Laughing Owl Studio Workshops
KANE - Various artisans and makers teach workshops at the big table in the Laughing Owl Studio front room.
The series aims to offer space for showcasing artisans by providing a workspace to share their talents with the community. You don't need any experience at all. The goal is to make anyone smile and encourage creativity in everyone.
Laughing Owl Studio Workshops have featured book-making, fire painting, and flytying art. Each workshop offers unique experiences to express yourself creatively and discover a new art form. The groups are small, so everyone gets the attention needed to make something special to take home. The materials are prepped and provided so participants can enjoy the creative process.
Encaustic is an ancient medium used in the Minoan and Mycenean cultures of the Aegean Sea and by the Roman-era Egyptians for the famous Fayum portraits. Encaustic paintings keep their luster for centuries. Educator and encaustic artist Mary Ryding led the workshop on “Painting with Fire.” Her website defines her work as being “inspired by nature, obsessed with color, and ruled by the process.”
The encaustic medium is created by cooking finely ground pigments in hot beeswax. The color sticks can then be applied to a rigid surface. Damar resin and beeswax are pigmented, and a heat gun fuses colors. This process is repeated to create several layers.
Only natural bristles or hair brushes are used as synthetics will melt in the hot medium.
The image emerges through the process and can be enhanced, but it’s not meant to be a realistic drawing. Various scraping and carving tools similar to those used in woodworking or clay sculpture refine details. Ryding instructed, “Paint, fuse, scrape, and repeat. Encaustic painting requires the artist to go with the flow. Once the wax and paint are liquid, the painting flows into form.” The surface is heated with a blow torch in between applying several wax and color layers. The final stage brings the image and colors into a cohesive painting. Heat is required to fuse the paint and wax across all the layers. Each artist must decide when to call it a finished painting. Art is in the eye of the creator.
Killer Cocktails by Dana offered an exclusive flaming drink to complement the Painting with Fire workshop. The custom mixture featured cream, Smirnoff Kissed Caramel, and Chila Orchata Cinnamon Cream Rum. Dana sprinkled cinnamon and heated the cocktail with a cooking torch, making the cinnamon spark. A flaming cocktail eased the participants into painting with fire.
Want to learn more about encaustic painting and our educator? Visit her website @ www.mrydingartworks.com
Discover future Laughing Owl Studio Workshops at the Big Table on Eventbrite or call Laughing Owl Press at (814) 5611191.