Anna Podris- works in progress

We are all castles.

2012-02-06T15:10:00.000-08:00

This is one of two that I started with oils. I painted the background with oils because I was looking for a smoother color transition. Also I painted the women with oils as well. Once the oil paintings were dry, I superimposed drawings over the faces. The drawings were done with ink on rice paper. The idea is to create physical layers that express the layers in psyche.

The second in this series, next to an oil painting I am working on.

Traveling..... mentally anyway.

Here are the two women inside their mentally constructed castles.

Later that day I added a bird and vines and a flower to this one.

Bugs and flowers here, along with flying birds. This one has a very radial composition.

January, month of re- envisioning.

2012-01-17T16:19:00.000-08:00

This painting had been hanging out in the studio for a while, supposedly "done", when I started having new ideas for it. I wanted to try out a stencil pattern idea, so I worked a little more in the sky. It was leaning against the wall, in flux, with me not sure what to do next.

The great thing about my art friends is they are all pretty generous about sharing ideas. I've had friends help me out of some sticky situations many a time with my work. Sometimes fresh eyes can see the obvious in a painting more clearly. I love it when my friends name my work for me because this can often be the hardest part for me.

The great thing about being married to an artist is there is always someone to ask. Keith gave me the great idea to paint a floating city. I'm having so much fun using mixed media for this too. Rice paper, fabric, National Geographic photos, ect. I'm also building up the clear to create a hazy sensation. See this one in its previous incarnation

. This one has taken a long time to come about. It has a long way yet to go I think. Some are fast, some are slow.

This is a diptych I had finished over a year ago. The more I looked at it, the more I thought there was something missing but I couldn't figure out what. Then, one day, I did. I had painted it in oils, but I decided to go back over it with encaustic. The I used the squirrel I had cut from a linoleum tile I had cut.
See its previous incarnation.

Cheers until next time!

Nostalgia

2011-12-20T16:48:00.000-08:00

Two collages I did back in college. I was just talking with good friend and fellow artist, Claire Stringer, who went to school with me back in the day. We would sit for hours cutting up these national geographics to create surreal scenes and poetry. Then we created several art "manifestos" that we distributed. I just loved doing these, I felt like I was talking through some one else's mouth. It was my creation, but a bit removed from the paintings I was doing for class. I spent lots of spare time on these, and I always had my nose in my sketchbook. I felt more free in these mediums, because they were just for me, I didn't have to justify anything to anyone, unlike the oil paintings I would offer up for critique every week. The collages became pretty elaborate, and the sketchbooks as well. It was kind of like a secret life.

Here are exerpts of two oil paintings I am working on right now. Adding layers of color. When I am done painting the figures, I'll finish the paintings with wax.

Recently finished encaustic paintings----

Collaborative work with Alison Overton

2011-11-10T16:48:00.001-08:00

I have really enjoyed painting on the lush photos of Alison Overton, fellow artist and dear friend. Her imagery really sets my imagination ablaze and I feel lucky that she has given me carte blanche to paint whatever I want on them. These are two that I have been painting on recently. I'm getting close to finishing our first set of 10. Excited!

On a side note, my wax collection on the wall beside where I paint has grown and grown. In the process of making paintings, I end up with pieces of wax that are mixed in color and can't be re used. I end up absentmindedly forming little doodads and sticking them to the wall. It makes a nice background for me and it's constantly growing and evolving.

Electric cat and friends

2011-10-21T18:49:00.000-07:00

This cat waited a long time before it was used in any paintings. I have a folder of collage miscellaneous

things, and the cat lived there a long time before joining up with this scraped encaustic background and becoming Electric Cat.

The birds and butterfly face are mostly done but I have ideas for the owl below.

Newest installment in my collaborative work with Alison Overton.

And the twins are almost finished. I'm in the details phase now, which I love. I feel like these paintings are revitalizing my relationship with oil paints. Since I started these, I have lots of ideas for new oil paintings.

Select details from the paintings-

Owl and Butterfly, more progress on the collaboration

2011-09-29T17:27:00.000-07:00

I'm using a scraping technique to get the colorful surface effects in the owl painting and the butterfly painting. I layer a bunch of encaustic colors and then scrape through the layers. I'm turning the butterfly into a person/butterfly.

The newest in my collaborative work with Alison Overton. Her head is made of a squishy blackberry, and a bee has landed on it.

Ingrid is really into acrylic painting. Here are 2 of her latest. Pretty awesome for an almost 3 yr old.

Also, I hadn't realized she had learned how to take photos until I downloaded this batch, here is one of her first photos!

(Fraternal) Twin paintings- a few more layers.

2011-09-27T17:43:00.000-07:00

I've added a few more glazes of color and detail. Glazing is fun but takes forever, because in between each glaze the paint has to dry, and I'm using oils, which take a while to dry. Which is a good thing. As I am building up the layers of color and detail, subject matter also starts to emerge. It's a happy time for me, it seems like these two are finally coming to life.

