CLUTCH in the studio

CLUTCH!

April looks on...in approval?

Desiree working it out

Desiree's collage, in progress

So Saturday was great. I ran a workshop for the lovely ladies of CLUTCH, who get together to explore their identities as young Filipina women living in Toronto in various arty ways. Apparently the encaustic was a welcome break from the exhausting work of movie production ( I don't know...it's sounds kind of cool to me). Desiree and Flerida, and later April and Kristina, came by the studio to do some encaustic collaging. Desiree brought a ton of personal material to incorporate, and was doing a bang up job of bringing it all together: her many homes, the images and objects that connect them, music... Flerida was working more with found photos and quotes, but I have a feeling she'll still end up with something that expresses a totally individual outlook- the images and words she was working with were beautifully strange.

I stole the last photo from Desiree's own blog post, which you can find here. Hopefully they'll send me more photos of the finished collages. That's right guys, I'm talking to you. You better deliver.

Encaustic Workshops in October

I think hot wax is a good companion to cool October weather. So let's say October is officially Wax Awareness month, which I'm celebrating by offering some new classes and workshops.

So many things to choose from:

Full day workshops in encaustic painting and collage (on the weekends).

A Five week course in encaustic painting (during the week, daytime or evening).

Private Classes (whenever it suits you).

If you've already taken an encaustic workshop with me and would like the chance to practice without investing in your own equipment, then you'll be happy to hear that I'm now offering open studio time. For a few bucks an hour you can rent the full encaustic set up- hot plate, heat gun, exhaust fan- and work at your own pace.

If you see something you like but the timing doesn't work out, let me know. I'm pretty flexible.

Click on the image above for more info.

All classes take place at Leah Gold's studio in downtown Toronto, which is surrounded by delicious places to go for lunch. That's important information when deciding what to do with a precious Sunday afternoon.

My giant head

before I came to the Illustration Academy I was working on this double portrait of Jeff and myself. encaustic on birch panel, about 3.5 feet high.