" x 24"
April 2010

title from the quote: "Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing."
-Abraham Lincoln

A progress photo of a new encaustic painting I started today. Part of my "Ghosts of the Past" series, this one features a great civil war image of Abe Lincoln visiting a camp.

This is my largest encaustic painting yet and I wanted to show the scale so I took this cheese-ball pic of me holding it :) This is just the first layer of paint and I've since added another-- this one's going to take a little bit longer than the rest! Fusing the layers is an arm aching experience but I still really enjoy it!

The top of the painting has a pink sky and the bottom, so far is a greyish green. I'm thinking of using alot of grey on top of the underpainting but I'll just have to see how things go! I love not having a plan and going with the flow- so to speak!

Ghosts of the Past #5
Encaustic, Photographs, & Graphite on Cradled Birch
12" x 12" (30.48 cm x 30.48 cm)
January 2009

Not currently for sale, please inquire if interested.  (Photo credit: Gen. George Thomas and a group of officers at a council of war near Ringgold, Ga., May 5, 1864. 77-HMS-344-2P.)
(click inage to zoom, click title for details)

Finished this painting tonight!  I think this battle is over.  
So, as you can see in my previous post, I had glued down two images.  One was of these officers and the other was an image of clouds.  I wanted to cast a heavy storm above their heads and give these men an outward glow.  The General is given an iconic treatment.  

I don't normally like to talk too much about the symbolism and ideas behind my paintings, I like to just put them out there and see what people get from them.  I'm happy to discuss when prompted, though!

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This painting has decided to declair war against me!  I can see the General plotting it out now.  He thinks he's so smart and he had me in a corner for a long time.  But I finally pushed forward and I think I may have bested him.  Only time will tell.  I hope to meet him on the battlefield tomorrow.  There's much to do but I will stare him and his cronies square in the eye and charge towards him, Braveheart style!

I love when an idea works out better than expected!  I had this image which I pasted down yesterday (see last night's post) and had an idea of what I wanted to do with the officer's bodies but not sure about exactly how to incorporate the background.  The trees are what initially drew me to the image and I knew that I wanted to keep them in.  I wound up painting around them and then chasing after the lines with scraping/carving and drawing them in with charcoal.  

This painting, along with 1 or 2 more, will be submitted to a gallery show called "White, Black, & Shades of Gray."  I'm glad that I decided to do this and challenge myself by taking the "color" out.  Of course, I still mixed actual colors into the painting to give it depth.  Can't wait to get paint on the next board!  Hope this makes it into the show.  Wish me luck!

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Ghosts of the Past #4
Encaustic, Photograph, & Charcoal on Cradled Birch
12" x 12" (30.48 cm x 30.48 cm)
January 2009

Not currently for sale, please inquire if interested.
(click inage to zoom)
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Today I started working on 2 new paintings.  In a previous post I stated that I usually have a few pieces going on at the same time and that's no lie!  Currently. I have 3 encaustic paintings and 1 oil painting in progress.  The oil hasn't been touched in a while but it's still there staring at me jealously.  The encaustics include 1 that is waiting for the final step; still unsure how to proceed and finish my thoughts on him.  

Ghosts of the Past 2
Encaustic, embedded Photograph, & Grass on found wood
9.5" x 9"
September 2008

Available in my Etsy Shop or through JamieRibisi.com

Looking closer- a brief exploration of art:

This painting incorporates the technique of embedding objects in the wax. The grass and the photograph are both embedded and it's a pretty simple task!

First, I fused one layer of encaustic onto my substrate and fused it. Then I brushed encaustic medium onto the back of the image and a little bit on the area that it was heading to live and smooshed them together real fast. Using a flat tool, I got all of the air bubbles out and then layered another bit of medium on top of the image. Fuse and repeat the layers of medium until satisfied with the result.

The grass is done in a similar manner but takes a bit of adjusting the blades because they are so small and fragile. Embedding natural objects into wax is really fun because the material will change as it adjusts to the heat and to the wax. They tend to brown and dry out slightly as they sit in the pool of molten wax. Just like nature-- you never know what's going to happen and that's the best part of encaustic painting-- in my world, anyway!

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If you liked my little behind the scenes venture into painting, keep following my blog for the "Looking closer" series and learn what I do, how I do it, and why!

For the encaustic dreamers, I will also be creating a tutorial that will give you detailed in-depth tips, tricks, & techniques with lots of technical info so that you will feel safe and armed with the knowledge to feel comfortable creating your own beeswax art! I'll post it here once it's ready for sale (& some freebie opportunities, too!)