The Guardians

I've had a hard time getting my painting mojo back after the welcome interruption by family visits recently, but I've been through this enough times now that I don't sweat it; I just do something else for a while until whatever is on my easel decides to speak to me again. This week I worked with a lesson from a wonderful year-long video course I'm taking through https://www.essenceofmulranny.com/ called Painting With Fire. We are just a couple months into it, but so far the instructors have been top-notch and I'm learning loads about working with several different encaustic techniques. The most recent lesson was presented by Lyn Bel Isle, where she gave instruction on how to create a figure using plaster cloth, encaustic medium and other materials. Remarkably, I had everything I needed right in my studio, including a collection of clay faces I've made over the past year. For the figure on the left, I used a clay face, made a plaster cloth legs and body, added some eco-dyed paper for wings and brushed encaustic medium over parts. The one on the right has a body, arms and headpiece made from fallen bits of a palm tree in my front yard, along with a beautiful little sea-washed heart stone I picked up on the beach nearby. I love the dreamy, ethereal feel of these two figures. I feel like they are watching over me and giving blessings and shelter as I work.