This painting has always been my bread and butter so I've done it before but always in oil paints using the indirect method on the salmon and acrylic gel medium on the raven.
I was not satisfied with the top part so I gave the raven more dimension and texture, carved the swirls, added gold leaf it was going well the art looked much more refined and finished and I'm feeling satisfied with the work.
Its getting late after midnight and I get the bright idea to melt some pharmaceutical grade bees wax about 1 pound and I add some damar resin for hardness and heat it up to abouut 280 degrees. Then I made a trough out of duct tape around the salmon and when the wax was hot enough I just poured it all over my hours and hours of work. WoW. The idea was the wax will dry clear and it would be as if you are looking through the water at a salmon swimming by giving it a more aquatic effect. Oh my God! what a mistake its all white and dosen't look like it's going to dry clear, so I go to bed fretting about the mess I made out of my work.Yes when I get up it was covered in white wax and not transparent like I'd planned. No it was all murky and cloudy. Now I've been scrapping with a razor tool for hours trying to reveal the salmon and the beautiul water effects I had created. Before the salmon had some wonderful interesting texture now its smooth as glass.
What a bother, the problem is I was attempting to create a masterpiece to enter in the Anchorage Museum annual show ......
EARTH FIRE AND FIBER XXVI
This is what it looks like after hours of scrapping somewhat of a watery effect but not all that cool either. The feelings that I want to portray with the Raven and Salmon is as above so below, yin and yang, conscious,subconscious, chaos and calm the dualisizm in nature those kind of thoughts.
I am in the process of making a nice box frame out of oak.
The deadline for the entry's are August 31st they will first judge the digital entries so I must finish in time and then take a professional photograph for the judging. My camera is getting old and needs duct tape, I will need a better camera. An overcast day etc. These photographs are too dark and do not show the depth and texture of this encaustic wax painting. I will post my best pictures as soon as I take them. I've got alot of work to do on Raven and Salmon before it's ready to enter in the exhibition. There is not a catergory for encaustic wax but I'm hoping they will overlook that since encaustic embodies the theme. Earth fire and Fibre
The catergories are:
- Bone/Ivory Fibre.
- Glass
- Stone
- Metal
- Skin/Gut
- Wood
- Metal
- Plasitc
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