'self portrait at 11' ~ colored pencil, watercolors, goauche, black gesso, beeswax, and oil and soft pastels on tracing paper

i've been working on tracing paper again - this time with beeswax - and really loving it.  the possibilities are just about endless when you combine the two...

 what it looks like without a white background behind it...

'a brief moment at 45' ~  same ingredients as above

i love to scratch into the beeswax with an awl, put black paint over the scratched out places, then rub off the extra paint.    it's a lot of fun...  : )

and i've finally started a new 'daily book'...  when i left for virginia i thought i'd start a new stillman and birn 'gamma', but i hardly worked in it.   last week i decided that what i really wanted to work in was an old book, and once i made that decision it was full steam ahead.  the name of the book is 'gold dust', and there's a pic of it in the sidebar...

two summers ago i worked in an old book and used beeswax on a lot of pages...  to see how they'd held up i got the book out...   everything looked exactly as it did two years ago.  the paint on top of the beeswax has held up beautifully, and the PYM II fixative that i used hadn't flaked off or discolored.  

there's a post here about PYM II and beeswax if you want to know  more; and there are pics of pages with beeswax on them.

the other thing i did last week was (finally!) take the time to figure out how to use my canon selphy printer without having to hook it up to my computer.  it couldn't be easier!    i can print up to eight images on one 4" x 6" piece of paper, but four per sheet is just the right size.   i'm *really* happy to be printing and using pics in my daily book again!

i'd just put wax on the face when i took this pic...

gouache, oil pastels, pan pastel, watercolors and black gesso on beeswax in my daily book

this is what she looks like now, after outlining, getting rid of the hat, massive quantities of paynes grey gouache (her hair), and covering up those lovely flowers on her neck...

wild geranium

besides that i'm still going out

and seeing so much...

* * *

 “I never wish to be easily defined. I’d rather float over other people’s minds as something strictly fluid and non-perceivable; more like a transparent, paradoxically iridescent creature rather than an actual person.”

~ Franz Kafka,  from a diary entry dated 23 March 1914

'carla' ~ watercolors, gouache, oil pastels and black gesso on heavy watercolor paper, 5" x 7"

thinking about what i wanted to include in this post, it felt impossible to leave my trip to virginia out entirely - even though it seems lifetimes away now!   so i'll show a little of my trip, and what i've been up to since then.  but before i start, i want to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone for your comments on the last two posts.  thank you for your kind and thoughtful  words!

pink dogwoods in the rain

i took this pic on my first day in virginia - the dogwoods were in full bloom, and, as you can see, there's a rainbow.   i  *love* dogwoods...

just before i took the dogwood pic, carole and i were hiking and saw a lot of trees with these flowers on them.  they were incredibly beautiful and i'd never seen them before.  i now know they were paw paw trees...     i love the flowers and i love to say 'paw paw'.  according to wikipedia they have a mango like fruit. i would *so* be checking these trees out in early september if i lived there!

carole looking for shells

early in my trip my sister, brother, mother and i went to the outer banks of north carolina where we stayed in a beach house for a week. it was too cold to swim, so we did a lot of beach combing...

l to r - my brother, me, my sister

we  also looked at lighthouses - here we are at the top of hatteras lighthouse.  the park ranger who took this pic had an anemometer - the wind was blowing about 30 m.p.h....

my mom on another windy day of sightseeing...

carole and i drew on a lot of shells...   she drew all of these lighthouses - all four outer banks lighthouses are  here.

we drew on *a lot* more...  these are just a few...  

my favorite piece of 'beach art'...   carole  drew/colored the face with prismacolor pencils, and i went over the white with a signo gel pen to make it pop more.  it's on a piece of found copper and the turquoise hair is the natural copper patina.

the atlantic ocean!!

my brother and sister

back in the mountains i stayed with mom for a while and then back to carole's.  this pic was taken on a day hike on the appalachian trail.  it's so green there!

i left a stick behind...

indian paintbrush

after i recovered from a long trip home, i went out walking to see what i could see.   as you know if you've been reading my blog for long, i live next to a national forest so i have miles of walking outside my door.

i've walked high,

and i've walked low.

i've seen so much beauty,

and left some sticks, shells and rusty stuff behind.

in progress...

i've been drawing and painting a little...

one thing i know for sure

'tippi' ~ watercolors, gouache, oil pastels and black gesso on heavy watercolor paper, 5" x 7"

is that i love to paint soulful faces...