Polymer & Resin Results

Originally uploaded by joycehillstudio

Yesterday was my first attempt at adding a polymer resin finish on my work. I saw this process on many works at the recently attended LA Art Fair. Artists in LA go to surf shops and have professionals apply this finish to their works. We have no surf shops in Buffalo. I of course want to try it myself to see if it would be a good finish for my recent graffiti paintings I am working on. The way I work it is not really the best addition to my paintings due to the depth and additions I add to the surface. Most of the paintings with this finish were flat and a even surface where as mine can vary going up and down quite a bit. So yesterday I mixed up this material and tried just pouring it onto the surface of a older painting. I did this as a 50/50 mix and made sure I was in a well ventilated area as the fumes can be dangerous. I poured slowly starting at the lowest point on my work making sure the area was flat and clean. The excess that happened could be cut off after this process. It took about three hours to totally harden on a 24″ x24″ painting and not tacky to the touch. After seeing it on a actual painting I would like a square edge on the sides of the work. This was how the pieces looked in the LA show. They looked like a piece of eighth inch plexi glass was on the top. This means I will have to build a mold so the art sits within it tightly to get this results. This is a continuing learning process and once the mold is made with my husband’s help I will try again. My first priority is to finish the four works I am considering for this coating first. I will post my next experiment in a few weeks. If anyone has any experience with polymer resin please comment or write and share your experiences. Thanks!

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Originally uploaded by joycehillstudio

My recent trip to LA and the LA Art Fair 2010 opened my eyes to some new materials. Many of the artists in California are now finishing their paintings with a thin coat of polymer resin. I was told by one of the gallery curators there that this is done for them at surf shops. This is the same coating put on boards there to protect the wood. The material dries clear and is another way of protecting my collaged paintings without a frame. This practice has been used by photographers before but to my knowledge not by painters or mixed media artists. I am currently working on a graffiti series on a 24″ x 24″ frame with board, watercolor paper and foam core attached to it. My work has always included digging into the foam core, removing parts of it, and inserting photos or collage as the subject matter. I then have added acrylic paints, spray paints, and gel medium building a composition as I go along. The adding of this new material “resin” to the final piece has changed my work a bit. I can not dig down too deep into the foam core as it becomes hard to get a even coat of the resin on top, without bubbles forming around the deepest parts of the surface. I am now just going down a paper depth to add my subject matter. This forces me to explore other ways to get the depth to my pieces with acrylic or collage. I like a challenge! Images and more info on the pouring process of the resin tomorrow on this blog.

Yesterday was a day of exploring my images taken while in LA for subject matter, in my continuing series on graffiti. I printed out more than 30 images in various sizes and papers. I am a collage artist and therefore mix and match my images. It is like a puzzle to me fitting pieces together to get my idea across in the finished work. I look at color, shapes, and textures to put these images together. A graffiti artist with his spray paints approaches a building or wall in the same way. They are stating their feelings in words and expressions with spray paints and I on canvas am doing the same. I am also using polymer resin as a new material over the finished works. This is done on the west coast by surf shops. I am attempting to do this same process in my basement. I will have another blog on this subject in the future. Today my canvas is ready and I will be a starting the next process of adding and subtracting paints and images. I love this challenge.

This photo is one of many I took while crawling through old cages of the abandoned 1910 old LA Zoo. The location in Griffith Park where the new zoo is located was a wonderful trip through some of the best examples of graffiti I have seen to date. I am curious about graffiti and its impact on our lives. The visual impact of letters, colors, textures, and layers is to a collage artist like me a “feast” for my eyes. My daughter Alyssa who lives and works in LA found it for me. I will be starting on Monday my journey as a artist to take these photos and incorporate them into a series of new works for upcoming exhibitions this year. I also while in LA went to many shows the biggest being the annual LA Art Fair. This show I try to always attend as it feeds my need for new techniques on materials to use, presentation, and just what is happening in other art worlds besides Buffalo. I hope everyone on Facebook will check out all my photos from the old zoo and if your not my friend or fan check me out at joyce hill studio mixed media paintings to be a fan or Joyce Hill. I will be posting updates on this painting journey so check back! p.s. encaustics also will be in these new works so see how I approach using it.

Here I am in LA visiting and getting new ideas for my graffiti series of paintings. I love this city and the ideas for works I see everywhere. The city having many “tagged” buildings by gangs makes it very easy getting my creative juices flowing on the subject. This building downtown is a great example for a composition. The colors and shapes on the surface of this building I shot downtown seems perfect to me for my mixed media painting approach. There is no visual written graffiti on the building but plenty of visual stimulation in the colors and textures for me to add a tag myself in the finished work. I will be adding more images here that spark my imagination as a starting point for a great series of paintings.