I'm reading this on the side- Owls in folklore and natural history. It's good to know more about owls and people's relationship with them as a myth over history. I am reading this one at the studio so it doesn't interfere with my reading at home. After I finished War and Peace, the book literally fell apart and has ended up in some of my paintings. Literally and figuratively. I'm hooked on russian lit and am now reading The Brothers Karamazov.

Another series, a new collaboration, a couple of paintings in progress

2011-09-15T17:08:00.000-07:00

I am working now on a series of 5 small paintings, preparing to teach my class- working in a series- which starts up next wednesday at the Pullen Arts Center. My idea was to superimpose mushroom drawings which I had done on rice paper over paintings of houses. Working title of series is something like- "little houses spring up like mushrooms". You can see behind the painting my awesome mushroom i.d. book which I am using as reference for the drawings.

I'm starting a new collaborative project with Alison Overton, here are some free samples of the very beginnings.

The imagined cityscape paintings- a small series of just 2 paintings- are still in the works. I am concentrating on building up layers of oil paint, some of it linework, some of it thin glazes, and some more thickly painted areas. Ah, oils, my first love.

Getting excited about my show with Megan Clark!! Also new paintings in the works.

2011-08-24T18:17:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe it's been almost a year now since Megan Clark and I first had the idea to do a body of work based on nature. We started collaborating on ideas several evenings, drawing together at my place. We were also inspired a lot by the book "Art Forms in Nature" by Ernst Haeckel. We decided to do some collaborative work. Her metalwork will be attached to my paintings! I'm excited to get her pieces back from being gold plated and attach it to the paintings I did. Here is a sneak peak of some work I did for the show..... I have been working on these paintings all year, in secret! Keith just recently saw them for the first time. It's been so fun working with another artist, collaborating. The show opens September first friday in the upfront gallery at Artspace.

Here are some brand new ones I have just started. They will be oil and encaustic. I am just layering the oils now to create a background. I wait for each translucent layer to dry before adding the next, hopefully to achieve a depth of color. I also like the way I can get a smooth, subtle color transition using oils. Not as easy with the encaustic paint!

Here are two I have just started. I used rice paper maily, and some fabric too in the Seahorse one. The one on the left may end up with a swift in it....

I love their eyes!

I am also working on "twin" oil paintings, building up layers of color. I try to remain very free with the paint at the beginning stages, trying to loosely sketch in the composition with paint.

Awesome student work pt.2

2011-08-11T18:32:00.000-07:00

I have been busy this past week teaching and encaustic class for jr high/ high school students at Artspace. I have been super impressed by what the kids have come up with. I have just showed them the techniques, but left it up to them to come up with ideas. They are giving me some great inspiration!

Madness

2011-07-18T17:42:00.000-07:00

I've been working really hard on these small 3 x 5 panels. The idea is to hang them in grids for my show in September with jeweler Megan Clark. There's not a lot of space on these panels so I've had to simplify my ideas which has been a good exercise for me. I keep returning to the same themes in this series of small work: developing sketch portraits of friends and strangers, using rice paper to draw them with ink pen and adding in collage elements like fabric or pages from War and Peace. Also animal portraits too of course. It's been fun working on 20 paintings at once!

New small series

2011-07-07T17:06:00.000-07:00

Here are the beginnings of 4 small 3 x 5" paintings. The idea for this series of small paintings is to integrate drawings out of my sketchbook of people and animals with my encaustic painting techniques. The people drawings were likely drawn sitting in the library, airport or a restaurant. I like to sketch quickly to keep the drawings lively, and I don't want the person I'm drawing to know that I'm drawing them. With these paintings, I add color to these drawings, putting each person or animal into an environ.

Here is a video of the new transit center, and all the artists talking about their work that hangs there. Keith and I are both in this video.

And thanks to the miracle of the internet I have been able to track down one of the paintings that inspired me to start painting in encaustics. This piece is by Victor Brauner, called Prelude to a Civilization. I remember seeing it in a museum in NY.

layers of wax

2011-07-02T13:54:00.000-07:00

This is a mixed media painting I've been working on. The dog is made of some cool vintage fabric I had. You can see the background started just white, and the surrounding background was made by adding layers of colors and fusing and mixing the colors with a heat gun.

At this stage I started to add some rice paper that I had painted and also do some incised lines. I started to manipulate the white background with some coral colors too. I gave the dog a collar, and also some more colors and lines.Today, I added some stenciled raindrops on the white ground, and gave the dog some fur. It's a lot of additive marks, and a lot of scraping. There will be more layers on this painting before it is finished.

Finished painting.

Awesome student work!! Next class starts in August!

2011-06-21T17:57:00.000-07:00

I had a great time teaching my last encaustic class. It was a small class of just 2. My students, Cynthia and Carrie, both had done a lot of art in the past but this was their first try at encaustic. It's exciting to see how the medium can change your way of thinking about painting.

These two paintings are by Cynthia Cudaback. She comes from a marine biology background, as you can see in the piece above. Along with the encaustic paint she used magazine cutouts and three dimensional elements to create this painting. The painting below is also her creation. It represents the four seasons. She always does her snowflakes with six points, as this is how the occur in nature. The chemistry behind the water molecule is what causes snowflakes to form with six points, and it also is what makes life on earth possible. So, from now on, my snowflakes will also be six pointed, because when you make a six pointed snowflake you are showing gratitude to mother earth.

