Downtime and the New Year

By rsamiljan | December 15, 2019 |

2019 is coming to an end and I can not believe how quickly the time is passing!

I survived my first participation in the One of a Kind Holiday Show and with much success will look forward to returning next December. The attendance was incredible, I loved that the show was four days long, and because it occurs at the beginning of holiday season the atmosphere is more festive than the summer shows I have done in the past. A big bonus – weather is a non-issue, the show is held indoors, on the 7th floor of the Chicago Merchandise Mart.

A woman holding a ribbon in front of many paintings.

My Booth, #2140

I also had time before the show to attend a three day pastel workshop hosted by the Chicago Pastel Painters, taught by Casey Klahn. I have been following Casey on social media for over a decade, and it was a treat to finally meet him and learn about soft pastels. I have just started exploring this medium and plan on combining pastel with encaustic monotypes. The more I use pastels, the more I am inspired.

Rocky Shoreline
soft pastel on board
18″ x 24″

I am experimenting with the different papers and boards that allow the pastels to be the best they can be. Above, I used a pastel board thinking the encaustic medium would be easy to incorporate but I wasn’t happy with the stiffness in regards to the pastel dust. I decided not to add encaustic as I think the pastel would act like a barrier between the wax and the board.

Below, I added soft pastel to an encaustic monoprint on a Japanese Sekishu paper and I loved the way the pastels combined. I will continue to explore the combination of monotypes using encaustic and pastels.

Glow
mixed media on Sekishu
36″ x 25″

After the new year, my next exhibition is “The Sum of the Parts” with the FUSEDChicago group at North Central College in Naperville, IL. I am exhibiting the Roadways Series, inspired after visiting Ireland. Each time I created a roadway composition, I thought about the wide open landscape, and the simplicity of color. I was on the west coast, and it felt like every road either led to the ocean or to the various shades of gray rocks in the Burren.