A Change Is In The Air.

This is a small piece, maybe 7x8ish.  Its encaustic on a wood panel.  I like incorporating text in my paintings, I just like how it looks.  I've been rereading The Secret and maybe that's where this came from in my mind.
Whenever somebody mentions The Secret around here, then everybody gets on this bandwagon where if anybody happens to speak of something even remotely positive, inevitably somebody (sarcastically)  yells "secret"!  To get the full effect you've got to yell it in the same way people yell "oprah", and this is difficult to describe.  If you know what I'm even talking about, if you get it, well, sorry, because it becomes a habit and you'll find yourself yelling "secret!" a lot to the tune of "oprah!".   In this household it gets ridiculous because virtually everything can be traced back to the Secret in a Kevin Bacon sort of way.
Anyway, all this must have been going through my head when I painted this piece.

encaustic painting by tereSager

Pantyhose buffing:

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encaustic painting by tereSager

I saw this when I went out to feed the ponies this evening and it was too pretty not to take some pictures of.  This house was recently abandoned, but the lady's flowers still bloomed.  They've been gorgeous this summer.

Downtown, lazy sky.

Then later on there was a small campfire.  The air is crisp this evening.

If you have pets you've noticed these...

Its like they're dancing in the late summer sun.

Just looking for manes and tails and furry friends to latch onto.

Spiral brings me these in his long blond tail.  Special presents.

These are everywhere too.  Queen Anne's Lace, all over the place.  Its nice.

Hog Portrait for County Fair Season.

In honor of the fair season I thought I would share my farm hog portrait with you.  Its encaustic on a panel, approximately 13x13 ish.  I reworked it recently and like it much more now. 

Encaustic painting by tereSager

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This frame seems perfect for this daisy eater. 

Encaustic painting by tereSager. 

We were fortunate yesterday to have one of those western-sky days, where it goes on forever.  The clouds were fascinating.  I don't know what went on with my camera here, oops.

After I put my pig in his fancy frame I did this for a while.  Perfect.  There's a guy with a heart/cloud head in the sky if you look at it right.

Magical Places.

I am so fortunate to live in an area with many many magical places, one of which I visited last night...

Stuart's Opera House, on the square.  It takes you back in time when you visit Stuart's.

I like the sidewalk.

KebMo put on a real nice show.  This is a musically-gifted group and I don't know which one of them was more adorable.  They all were!  What a nice time.  I only snapped this one (rather lousy) picture inside the show.  There was no time for photos, the music was to be enjoyed.

The light was right very early this morning to photograph my own personal magical place, tere's Tunnel.  Here's what it looked like earlier, yes, that's my shadow.

The hay fields were all lit up but the actual tunnel only had a few sunlit areas inside.

So in I went.  It was still nighttime inside there.  Dark and quiet and very cool.  The only sound was the perfectly-still trees.  It was a nice way to start the day, quiet meditation in my own personal magical place.  My quiet meditation only lasted mere seconds, I had hungry ponies and teens to feed.  But those mere seconds will stay with me all day long.  Hey, get it while you can, like Janis recommends.

Down the road the day has begun, in here, still night.

Heinz Made a Mustard So French's Made A Ketchup.

Hilarious.  Mustard Wars.  I'm glad Corporate is finding things to do to keep their people off the streets. 

For the record, after my own personal taste test,  I like the French's mustard best and the Heinz ketchup best.  So its official here at my house, we'll stick with the tried and true from here on out.  I could have saved them all some time and energy.

Hot? Or Hot Mess?

Painting.  Sometimes it is so hard.  I want that thing to happen to this painting where I see the problem and know just what to do to fix it and I get so excited about it that I can't work fast enough.  Hasn't happened yet.  And here's the killer, not only is this a hot mess, but its a hot mess over a hot mess from before.  I kind of remember one before that even, way back in the haze.  I think its like that restaurant in Seinfeld, the location on the street that keeps getting restaurant after restaurant and they all go under.  Its not me, its this location.  Its this surface. Aha!

My teen said it was hot.  One vote hot.  One vote hot mess.   My husband said it was "cute", which basically means "I glanced but I'd really like to eat this sandwich in peace".   No matter who votes what, I'll go in again and do something to this.  And it will be radical because now I'm mad at the surface and I need to show it who's boss.  I feel like drilling holes completely thorough it and leaving it on the side of the road for a truck to run over then using the indentations from the tires as "texture".

Somebody out there might be saying, "its not that bad, I rather like it".  This may be true.  I mean, it won't make the MOBA or anything like that.  Its just
                                       uninspired .
 
Would somebody please flip the switch in the middle of my back?!!!?

Fancy Wax On A Vintage Bookcover.

I am a mixed media artist.  I happily use whatever medium best conveys the message.  (sometimes this is tricky to figure out)  Amongst all my experimentation lies one truth:  the wax is where its at.  Every time I go back to the wax its like coming home.
The wax is elusive, its mysterious, I'm always learning.  There is no rushing this process.  Wax is so satisfying.

This is one of the little bookcover paintings I've created this past week.  It taught me a lot, so the next group of paintings will be even more entertaining...!?!  Meanwhile I'll try to keep posting this group as they're ready.  Like I said, there's no rushing this process.

detail, encaustic painting by tereSager

Encaustic Painting on vintage bookcover by tereSager

btw, "vintage bookcover" is a fancy way to say "a book I rescued from a dumpster and took the cover off to paint a picture on".

Encaustic Hen And Egg.

I worked on this encaustic painting for the past several days.  This morning I got it out of the beer fridge all nice and cold, the wax very hard.   It made for some marvelous buffing.  I hope the layers show up in these photos.

12x12 Encaustic painting by tereSager

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