The painting below is by Carrie Graham. She layered and fused the encaustic paint to create the watery feel to the background. Then she painted the lily pads, using the incised line to outline them. She also added collage elements along with rice paper paintings of koi fish.

If you are interested in trying this versatile medium my next class starts up on August 10. It's a series of six classes that are designed for beginners or intermediate encaustic painters. It meets wed. nights at 7:30 at the Pullen Arts Center. For more info, call the center at- 996-6126.

Forming ideas for future paintings

2011-06-07T18:27:00.000-07:00

The stairway to the field. Just a small little piece of land downtown that I walk by on my way to the studio. I love these old steps that lie in beautiful neglect. I wonder what will become of this little patch of land, if someone will bulldoze it and build something. It's in a state of flux, neither here nor there.

An old building on St Aug's campus that I love. It's being reclaimed by nature. If you were to walk in the threshold you would be engulfed by trees and weeds. Incidentally, my step father in law's father used to perform eye surgery in this building.

My wildflower garden!!

I love gardening but have rarely been able to grow anything from seed- until this summer. Here is my wildflower garden, grown from a pack of seeds given to me by a friend. The colors are phenomenal and I run outside every morning to see what has bloomed. I do believe I can use some of these colors later....

Beginning of a painting

2011-05-28T18:11:00.000-07:00

I love the new arrangement of my encaustic pallette. Now instead of a bunch of large tins of color, I have many small tins, resulting in many more color options. This should really make my life easier. Wax drips and buildup between my pallette and painting. On the table and the cord to my heat gun.

Here are several layers of color built up on my newest painting. This shot is before it had been re melted.

Heat guns are fun.

Cool effects I got through several layers of colors and several passes with the heat gun. I am using some wax that is really opaque, and some that is very translucent in order to get this look.

Finished painting.

The mysterious sea and the new transit building

2011-05-19T17:48:00.000-07:00

Here are some details from my newest. It's pretty much done at this point.

The idea for me was to paint the sea in a darker palette. The sea is loaded with symbolism. I think of it as a metaphor for the unconscious mind.

The buildings on the seashore are mixed media. I used some monoprints that I cut up, and a gouache painting. Using encaustic paint really helps to tie the mixed media pieces together.

The left half of the green building is a monoprint I made using the netting that you get onions in. The right half is a sealed envelope containing a secret message. It is completely encased in wax and painted over.

Finished painting.

Here is the new transit building located on Poole rd. in Raleigh. You can just make out my painting in this photo, right above the orange-y divider thing. This image was originally an oil painting- I cropped it and it appeared on a CAT bus a few years ago. Little did I know, they had saved the image. A few weeks ago I got an email from the transit people wanting permission to use this in their new building. I was thrilled to have my work permanently installed!

Here you can see it a little better. I am told the art will be lit up really nicely at night. I am hoping to go by soon at night and get some photos.

Here, you can see it from the first floor, walking into the building.

Here is the view from the second floor balcony.

Winged Brother of a Cat

2011-04-13T15:21:00.000-07:00

The Owl series is finished. Just as I was painting these, I ran across something Thoreau had written on owls.....

.... sitting on one of the lower dead limbs of a white pine, close to the trunk, in broad daylight, I standing within a rod of him. He could hear me when I moved and cronched the snow with my feet, but could not plainly see me. When I made most noise he would stretch out his neck, and erect his neck feathers, and open his eyes wide; but their lids soon fell again, and he began to nod. I too felt a slumberous influence after watching him half an hour as he sat thus with his eyes half open, like a cat, winged brother of the cat. There he preserved a peninsular relation to me; thus, with half-shut eyes, looking out from the land of dreams, and endeavoring to realize me, vague object or mote that interrupted his visions. At length, on some louder noise or my nearer approach, he would grow uneasy and sluggishly turn about on his perch, as if impatient at having his dreams disturbed; and when he launched himself off and flapped through the pines, spreading his wings to unexpected breadth, I could not hear the slightest sound from them. Thus, guided amid the pine boughs rather by a delicate sense of their neighborhood than by sight, feeling his twilight way, as it were, with his sensitive pinions, he found a new perch where he might in peace await the dawning of his day.

Here is another new one I am working on.

A detail of the dog.

The face before and after I worked on it today.

Finished Painting.

New series started!

2011-04-10T08:14:00.000-07:00

Here is the beginning of a new series. Seven small paintings of owls- encaustic. Owls have long been a favorite animal of mine, hence a great subject. Wise and cunning, owls offer infinite design variations. Although all of these are being done with the same color palette, different colors are emphasized in each painting. Working in a series is fun. I have ideas for a few more small series of paintings, stay tuned.

