A big box full of paintings...

Yesterday I packed up 16 small encaustic paintings to ship for the Teeny Tiny Art Show at Three Graces Gallery in Portsmouth, NH. I'm so excited to go to the opening next Friday! It's going to be so much fun to see all of them up together and amongst other teeny tiny work! I can't recall ever seeing so many of my pieces hung at one time. How cool?


If you're in the area, come on down 5-8pm on Friday February 5th, 105 Market St, Portsmouth, NH.

I'll be the one buying up everyone else's work! I'm not sure what I'm more excited about, showing my work or buying other's work!

I'm updating my website as we speak with these new pieces-- I'll share once it's uploaded.
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Color Swatches for encaustic paint!








I just added these color swatches to my website so that customers can now pick from the pigment that I have available. I can always custom mix any color from these, too, as I love to do! I've been wanting to add this to my website and I'm so glad that I have because I love looking at it--- I'm such an art supply junkie!!!



Studio Clearance Sale!

I'm cleaning out my studio for the New Year! Below are some paintings & drawings that I'm looking to find a happy home for way under price :) I'm also up for trades so just contact me if you're interested! jamieribisi{at}gmail.com

Prices below include shipping within the USA


Self-study, 11x14" Oil on canvas $40

Only You #2, 10x10", oil on canvas, $40

Blood & Smoke, 6x6", oil on canvas, $20

Nesting, watercolor on paper, 5.5x8.5", $20

Warmth, watercolor on paper, 5.5x8.5", $20

Jesse, Charcoal pencil & conte crayon on brown recycled paper, 24x18", $55

Table, Oil & charcoal on canvas, 11x14", $55


Reclining male #1, Sum-i ink on sketch paper, 8x9.5", $20

Arched male #1, Sum-i ink on sketch paper, 8x9.5", $20


Small reclining male #1, Sum-i ink on watercolor paper, 4x6", $10


Reclining female #1, Sum-i ink on sketch paper, 8x9.5", $20

If interested in purchasing/trading please comment here or email me at jamieribisi{at}gmail.com

First come, first served! :)

New year, new work

I'm hoping that in this new year I will allow myself more time to paint and focus on my work. I've been accepted to a new show in February and am creating some new small works for it. I have some plans to create large pieces and get my work out into the public eye a bit more. Here's to 2010!



(top-bottom: Speaking in Tongues 1 & 2, 5 x 7" each, Encaustic on cradled wood

Hems and Haws

While I was painting my last few oil paintings, I had this canvas on the side of my easel as a way to work out the random ideas in my head and also as a way to use up the excess paint on my palette. I really hate to be wasteful with paint (it costs so much!) so in an effort to squeeze every cent of worth out of my paint, I usually create something that's a bit of a departure. And quite freeing, too!


Occasionally when I paint, I try to think about how the piece will fit in with the body of work that I've already created. I think about it all being linear and telling a story together. This is fine, but sometimes I think the work will find a way to fit itself in just from the sheer virtue of being from the same artist. This may not always be the way that things work out, but it's ok to open yourself up to experimentation and see where that goes. Right? :)

Hems and Haws
Oil on Canvas
20 x 20"
July 2009


New drawings/paintings...They Were Standing in the Shadows Watching


After some thinking, asking, & experimenting....I've finished some drawings/paintings on paper (I never know what to call them-- what do you say?) of an image I've had in my head for a while. These are each 15 x 15" on thick watercolor paper. I started with a charcoal base which I then over painted with white acrylic. The mixture of the white and the charcoal produced the grays and I then drew into it with a stick of graphite.






I was so happy with these that I also did a large drawing and then translated the imagery to encaustic paintings--- I'll post pictures of those soon!

Will be available on my website soon!


Website updated!

I finished upgrading my website! I'm so excited to finally unveil it. I've been working very hard and trying to figure out exactly what I wanted for it and, well, here it is!!! Please take a look and let me know what you think-- I'd love some feedback: http://jamieribisi.com


New paintings


(On the Verge; Encaustic, Oil Pastel, & Charcoal; 4" x 4")
I've been looking to create some new paintings to enter into the First Annual Autumn Arts Painting Challenge & Competition on Facebook led by some pretty awesome ladies/artists. Really got me thinking about creating imagery free of collage-- I wanted these paintings to be pure creation- just as the Fall is. I started with this tiny block in order to experiment with some new (to me) ideas. I wanted to use oil pastels directly on the hot plate and then mix some encaustic medium into it. This creates a very rich color that is a nice thickness. I fused it into the encaustic painting and it's interesting to see how differently it moves than just regular encaustic paint. For the specks, I crushed up some charcoal and embedded it into the painting. I wanted my next effort to have finer charcoal so.....

(Untitled; Encaustic, Oil Pastel, Charcoal, & Graphite; 12" x 12")
I wanted to challenge myself to make these next two paintings vibrant with lots of movement so I started this one with a thick pink background. I scraped the lines at the bottom right in with the tip of a sharp woodless pencil and the dots on the top left are finger prints of the super crushed charcoal with medium placed on top of it.


(Backwoods Sermon; Encaustic, Oil Pastel, & Graphite; 12" x 12")
I had this fresh green that I made and my husband said, "Slap that all over the place!" haha So I did! I used the oil pastels directly on top of the wax and also as a mixture from the hotplate as described above. I fused them until I was happier with the mixture and kept layering it all. Then I took my sharp pencil and scraped in these tree images. There's a nice dimensional quality to it with the indents that the lines made all the way through the wax until it hit the board.

I'm very happy with the results and looking forward to painting more! I love how this painting challenge made me think of moving in another direction-- it's just the pull I needed at the right moment.

Trick or Treat...

Halloween is my super-favorite time of the year! It's not just the ghouls, ghosts, and vampires that get me (although I really do love that part, too!) but it's the colors!


Fall is my favorite time of the year bringing into my head all the memories of my childhood. Halloween takes me back to elementary school parades dressed in the best costumes ever. And walking around at night trick or treating in the crisp autumn air. I see it, I feel it, and I smell it. And those colors just take me back!

So I had to make a set of encaustic paint that went along with those memories. The Candy Corn set of three wax paints is what resulted. I even photographed it on an old beat up grey chair to keep going along with the vision-- how I love it all!

This is also part of the Maine Team Halloween Scavenger Hunt -- join in, it starts today!!

A new home for Abe...

A few months ago I completed a series of ten paintings and immediately installed them in the Freeport Square Gallery in Freeport, Maine. The series is entitled "Mummies of the Civil War" and features prominent officers on each side of the fence. There are 5 Union men and 5 Confederate men, each molded into their own mummified form, to be preserved in their history for eternity.


The link between the Civil War images that I'm so drawn to and the history of encaustic paint going back to Egyptian times is what inspired these paintings. They each measure 10" x 22" and are on cradled birch.

Today I found out that Abe Lincoln sold-- hurray! I'll be posting more very soon-- still working on my website relaunch and on the class schedule and renovation of Sweetland Retreat.

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