Don't you love it when artists share their processes, and the ways a painting gets started to where it ends up? I am a big fan of layers. I will be working on at least 5-6 paintings at once, all at different stages. That way, there is always something new to work on, my layers have time to dry before I start the next one, and if I don't like something I did, I can cover it up with the next layer.
Here is the next in my series, showing how my paintings grow from their beginnings, through their 'rough' phase, and to the finished painting. This is from my finished painting, 'Mantra'. It is one of my favorite paintings, so far. This one was, at the time I painted it, the largest painting I had attempted, at 12" x 24". I started with adding a lot of collage to cover up the white space. Some of that collage is made of the paper towels that I used to clean up my paint spills, some old maps, and some embossing foil. In the second photo, you can see where I peeled off the foil, leaving a shiny abstract landscape. I was having a yellow color moment, so I covered it mostly in a Cadmium Yellow, straight from the tube.
Then came a bit of green and a bit of red, and some etching of squiggles through the paint and layers. On top of all that, I added some gold encaustic wax, spreading it around randomly. And, finally, I added some white paint on top of it all, rubbing it in with my fingers so it appeared cloudlike, and also so you could see the layers below it.
© 2017 Kimberli Werner, “Mantra”, encaustic wax, collage, pastel, on gypsum board, 60cm x 30cm.
