ENCAUSTIC Workshop & Retreat 

Spend the weekend in a beautiful venue with an air-conditioned cabin to learn encaustic painting and spend free time hiking trails along a river, cooling off in a pool and relaxing at night in a hot tub with a glass of wine.

There will be three sessions on Saturday with breaks for lunch, dinner and free time. On Sunday we will begin with breakfast then have a session. After breaking for lunch, participants will have the afternoon to work on their own or enjoy the surroundings or both. The instructors will be on hand Sunday afternoon during free time for any questions or help. If you want to hike on Sunday, a bag lunch with sandwich and drink will be prepared for you.

In this workshop you will learn the basics and some.

• Materials needed to begin working in encaustics.
• What type supports to use and how to prepare them.
• Creating colored wax from earth pigments.
• Embedding objects, fabric or paper into the painting.
• Fusing layers and learning heat control.
• Inscribing and making texture.
• Applying alcohol ink.

LOCATION: Horseshoe Farm, Westfield, NC, Stokes County
DATES: Saturday & Sunday. Three dates this year from which to choose: Aug 13/14, Sept 17/18, Oct 15/16.
$300:  Includes all materials  and overnight accommodations in an air-conditioned cabin. Saturday lunch & dinner, Sunday breakfast and lunch. You have access to the hiking trails, swimming pool and hot tub.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTORS:
Jude Lobe is an artist and graphic designer.  She has been involved in art one way or another most of her life. In 2006 with 14 other artists, she began the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts and since then has been working full-time as a visual artist. Lobe has been working in encaustics for over five years and in cold wax & oil for over 10 years. Her artworks are predominately expressionistic. Her respect for nature has been the inspiration throughout her life. She concentrates on evoking the emotion of a scene through brush strokes, color glazes, lines, texture and using a rich palette suggested by the surroundings. "My intention is for the painting to capture a fleeting moment offering a timeless remembrance that we hold in our memory."
Lobe works in various mediums including enamels, oil, collage, clay and cold wax & oil as well as encaustics. Lobe's awards this past year include winning 1st place in 2D in an Alamance Artisans Guild exhibit at the Center for Creative Leadership. And also was accepted in a National Juried Show, Bank of the Arts Annual Juried Exhibition.

Carol Engler began painting in her late 20's. She studied art in New York under the tutelage of John Groth, an artist, artist-correspondent, first art director of Esquire Magazine and illustrator who illustrated many books, including Gone With the Wind and All Quiet on the Western Front.

"Living in New York City and a farm called Horseshoe in North Carolina gave me an extraordinary and colorful experience with nature, animals and the city life." People, animals and family scenes are Engler's favorite subjects. "I never tire of watching people interact in airports, theaters, beaches and cities." Engler's intention is to touch the viewers' emotions through an image. "For me, art is a liberation of my creative soul and hopefully - for the viewer - an opening of the mind and a raising of the spirit."

Engler was founder and owner of the Packhouse Studio in Westfield, NC. She's had several one woman shows and belonged to several galleries over the years. Presently, Engler is a member of Associated Artist's and the Sawtooth Center of Winston Salem.

For more information or to REGISTER, go to http://ColdWaxandOil.com/workshops

SUN OVER THE MOUNTAINS

Click on image to visit Enamel Website

This piece, part of my wood block series, is my way to show respect to the power of change on this planet. It's an honor to the glorious mountains, like the Rockies, the Alps and the Appalachians, that are formed by folding creating ridges and valleys. (Folded mountains are created when two tectonic plates come together causing them to rise out of the earth.)

This is enamel on copper. The mountains were formed by folding, forging and enameling with blue enamels given to me by my friend and silversmith, Jeannine Rogers. 

Meditation on ZEN RIVER

Zen River is an enamel piece I did for an art show. It grew from meditations. It is an expression of how I feel about nature. The nature of a river is to continually move forward. It picks up objects along the way and deposits them further down its journey. It changes course but always moves forward. It grows from gaining water from different sources along its way. 

It seems obvious that a river is a symbol of our own journey through life. And so it will become a recurring theme in my art. This piece has a river rock attached to the bottom. I leave the symbolism of the river rock up to the viewer. The attachment at the top is a spiral. The Celtic symbology includes Evolution and holistic growth, letting go, surrender and release as well as connectivity with natural energy.

In the past I have always kept myself busy. But at the end of the day if I would ask myself, "what did I do today?",  I found it hard to articulate what exactly I accomplished. It became clear that I needed to re-evaluate the process by which I ran through each day. I began to take time in the morning to sit quietly and reflect. Amazingly enough, taking that 20 minutes to be silent has helped me gain a sense of connection with the world outside me, become more productive and feel less stress. 

I am now setting goals, not just long term goals, but daily goals and at the end of the day I feel more joy and peace of mind. My goals may be a simple as catching up with a friend for tea, getting a package mailed or taking a walk. 

PLAYING WITH FIRE

 

Last month I was working on pieces for my REFLECTIONS exhibit where I was a featured artist along with fabric artist, Ali Givens and sculptor, Renee Leverty. It encouraged me to stop and smell the roses so to speak. I began scheduling time to "reflect" about what my priorities were in life, what feeds my soul and keeps me balanced. I began a series of paintings and enamels that at first appeared diverse, but in looking at them as a whole, it became clear that nature and it's ability to renew itself was a continuous thread in all my work. 

The vessel above began as a flat piece of copper. Heated, forged and enameled, it took form as representation of enclave of a micro-eco system where fire begat the resurgence of new growth. 

When we come upon hard times, we should look to nature for solace. Nature always rebounds. We need to respect it's ability to do so. 

The sad case for people who have lost homes in the flooding in Louisianna points that out. However, if we respected the Mississippi's route in the beginning, it wouldn't have impacted man. Nature, in the end, will win. What we can learn is that we are a part of nature and if we persevere, we too will rebound from hard times.

HOW TO MAKE A ROOM COME ALIVE

Click on image to go to website. 
How to make a room come alive? Putting large colorful pieces of art on you walls can bring life and energy into a room in a similar way as plants, animals, or music can. Warm tones or spiritual themes can comfort and uplift the overall mood of the room.  When choosing where to place your art,  imagine it on a wall where you would like a window with light shining in. Compliment the room with artwork that has hints of the same color, but don't overdue it. Choose a theme that turns the energy of the room in the direction you want to go. Energy is very important. Ask yourself what mood or memory does that piece of art that speaks to you conjure up? Think about the rooms in your home that you want that mood or memory and you've figured out where to hang it.
This painting is now on exhibit and available for sale at Hillsborough Gallery of Arts. It's acrylic on linen, 24 X 36 X 1.5. 919-732-5001.