I am excited to introduce my newest work combining the use of encaustics and collage. This past summer I attended a three day workshop at R&F Encaustics in Kingston, NY to learn about using wax in my work. I am always looking for ways to improve my work. I visit my daughter and the LA Art Fair every year and have seen encaustic as a medium used by artists there. Buffalo, NY has very few artists here using wax. Why, I do not understand, but plan with this series to introduce encaustics to our city. I started out purchasing the tools needed to get started with this process. The two most important tools are a aluminum hot palette and a electric skillet. The palette and skillet I purchased from Target. The palette you use for keeping your mixed colors in metal cups and your composition board warm. Sticks of colored wax, refined bleached beeswax, brushes, and boards can all be purchased from R&F Encaustics or many art supply stores online. You also will need a Wagner Hot Gun and a tacking iron which can be purchased at hardware stores. You began with the set up of all your tools. The grill and skillet must have a temperature gauge on it and both kept at 200 degrees. This temperature must be kept through the work process at all times to end up with the encaustic adhering to the board. I began this piece by having a work station set up on a folded table in my studio. This is a lot of preparation before you began to paint. I get the skillet and hot plate plugged in and up to 200 degrees first then put metal cups(R&F) on the skillet and part of a color stick in the cup beginning to create a color palette. I put my encaustic gessoed panel prepared ahead of time, (optional but like a white ground to work on), on the hot plate and heat it up. When you apply wax you must do a process called fusing and this is done by adding a clear layer of wax so that it bonds with the preceding layer. This is where the heat gun and tacking iron comes in that was listed in my materials at the beginning of this blog. I start by applying a clear coat of wax to the gessoed board then fusing with the gun or iron trying not to overlap your strokes to insure a even surface to work on. I will continue with photos of this process tomorrow. Questions? please leave them.

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Originally uploaded by joycehillstudio

I was going through my whole year of photos taken in 2009 and the idea to post a album of my favorites came to mind. I will be starting a new series of works in January and these photos will help decide the direction I will go. I am still very interested in graffiti and the idea of it appearing randomly on walls within spaces in our every day landscape. I plan to explore this idea with acrylic, canvas, metal and my newest tool encaustic. I am looking forward to posting these new works to my blog but for now this is a beginning….see you in 2010.

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Originally uploaded by joycehillstudio

Yesterday I was back in the studio for the second day to continue on the path of exploring using encaustics. I am planning to add this material to my work as another collage element. I started by warming up my tools for applying and sealing the wax. You must take the time to do this before beginning to work. It takes about 10 minutes to warm up my electric skillet to 200 degrees. The skillet contains unbleached wax in a block purchased from a online store. Next you need to heat up your electric griddle to 200 degrees. You use the griddle to mix paints into the encaustic for color which is your palette. You must use encaustic paints which I purchased in basic colors also sold in blocks. I also keep my base of the collage either a wooden board or sturdy base on the griddle to keep warm while you apply wax and seal the collage to the composition. I will in the next week post a small video showing how I work for a better explanation of applying to the collage. I added a figure of a headless man and table from my archive of photos on my computer. These were attached with a dab of wax then sealed over with a brush of wax from my clear wax base in the skillet. So far working the way I always do placing a subject moving it around on the surface then attaching it once I find it works with the background collage. I have no path before hand planned out for the composition. I did find that some pieces of collage which have a coating on it from a magazine or book do not work well. The wax does not hold onto the base with these pieces. I only had a hour’s worth of work here as my day was pretty busy. I continue to enjoy the process and can not wait to see where this process takes me next on this piece. Questions? What do you think? I would love to hear from you so leave a few words out there….

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Originally uploaded by joycehillstudio

The snow has begun in Buffalo which means I am freezing and need my warm cozy studio to hole up in. I went to a workshop on encaustics this past summer and loved it. My schedule has not allowed me to do any work with it up until now. This picture featured is a beginning done yesterday. I plan on adding more to this image but think it is working fairly well for one day as a base for the work. My goal is to be able to take the encaustic pieces I create and incorporate it into many other collage elements, attaching them with acrylic gel medium in the end. This piece started with some vegetable made paper. Idipped it in the wax then added other pieces of paper and type to it right on my hot plate. I have to take it slow so as not to burn myself and plan on working on this process till I can do it in my sleep. The most important thing I have found so far is having your griddle at 200 degrees at all times. This keeps the wax flexible enough to work with and apply. The hot gun is also a tool to get used to. Yesterday I set the collage on fire at a few points being too close fusing things together. I will show also starting Monday on my blog my process on this piece and work on a few more images getting use to the tools and wax. Any tips out there from artists working with wax I would greatly appreciate too.

a hard month of production in my studio

Originally uploaded by joycehillstudio

I have in the month of November produced 12 small 5″ x 7 ” postcard size m/m works for gift shows in the area. My studio tells the tale in this photo taken yesterday. I start today with a clean up and a month of experimentation with wax. I went with a artist friend this summer to a workshop at the Women’s Studio Workshop on printmaking and encaustic. The printmaking part was interesting with new techniques to use on your press. I unfortunately have no press! So as much fun it was to work on a press again I am not about to buy one. The encaustic part of the week was something I fell in love with in only a few days. I learned about new tools and techniques in using wax which is a new medium for me. I love to experiment and am all about the process as you can see from my work. I after getting back this summer immediately went to the web and bought all the essentials to start working in the wax process. I now have a table and station set up to begin the process. My goal with three shows happening for me in 2010 is to combine encaustics as another collage element in my work. I know water and wax do not mix but am convinced I can get the wax as another element in my work to become a transparent addition to the composition. I will be writing about the process in coming blogs for all you mixed media painters out there. Wish me luck !