33 Artists in 3 Acts

if you have any time to read over the holidays or are looking for a book about art as a gift you might want to check out "33 artists in 3 acts" by sarah thornton.  thornton is also the author of the best selling "seven days in the art world". she seems to know everyone and really gets around. this new book is divided into three sections with fairly short narratives on a number of different artists and their art. the only artist that has used encaustic in his work is francis alys although i think this is mostly in mixed media collage type creations. one of the questions thornton  likes to ask each artist is "what is an artist?" and like in any mix of people some artists are more eloquent than others.  their words might encourage you to think of your own creative process and what it means to you and others.

best wishes for the new year, keep on creating!

results & jackson labs installation

so did the painting  "flag" by jasper johns  go beyond the estimate? yes it did-$36,000,000.00.
what can you say- just amazing.
     fyi-just several photos (courtesy of g. feller photography) of my paintings collected by the new jackson laboratory for genomic medicine.

jasper johns- flag (cont)

this is your last chance-sotheby's  contemporary art evening auction is on tonight, 6:30 in nyc-just in case you wanted to bid on this iconic painting by an american master. for those of you who paint with encaustic here is a good closeup of the painting showing the brush strokes and the one other fact that i learned is that the painting was actually done on a silk flag. being a small painting it may not set any records but you never know what might happen in the art world.

detail from flag, jasper johns, courtesy sotheby's

jasper johns-salute

in his late 80's jasper johns continues his creative journey that began in the 1950's-may we all be so lucky. on 11/11 sotheby's will auction one of his iconic american flag paintings from 1983. the encaustic painting is approximately 12" x 18" and quoting  a sotheby's spokesperson "the surface is so rich you just can't help but want to touch it." as encaustic artists many of know this reaction to the unique qualities of the surface and that is why we, in part, choose it.
the estimate for flag, 1983 is $15,000,000.00-$20,000,000.00. so rich is right!

introduction to encaustic on 9/6

come and join us at silvermine school of art for my one day workshop and learn all the basics of encaustic painting. 10:00 - 3:00, small class for individual attention and time to work hands-on. for further info go to  www.silvermineart.org or call 203-966-6668, ext.2

parrish art museum and more

had the recent opportunity to visit south hampton and in particular the new parrish art museum and the international art fair "art southhampton". both quite impressive for different reasons: the design of the parrish is very interesting using only three materials with beautiful gallery spaces and the fair exhibited a wide variety of work and techniques. somewhat disappointing- the only encaustic work that i saw was at the museum and is by michelle stuart. any thoughts on this?

parrish art museum, south hampton

encaustic by michelle stuart

hot wax in july

i have an introduction to encaustic painting on july 19th at the silver mine arts center. working with encaustic in the summer heat can be a lot of fun since we can fuse our work by letting the sun's rays heat the surface instead of fusing with a heat gun. it helps to work on several pieces at a time since while  one is fusing you can work on another and keep switching them back and forth. hope you give it  a try. and just like a black car in the summer absorbs more heat than a white one so will a dark colored painting fuse more quickly.
by the way if you haven't seen sigmar polke's show at moma the show is probably a once in a lifetime chance to see this master of materials range of work from the 60's right thru until his passing.