Fading Tara

Fading Tara, 24x24, 2016

This piece started as a more traditional portrait I painted a few years back. I'm in the process of reworking many of my older portraits as experiments for a series I've been developing over the past years called, "Traces". This piece started as an oil sketch then was layered with colored waxes, some drawing, and a charcoal impression of an ancient Roman tombstone that I did a rubbing from at the American Academy in Rome. Lots of subtracting.

Christine de Pizan

Christine de Pizan, encaustic, 36x48, 2016

Christine de Pizan was a woman who supported her family through writing, a rarity in the 1400's. Born in Venice, married at 15 and widowed by 25 Christine took up writing to support her mother and children. She was a philosopher and French poet.

Christine de Pisan: Epistles of Othea
1404-08
Manuscript (Ms. français 606), 360 x 270 mm (folio size)
Bibliothčque Nationale, Paris

Christine de Pisan: The Book of the City of Ladies
c. 1405
Manuscript (Ms. français 606), 360 x 270 mm
Bibliothčque Nationale, Paris

William Kentridge Drawings in Rome - Elegy of the Ephemeral - A Contemporary Wall Narrative

William Kentridge is brilliant! Here he creates an ephemeral piece titled, "Triumphs and Laments", by erasing the pollution and organic growth along the banks of the Tiber.

Scintillation

Scintillation

DRYAD

DRYAD, encaustic, mixed media, 2014

This painting is one of the largest encaustics I have ever worked on. It measures 4x5 feet. In 2010 it was a painting of Medusa based on Bernini's sculpture of the subject. (The locks of hair were once green snakes.) After looking at it for a while I decided to paint over the piece and morph it into something else. It never quite came together as a Medusa. What I love about encaustics is that you can  rework an old painting into something new with ease. All the previous layers just give the painting added depth and texture. Many of my paintings have hidden paintings underneath.

It will be displayed at Pech Merle Winery in Geyserville, CA through February, 2015. Drop by!

More Experiments with Abstraction from Big Sur

View from Esalen at Big Sur

It has been a rough semester so I haven't been able to paint since the week in September I spent at Esalen in Big Sur. As I was driving down the coast to do something life affirming, a friend was driving up the coast and off a cliff ending his life. I didn't find out about it until a day later. That week it was painting that kept me together.

Esalen is such a magical place. While I spent most of my hours painting I had many interesting, deep conversations with people from all over the world in the early morning and late at night. Something about Big Sur lends itself to deep reflection.

My goal when I left was to experiment with mark making the way we all do as children. I told myself that I would only make non-representational marks and nothing figurative. I just played without judging and felt free. In the next few weeks I hope to take what I learned from that week and apply it to my encaustic work.

Lost Techniques of the Ancients Textbook is published!

LOST TECHNIQUES OF THE ANCIENTS by HILLARY YOUNGLOVE | Make Your Own Book