Dear readers and Texas Wax members,
I have been making quite a few changes to the website since Wednesday, July 22nd. I am continuing to make changes as it becomes apparent that one thing or another could be improved, so bear with me. Your suggestions are very welcome, as is your patience with the current round of changes.
This entire website was designed and created entirely as a volunteer effort of the part of Haley Nagy and yours truly. Although the base for the site is a simple WordPress blog and website, we have installed about 50 plugins to extend the functionality and allow artists to blog and to control their own gallery pages and profile pages. So, it has become a very complex site — many of the plugins have to interact with each other, and some of the base code has to be modified — in itself no small feat for another painter such as yourselves!
For those members who have not yet embarked on the fascinating journey of getting your artwork and profile listed on the site, I will be sending out little to-do’s for you over the next few weeks — just 1 or 2 small things at a time.
Feel free to forge ahead, however. Instructions for how to do most of the things you may want to do on the site are located on the pages in the Members Only section, and you must be logged in to read these pages. Most of the same instructions are also located all on one page on the FAQs page; however, some of the information linked there is accessible to logged-in members only.
I thank you for your patience; as I change things on the site, I also have to change the instructions, so one thing may lag behind the other. Eventually, and hopefully soon, the changes will be done, and everyone will have their work on the site, and be comfortable working in this new technical environment.
As always, if you have any problems with the site, just shoot me an email. Any questions you have that you think would benefit others can be asked and answered on the FAQs page or in the Forum (forum has been removed due to lack of use).
Now to paint!
Your webmaster,
Marilyn
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New Space to Learn Ancient Art
Grand Opening at the Encaustic Center
Metroplex artists now have a new space in which to learn about encaustic painting, an ancient wax painting technique that has made a strong comeback in the last few years. Encaustic painting involves melting beeswax and a natural resin and then adding pigments to create colored paint. The wax paint is brushed on when it’s hot and once cool, can be scratched, scraped, and manipulated to create many interesting finishes.
The Encaustic Center is the result of a collaboration between artists Bonny Leibowitz and Deanna Wood. Leibowitz has been teaching drawing and painting classes at her Bonny Studio in Richardson for four years. When the space next door opened up, she contacted encaustic artist Deanna Wood and they turned the space into The Encaustic Center.
Bonny and Deanna, photo by Junanne Peck
“We wanted to create a space where we could teach workshops and classes, sell supplies, exhibit artwork, and generally spread the word about the flexibility and beauty of encaustic painting,” says Wood, who has been painting with encaustic for five years.
Leibowitz added, “Painting with wax is a beautiful and entrancing journey; giving the work an elusive glow. Creating with and teaching this process is joyous and allows for each person’s unique sense of expression.”
This August, The Encaustic Center is featuring Waxy 100, an exhibit of 100 encaustic works for under $100. The opening reception is scheduled for Friday, August 14 from 7:00 to 10:00 pm.
The Encaustic Center is now up and running at 580 West Arapaho, Suite 271, with Wood and Leibowitz offering workshops, workdays, supplies, exhibition space for encaustic artists, and soon offering the option for students to take ongoing weekly classes.
For more information, please visit The Encaustic Center’s website.
Wood Whispers by Deanna Wood
Into by Bonny Leibowitz
History & Hot Wax Encaustic Exhibit
Five members of the Texas Wax Austin group will have their paintings on display at the Museo Gallery in Northwest Austin from July 20 through October 18, 2009. Kristy Darnell Battani, Marilyn Fenn, Daphne Holland, Sharon Kyle Kuhn, and Roxi McCloskey Morris will be in attendance for the opening reception of their work, Thursday July 23, from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm. Wine and appetizers will be served, and there will be chances to win prizes during the reception.
Please join us at:
11266 Taylor Draper Lane
Austin, TX 78759
View Larger Map
The Cy-Fair Lifestyles and Homes magazine features Julia Koivumaa and Gwendolyn Punkett of the Texas Wax Houston group this month. The article, entitled “Ancient Art Form Sees Revival Due to Ready Availability of Electricity,” gives a great introduction to the subject of encaustic painting, and can be read at Cy-Fair Lifestyles and Homes.
Members of the Texas Wax Austin group met Saturday morning at the Dougherty Art Center from about 10:30am – 12:30pm. Here are the items we discussed:
- Committee Chair Positions: The deadline for expressing interest in serving as chairs or members of the Texas Wax committees of Education, Programming, Communications, and Development. Members from all area groups are encouraged to apply. Should you be interested in any of these, please send your info and area of interest to Sharon Kyle Kuhn by July 31st.
- August Meeting: The August meeting will be held at the Dougherty Arts Center at the usual time (10:30am – 12:30pm) on August 15th. Carolyn Todd will chair.
- September Meeting: Plans include:
- extended meeting time (10:30am – 1:30pm), to include lunch
- bring one piece of work to present to the group; each person will have 3 minutes for a focused talk about their piece
- bring a guest who may be interested in encaustic
- members of the other Texas Wax groups will be our guests
Read the rest of this entry
Eleven members of the Austin group of Texas Wax spent this past weekend heating things up in an encaustic painting workshop at Majestic Ranch in Boerne, TX. Carolyn Todd, Sharon Kyle-Kuhn, Maggie Jordan, Marianne Sexton, Roxi McCloskey, Kristy Battani, Daphne Holland, Dianne Talley, Kerry Washburn, Marilyn Fenn and David Pound met early Saturday morning in the hilltop classroom for the two day workshop. Roxie McCloskey gave several painting technique demonstrations, and the group exchanged various tips and techniques, but mostly the artists were quite immersed in painting.
Saturday night, after the day’s painting was done, the group enjoyed dinner out together at a brew pub in Boerne.
Many thanks to Roxi McCloskey and Daphne Holland for organizing this event, and to all the artists who took part. A special thanks to David Pound, for bringing a whole vanload of cool stuff to share with the other artists! It was a great weekend, and one that we hope will be just the first of many such workshops to come!
November 7th….Mark your calendars and plan to attend the first annual fundraiser for Texas Wax. Each associate member of Texas Wax will have up to 5 pieces of encaustic artwork in the show. The silent auction for the 10″ x 10″ x 1.5″ pieces will begin at $100 per piece and the highest bidder goes home with amazingly beautiful artwork. What fun for everyone and what a huge opportunity to purchase encaustic artwork. There will be live music, great food and lots of people present….plan to attend!!!! to be held at Bay6 Gallery and Studios in Austin, Texas—November 7th 7:00 p.m.-10:00 p.m. www.bay6studios.com