Bright colors for a grey saturday

2011-03-26T12:13:00.000-07:00

Really, I thought we were done with this kind ofweather for now, but that's o.k. I'm pulling a double shift in the studio today, making my own bright colors. Here is a tiny piece of the painting that Keith and I are collaborating on. Oil and wax on wood. The panel is actually made from a piece of our kitchen. This will be the 4th collaboration Keith and I have done.

Here is a little bird that has made a nest. Based on a real life scenerio that I saw while walking in to my studio one day.This is an exert of a painting I just started. All encaustic.

Take my class! Come to my opening!

2011-03-05T12:52:00.001-08:00

Here's an example of the kind of work I want to teach in my upcoming mixed media class at the Pullen Arts Center. This began as a collage of an old book, an old lino cut print of mine, one of my oil on paper paintings cut up, and some fabric. I coated it in clear wax, then made some lines on it with encaustic paint. Sound fun? Come take my class! 6 Wednesdays starting March 30th. 7-9:30 pm. 919-996-6126

ps. This is the painting I am going to donate to Artspace's Give and Take event.

Here are the postcards for my show at at Peace College! If you didn't get one in your mailbox, you must not be on my mailing list. To remedy that situation, you can send me your address- annapodris@earthlink.net.
The show's reception is Sunday March 20th from 2-4. It's up now at the Leggett Theater Gallery, and will be up until April 17th.

Everything is new under the sun

2011-02-14T17:14:00.000-08:00

Yay! I finished my triptych, again. This time I will hang the three panels about an inch away from each other, kind of the spacing in this photo. This one will go in my Peace College show, starting Feb. 21 with the artist reception Sunday March 20 2-4pm. First day of Spring! After re-doing this piece, it was tempting to go back into more of my work, there are endless possibilities for each painting. But now I am enjoying starting some newer work.....
Dragonfly stencil and a hand. This one is just about finished, I'm sure I will put final touches on it. I had remembered a drawing of a hand, maybe from an Indian incense box, and wanted to paint it with this lady. She's bringing me good fortune.
Here is a brand newbie. I did the background colors with oils, to make a smoother color transition. I wanted to do one with overlapping line drawings. Also I am doing more paintings with people in them now.
A detail of the above painting. The encaustic linework actually hovers above the painting encased in a layer of clear wax. That's how it's able to cast it's own little shadow...
The sea at night. I haven't seen it lately but in dreams. I do miss living near the ocean.
Here is another painting I started out in oils, to have a smoother color transition from light to darker. Inner peace.
This one has been through a lot of changes. I sometimes find the smaller pieces even harder to make than the big ones. You can see through the wax to almost all the layers here, so you get an idea of the process just looking at the painting's surface.
And another one that has been painted and scraped back over and over again. Under all the wax is a piece of vintage fabric.

Looking through a glass onion

2011-01-15T18:48:00.000-08:00

A few glazes later. I am trying to keep this one really loose.
Two new ones. They're probably 80% done. Although, it's hard to know. I'm not sure what's next for these....
These are details from my triptych that I am re-doing. Birds are partly made of vintage fabric.
This is a strange cat lady. She just appeared there, she's not fully realized yet but she does have some big hair.
This is the top corner of the 3rd panel of the triptych. Like a little kid, I want to put the sun right in the top corner!

Oil glazes and more

2011-01-04T17:51:00.000-08:00

I have been doing a lot of glazing with oils, something I haven't done in a while. The way it works is the light passes through several thin layers of oil color to the white canvas or panel, bounces back to the eye to create lush layered colors. The top painting is just in it's first phases, it's an oil on canvas. The ones under it are on panel. I am just thinking of them as backdrops right now. I'm now sure what the subjects will be for these paintings, I'm not sure if I will continue them in oils or switch to encaustic.

One thing I love about winter are gorgeous tree skeletons. This one reaches out to me.

This is an old friend that I am "re imagining". I thought it could use a new sky. We'll see what happens.

Come take my Encaustics Class!

2010-12-29T17:38:00.000-08:00

These images are all student work being done in my last encaustics class at the Pullen Arts Center. The class ended up being a lot of fun- I think everyone did very well, especially since most of them were trying encaustic for the first time. It can be tricky to learn, but it's very fun! There are so many possibilities with mixed media.
The way I like to structure the class is to teach a new technique at the beginning and do a demo. Then I turn everyone loose to try it out. I encourage experimentation! I always bring a few of the things I am working on to give examples of what I am talking about, too.
We use stencils, incising, and collage among other things to bring our paintings together. Encaustic can be painted on very opaque, or translucent. It can be scratched and scraped. The final piece usually has lots of layers, and the wax gives it a very unique look and texture.
Everyone approaches this medium differently, and it's especially fun for me to see the students adapting the medium for their own purposes!
The colors of the encaustic paint are especially vibrant, and will never fade or yellow with time because the beeswax acts as a preservative.
All kinds of papers and fabrics can be collaged into the wax, which also preserves paper.
The linework technique is especially fun and challenging. It is done by incising into the wax.

The next class starts up on Feb. 2nd at 7pm. You can read more about it on the city website.

