Hot Wax, Cold Wind

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year...little late on the first but wishing you joy all the same. The last few weeks have been busy and full. Christmas was lovely, which is a fitting way to describe it with all of my mom's decorating. She did a wonderful, inspiring job with their house. I will post some pics of my house soon.

We were promised a big storm on Sunday and Monday. Sunday morning my sister-in-law and I went ice skating before the glassy ice got covered in snow. Of course, one can always shovel off part of the pond, but there are only a few days per year when one can glide across the whole service of the pond without impediment.

skating on puffers pond

ice pups!

After we ice skated we thoroughly expected our blizzard to come; couple days too late for a White Christmas, but better late than never. My philosophy with winter is, if it has to be cold there might as well be lots of snow to make it interesting. Unfortunately the storm did not produce and we ended up with 4-6 inches...a tad shy of the 12-16" promised. It was pathetic and I ranted at the storm to no avail.

For the last two days I have finally gotten back to my wax...what a great way to stay warm: huddled over a heat gun and hot palette. These pieces are experiments because I am pushing myself to paint only with wax, no acrylic underpainting. It is a different experience and I am learning a lot. These are two pieces I completed yesterday:

and now for something completely different: when this one was done I stood there scratching my head thinking, where did that come from?



These are two other pieces I started but they are in process...not sure where they are going yet.

Unfinished 1

Unfinished 2

This blue piece is one I made to be used as the cover image for the bulletins at our church's Blue Christmas service, which was for people who were mourning or feeling their losses more fully at Christmas time. A sad service, but really good in a wholesome, healing way. I did the bulletin covers for all of advent, but the rest were black and white graphics, not encaustic.



Today Ben and I are heading north in search of some deeper snow for some snowshoeing with the dogs. I am hoping to post pictures of our house and Christmas decorations tomorrow. And I am working on a post of things I am looking forward to in 2011...proving to be a really fun post to put together!