Category: Plants

Encaustic paintings that incorporate organic material.

Among the Seaweed

The title came last.

This is a repurposed piece that had, once again, faded. Just spitballing, I added dried flowers and leaves to it, but nothing was working. It made me think of undersea life, though, and I went from there. It’s not my greatest fish piece (out of 2 so far, lol), but it was an important step and inspiration.

Yesterday’s Blooms

When I recently returned to the studio I had a packet of drying flowers leftover from the spring. Most of them — brace yourself — were a moldy, rotting sludge. I had pressed them between paper with no air flow. (Lesson learned.) The flowers on this piece were the ones that hadn’t decayed.

The substrate on this happens to be another of my repurposed pieces. Its former self, Sadko, was based on a painting I desperately wanted to honor. I missed the brief, though, and it had to go.

Memories of Spring

Half-completed before my summer hiatus, this rose piece still carries the color and intent of the earlier season. It lasted well!

And now comes my joke that I, too, am well-preserved. Today’s my 59th birthday. May your flower petals look ever fresh. Cheers!

Mum over Hibiscus

Another entry in the Mum series, lol! This is, naturally, a repurpose of this. The original piece, like all of my earlier organic art, dried to dust and faded away. I fear that the photo, with all the rich color, is not what the art looks like on the wall. My small pieces like this show much darker and disappear on display. I’ve found that a great way to appreciate these little morsels is to use the photo as phone or computer wallpaper. The detail is magnified. With my permission, please try it! I’ll let you know when I become famous enough to rescind the offer and charge for the screen grab. Hahaha!