The Biggie

2010-12-11T13:43:00.000-08:00

Here is the painting I have been working on. I have enjoyed painting and losing track of time with this painting- a phenomenon that doesn't happen with every piece. Now, I am going to use my tiny brush to add more detail to the plants and to everything. Maybe some glazes, too.

Soliloquy

2010-12-08T13:22:00.000-08:00

Here is the painting I have been devoting massive amounts of time to as of late. The house on the left is a dog house, on the right is a cat house. I painted this one going from left to right. The house in the middle isn't fully realized yet, neither a cat or a dog house. I'm not sure what it's theme will be or if it will have one. Just imagine this painting with much brighter colors, this photo is a little dim. It's probably 90% done now. I am at the fun part where I put in tiny details with a tiny brush. Really, it's fun.

Arches and cones

2010-11-19T18:45:00.000-08:00

Here are some rice paper paintings, all ready to be sealed into an encaustic painting. I love how porous this paper is, letting the wax fully permeate, actually changing color to slightly darker, as if it were still wet.

A church on a street that I love. This church has a perfect arched window.

An oil painting I have started. I'm painting the background first. I originally envisioned a cityscape for this canvas. Now I'm thinking a meadow. We'll see.

Supernatural

2010-11-12T17:25:00.000-08:00

Here are the two latest. I finished both of these paintings this past week, both have lingered in the studio, languished in the studio, for months. Each one presented certain compositional and conceptual challenges. The painting above presented more of a conceptual challenge. I was pretty much done with it but I felt like it was boring, or missing something. I was painting on it one day, not really thinking about it too hard, and adding in horses and owls and other animals in the buildings. All of a sudden it seemed to relate exactly to some things I am going through in my life. All of a sudden it took on a very personal autobiographical nature.

The painting below started out as a gouache painting on paper. Never satisfied with it, I cut it in half angularly and put each half on either side of a wooden panel, to start another diptych. the compositional problem was how to fill in the space in the middle. After several incarnations, I ended up painting trees that created a portal into another dimension.

Possibilities

2010-10-20T20:00:00.000-07:00

Snippets of my newest work, just a few layers of color and collage down right now. Some of the subject matter is coming together just now. I have been trying to keep these open as long as possible, keeping them abstract until I was sure of just the right thing to paint. The shapes and colors of the abstract collages I was working on suggested this subject matter.

Finished Painting

Best Roots

2010-10-12T16:44:00.000-07:00

Here are the best roots in Raleigh. They belong to the Japanese Crepe Myrtle in the JC Raulston Arboretum.

Here are 4 beginnings. 3 are just collages of painted rice paper and wax. The other is rice paper and some wax painting too.
A drawing of a deer on a panel that I plan to start painting on soon.
Brand new works. Probably finished. We'll see.

It was a pretty productive day at the studio.

Little New ones

2010-09-22T16:36:00.000-07:00

This is my new series of small animal paintings. All done with wax. Some include fabric as well, and others have some rice paper paintings embedded in the wax. They are in various stages of completion now. I am dying to get into doing the linework in these. Scrape scrape scrape!!

Studio adventures

2010-09-14T12:32:00.000-07:00

I always park pretty far away from my studio in order to avoid parking meters, time limits, and paying to park. (No, I won't reveal my secret downtown parking spot). Anyway, this morning I walked a little out of my way, just to see this little hill that I love so much. It kind of reminds me of being out in the country. But it's right downtown.

Here are some paintings that are just about done now. All oil on canvas.
This is the start of a new diptych. It is a gouache painting on paper, cut and glued to two panels.
A little farther along, there are some rice paper birds flying and a building beginning to emerge in the center.
Here is my rice paper stash tied together with scrap studio fabric. And a vase made by Keith and Gaines Bailey.

A whilrlwind

2010-09-06T10:35:00.001-07:00

These paintings have almost painted themselves these last few days. These bright greens and blues, very optimistic colors, have taken over my pallet. The titles are Sing a song, Crossing our tails, Bird and seahorse, and I forget what I called the green bird. Look for them on my website by the end of the week. I will have the title then.

A fresh start

2010-08-25T18:21:00.000-07:00

There's nothing like starting a painting. It's all possibility. The more you add the more committed you become. For these paintings I started painted some rice paper with gouache and watercolor, then drew on it with pen and cut the shapes out. I used clear encaustic to fuse them to the panel's surface. Now the fun begins!

Family Fun Day!!

2010-08-21T17:31:00.001-07:00

Today was family fun day at Artspace. Here I am doing an encaustic demo out in front of our studio. I actually got a lot done on my painting, and it turns out, people like to watch an encaustic painting in the making. Also here is work from all three classes I taught this summer at Artspace. It was so great to see the kids' work displayed. I was lucky to get to work with so many talented kids. And it was great to get to see some of them again that came out for the party!

Summer's end

2010-08-19T17:39:00.000-07:00

Here's an encaustic painting that I'm working on and an oil as well. Just yesterday I really brightened up the duck painting. It was pretty dark. I wanted a happy painting with a black sky, but it worked better with a lighter color sky. It's almost done now. The radiant eye bird is coming along. I will probably add more colors to the starburst pattern. I want a rainbow effect. I will probably title this one "Refraction of Light" or something. Oh, and my beautiful typewriter from South Africa. Just because.

