Yesterday I met one of my 2011 brides for lunch at the Lillstreet Arts Center in Ravenswood. Lori and I met when we took an encaustic painting class together last spring at Lillstreet, so I was thrilled when I got an email from her a few weeks ago to inquire about shooting her upcoming wedding.
When I walked into the cafe I realized that I LONG time ago I said on the blog that I was going to post a shot of something I made in my class…and then forgot when wedding season went nuts-o. Better late than never – right?
Art is something that has always been a part of me. I can remember coloring & drawing with my dad almost every day when I was really young, and having a huge craft box that I’d pull out often. That grew into taking tons of art classes throughout High School and College. Sometime last year I started missing those classes so I decided to register for a class at Lillstreet. After drooling over their course list (it was really hard for me to choose just one!) I chose Encaustic Painting because I’d never tried it before.
Turns out, painting with melted wax is pretty hard! Its way different than acrylic, oil or watercolor…just a completely different technique. Below is my first attempt…class number one. See all those holes? Its not really supposed to look like that.

What I love about encaustics is that you can build up layers to create texture, and you there is a bit of transparency to some of the layers to create a really unique effect. On the bottom right is a wax painting with some images transferred into the layers. I used some shots of Jamie and I on our wedding day, the eiffel tour (taken on our honeymoon) and a couple of images from Unalakleet (the Alaskan village where we both lived during the year we were engaged). That one is probably my favorite, because to me it tells a story.So there you go. Don’t judge them too harshly – they’re purely for fun, and the only place they’ll ever be displayed is in our apartment : )

PS Its been a long time since I blogged last…too long really. Sorry about that! Thats one of my New Years resolutions – to not let my blog grow stale by leaving 2 week old posts sitting around.