This evening I emailed my sketchbook class encouraging them to get their sketchbooks out in the rain and experiment with what would happen if they tinted a page with some graphite and let a few rain drops fall.  This was just a whim of an idea, nothing I had ever tried myself….. so i tried it!

Here’s the tinted page indoors…

some rain drops, but not much is happening… the graphite is acting a bit like a resist.  Maybe I should have known this from art school?  Oh well, back indoors….

I add some Golden Absorbent Ground (a magical medium that makes cool things happen) to the right side of the page along with a few streaks of watercolor and go back out into the rain.  It’s beginning to get dark out but I like what happens….

Here is the book indoors.

Here… is what a raindrop is capable of given the right opportunity on the page.  I am inspired by this because it reminds me of what attracts me most to the medium of encaustic.

Below are a few new-ish pieces of work that have recently come off the wax table.  Any feedback or comments are always welcome.  I continue to be in experimentation mode with this medium….

I have been thinking a bunch lately about rivers, hearts and veins.

Meanwhile there is a lot happening in the sketchbook world… Drawing Down the Vision is near ready for launch and I am putting together a travel sketching workshop to my beloved soul home, Taos, NM which will happen in the spring if there is enough interest in it.  I am inspired by my new students at the Art Academy as I get to know them. Teaching is one of my greatest sources of creativity.

Wishing you fun in the rain…. as always, I will keep you posted as things progress.