More space for paintings

2010-08-01T08:52:00.000-07:00

I have a lot of paintings now in the studio, and thanks to some re-arranging, plenty of space to hang them all! At the studio (and at home) I never take for granted the simple act of re-arranging and de-cluttering to create a fresh atmosphere and new energy. This re-energized space is probably going to inspire yet more paintings.

Oil paintings- coming right along

2010-07-23T17:00:00.000-07:00

Why is it that some paintings you toil over endlessly, working and reworking to no avail, never satisfied? Well that hasn't been the case with this new body of work. Maybe since it's been a while since I have devoted myself to oils, or maybe I'm just lucky right now, but these paintings have come so easily. It's the difference between swimming against the current and floating along in an inner tube down the Itchetucknee. One wears you out and mentally drains you, while the other you don't even notice you are going anywhere.

Encaustic class

2010-07-22T03:14:00.000-07:00

This week I have been teaching an encaustic class for kids in 7th to 10th grades. I have really enjoyed their creativity and I love seeing what they come up with every day!

Exercising brain

2010-07-16T16:49:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy day in the studio. I am doing more oils and have also returned to painting the figure. People reading books, walking dogs or just being still. Also I am making an encaustic painting simultaneously, a castle of the mind. I have really enjoyed going back and forth between using oils and encaustics, they are so different, kind of like opposites. It's an exercise for my brain.

A door

2010-07-13T12:12:00.000-07:00

This in-progress piece was started out with bark from a birch tree. I used wax to glue the bark to the panel. It forms the surface of the imagined castle I am creating. Also, I used fabric.

Tears of a bird

2010-07-06T11:57:00.000-07:00

This is an emotional response to the oil spill in the gulf. Lots of layers of oil paint, lots of glazes. The birds with the starburst eyes keep appearing in my work. Or radiating eyes. It's the idea of the expanse of the mind's landscape. It's the tumultuous cosmos.

post encaustic oil paintings.

2010-06-22T17:11:00.000-07:00

As some of you may know, I have been on a pretty intense encaustic kick for the past few years. At the outset of my experimentations with encaustic painting, I wondered if the change in medium would affect my oil paintings. I am now beginning a project to find out. Since I started with encaustics, I have done a few oil paintings here and there but now I will delve back into oils more fully with a new series. Above is one of the first of this new group- I just completed this diptych on Saturday and haven't named it yet. I have been doing a lot of birds with radiating eyes, and other starburst archetypes. My figures seem the same as they ever were, but some of the colors seem brighter, some of the linework seems more defined- this could have been the influence of the encaustics.

Below is an encaustic painting I am working on in conjunction with the oil painting project- I just couldn't give it up totally! I enjoy the brain shift jumping from one way of working to the other. This is my magical volvo station wagon before and after putting lines in the rainbows.

And here are my beautiful daylillies. I love seeing the bright colors all over the yard. It's a shame that they only last a day, but kind of cool that the placement of the flowers is re arranged on a daily basis.

Inspiration from Elizabeth City.

2010-06-05T10:10:00.000-07:00

Our show in Elizabeth City at the Arts of the Abermarle went very well. Elizabeth City is a fun small town on a finger of the beautiful Abermarle sound. The air was breezy and the water sparkly. Our hosts, Joe and Carolyn Peele showed us a great time. Ingrid went on her first boat ride. Here are my paintings from our show.

The city even wrote up the show in their paper. Here is a link to the article- http://annapodrisworksinprogress.blogspot.com/2010/06/inspiration-from-elizabeth-city.html

This building will probably end up in one of my paintings very soon.

Empty studio, random daydreams

2010-05-27T17:04:00.000-07:00

Here is my almost empty studio after taking everything to the Block gallery this week. It's just the paintings I am working on at the

moment.

This is an empty warehouse on East and Davie. I want it for my art studio! Also it has a little yard in the back. Perfect for a veggie patch. I haven't been inside this building. I imagine it gets some good light with all those windows. I would paint them red though. I could have my space there, and there would still be some room for Keith to paint. We could also have a classroom space and teach classes. This is a random daydream. The warehouse probably is like a million $ even though it's dilapidated. Keith and I are still happy at Artspace anyway. But, City of Raleigh take note- some one should renovate this space and make it into something.

Making lines

2010-05-23T09:15:00.000-07:00

The lines you can make with encaustic paint are really cool. They hover above your painting, encased in clear encaustic wax. The process is this- put a few layers of clear wax where you want to make lines. Then incise your lines using something sharp. I use a clay carving tool. Then, using a brush loaded with the colored wax that you intend for your line, force the wax into the incisions. Once the wax has cooled a little use a scraping tool to scrape off the extra colored wax, and viola, you have your line!

Stencils.

2010-05-21T16:44:00.000-07:00

I like encaustic. It's hard to control and doesn't always do what you think it will. But painting with it makes you use another side of your brain because the process is so different. Painting with a brush, you can't get a lot of precise work done because that's slow painting. If the brush in your hand hovers above your surface for any minute amount of time, your encaustic paint will dry and will not transfer from brush to board. This is especially true when you are using a smaller brush trying to do detail work. Everyone knows I love doing precise details. It satisfies the OCD part of my brain. I love that as messy and unpredictable as encaustic paint can be, you can still make it very precise by using stencils. I got into cutting snowflakes a few years back. I love symmetry and pattern. This skill has really helped me in cutting the tiny stencils you see above. Each one is about an inch and a half. After I painted the stencils, I coated them with clear to protect all the details. Then I started making birds, because I love birds and I am on a bird kick right now. This is the smallest of the three diptychs I am working on right now.

Iconography

2010-05-20T18:42:00.001-07:00

I have had a few hours in the studio this week and have been able to maintain focus enough to work out some details in these diptychs. This pinwheel image has been occurring over and over again. It's kind of like a pie, or a color wheel or a radiant halo like those in pre-renaissance religious paintings. I am still working in oils on these paintings, and debating on whether to do encaustic over them like I had originally intended. The oil painting has a glossy, viscous surface, and the encaustic is smooth and uniform. Its surface can be very shiny if buffed, or matte if left alone. Anyway, these are pretty spare as far as what is in them. I am going for the feel of a forest instead of trying to paint the whole forest that's in my mind. From day to day, each step I take on these, I am enjoying. I really don't know what they will end up looking like.

A manic creative outpouring

2010-05-15T17:00:00.000-07:00

I had a weird week. Something really sad happened to a good friend. I had a hard time painting, I was really sad, I still am. I was also very stressed over not having enough work. I know at the end of the month when I put up my shows, the paintings will be there, they always are. It's just getting to that point. Anyway, the sadness and the stress stifled my energy for most of the week. This morning I think I got three times as much done as I did the whole rest of the week. I was really happy to be working and getting ideas again. Back to normal, somewhat.

Here is what is happening with the two diptychs. They are oil on board. That gives me the option to go in with encaustic later if I want. We will see. It's been a long time since I painted people. It's time. The one on the left has a bunch of birds in it. They aren't fully developed yet. I am excited to see what happens to these paintings.

Diptych and more diptychs

2010-05-13T14:38:00.000-07:00

Here is how the 1rst diptych is ending up. The left panel is oil on canvas, the right panel is oil and encaustic on panel. I love the idiosyncrasy of the two panels. They line up enough, but not totally. I also wanted each to stand on its own, so the painting can be displayed with panels flush or separated.

I also wanted to start some new diptychs because the format intrigues me. I like the duality, and the fact that two come together to make one painting. These two paintings are on panel, and I am starting them in oil and will finish them with encaustic. I am starting with abstract forms and I will see what they become. I keep seeing birds in these circles. I paint a lot of birds. Perhaps too many. I am trying to fight the urge to make these next two diptychs about birds, but I may have to.

Diptych.

2010-04-30T17:56:00.001-07:00

I thought I'd try a diptych after finishing my Owl triptych The King and Queen. (a photo of this painting will be on my site early next week.)

I happened to have a canvas and a wood panel the same size hanging around in the studio and got the idea to do a diptych. One half of it will be oil on canvas and the other half will be oil and encaustic on panel.

I see this as rays of light, or tops of parasols. Or colorful pies. It's nice to start out abstract and just see what happens.

Monoprints!

2010-04-13T19:51:00.000-07:00

Monoprints! Well, actually monotypes.... Here are some of the prints that came out of the monoprint class I just finished teaching. There are a lot of different techniques involved, but basically monoprinting is painting on a plexiglass and then running it through the press. You can do multiple passes through the press to create layers, or do just one pass. Jessica Moore used an image from a book to inspire her chair print. Tara Nelson was able to get a lot of color variation and smooth color transitions using a brayer to create her abstract prints. Debbie Hicks uses the textures from lace, fabric and plant life in her layered prints. Mark Healy used the brayer and the subtractive technique to create this helicopter image.

I am excited to be offering this class at the Pullen art center.

Bird Triptych

2010-03-30T16:41:00.000-07:00

This painting was kind of inevitable. It's spring, and I had a TON of fabric scraps laying around the studio. And some painted rice paper. And some National Geographic clippings from the 70s. The bird triptych was crying out to be made. This is the start of it. Now I am adding line work and other things. The king and queen are on the center panel. I can't wait to do the eyes. Fun!!

Layers

2010-03-26T12:45:00.000-07:00

Three layers on the bird painting so far. a background painted in oils, then a layer of clear wax. A rice paper bird painting. The clear wax I use to affix the rice paper actually makes it translucent so that only the paint on the paper really shows. Then I used stencils around the bird and I'm starting some line work.

The green colorful picture is a detail of the deer painting I have been working on. It now has many layers of cloth, painting, line work and stenciling. I love how the layers have built up a rich texture.

There's something I like about taking my time with a painting. Painting a layer, waiting a week. It gives me time to know what the best next move for the painting will be. It gives the painting a chance to marinate before I put in the next ingredient.

Spring!

2010-03-11T17:46:00.000-08:00

I am usually in the mood to make art but not always. I have come to the realization that I only need to make art when I really feel like it, thus avoiding making bland art that is just "going through the motions". This past week I haven't been in the mood. Instead I use my studio time to organize my collage papers, clean and get rid of extraneous stuff, and basically gear up for when the time to paint comes. Out of the studio I have been drinking in the spring weather and colors. These are my favorite crocuses in my yard. I love the find purple lines, so perfect. There isn't a lot of color out there right now, so the color that I do see I really appreciate even more. It's very important to my process and to my spirit to spend time in nature surrounded by these beautiful colors.

Inspiring Me

2010-03-04T18:33:00.000-08:00

Often I am asked- "What inspires your paintings?" This is surprisingly hard to pin down. I usually say, " Walking in nature, plants, people, animals, life." It's the truth, but vague.

For one, I love the stark quality of the world this time of year. Everything seems to be outlined. It's partly the quality of the light. I love the crisp air and the shadows. I love how all the plants are starting to think about putting leaves out. I imagine how, in a few weeks, there will be bright green tiny leaves coming out of every plant that has been bare.

I like how in the winter you can see the tree's skeleton so much better than when it has leaves. I enjoy noting the wildy differing structures of trees. I think about trees a lot.

2010-02-28T13:39:00.000-08:00

The visual representation of a tree that branches at both ends is a model of the universe as a living organism, a metaphorical map that serves equally well for the cosmos external to the individual and the spectrum of consciousness deep within -- with its highest branches in the heavens and its roots deep within the dark underrealm.

-Howard Rheingold

Blips and blurbs

2010-02-25T17:49:00.000-08:00

This dog is painted in oils on top of some encaustic paint. I scratched through the oil paint to carve the lines revealing the blue encuastic paint.

Next there are the two that I talked about in the last post. Now with deer and an octopus. Both were made with stencils I cut. Sometimes that's the best way to get a definite shape when painting with encaustics.

In the same painting as the dog, I have a floating lake with a swan. I have painted oil on top encaustics here too. You can see the difference in the textures really well in this photo.

Then there is a mandala that I've painted with watercolor on rice paper. It is something I will eventually use in an encaustic painting. I do a lot of rice paper doodles- and a lot of them end up as either backgrounds or cut shapes in the encaustic pieces.

For instance this green bird that I worked on today has a rice paper painting background.

And lastly an ode to our "new" car, an old volvo station wagon that is meant to be our "family" car. I was so happy to get this car old volvo station wagons are my dream cars. However, this car has brought heartbreak, having been in the shop twice now in one week. Everyone cross your fingers that our baby will be ok!!!

breathing butterflies and two newbies

2010-02-12T16:40:00.000-08:00

I have worked a lot more on the Breathing Butterflies piece. It is almost done but just needs a few finishing touches. It is very different from my other work, a bit of a departure for me. When I am working I like to always keep an open mind and try not to fall into doing the same sort of patterns and subjects I've already done. If I do a subject again, I want to re explore the subject and re interpret it. Anyway, this one is very different and I have learned a lot working on it.

I was lucky this week to give a demonstration of encaustic techniques to a group of college students. The two pieces on the right are the result of the demo. They are just beginnings at this point. I like doing demos and talking about my work because it forces me to explain what I do in words and then I really get more of an understanding myself. The one on the left was done by layering 7 colors and using my heat gun to swirl the colors together. On the right, the background is a piece of rice paper I had painted previously that I affixed to the panel with clear wax. Then I put several strips of cloth that I had left over from some sewing projects. I then demonstrated how to do stenciling with encaustic and also how to do linework. I really enjoyed doing stenciling, it has been a while since I have used that technique and I plan on doing more in both of these pieces.

swirling ideas....

2010-01-17T10:33:00.000-08:00

Lately I have been making good use of my studio time. I seem to have been busy for several months on seemingly unrelated projects that are now coming together. I think last month I was focusing on oils, now I am doing lots of mixed media work. I had a lot of nice rice paper painted and ready to collage. Several older encaustic pieces were revamped with some scraping and collage. I am working on a gouache painting of mice and some of the rice paper worked it's way into that painting too in the form of raindrops. Then a watercolor/gouache painting I had all but given up on found it's way into an encaustic painting full of swirls and clouds. It's the green ones up top. I am probably most excited about this one, I feel like it's new and strange. Most of the others involve animals and creatures. Probably influenced by the many many many kids books I have been reading to Ingrid. Look out- one of these days I plan to self publish my own!!!

2010-01-02T16:57:00.000-08:00

I am working on an encaustic and an oil painting this month. The encaustic one- working title- "breathing butterflies" is on the left. The woman in the painting was made by cutting up an old Time Life book- that series has inspired a lot of art from me over the years. There's always one in the thrift store it seems. The woman is cut from a black and white photo of monarch butterflies. I used wax to affix her to the surface. She is totally encased in wax now so the paper is impervious to the elements and won't yellow over time! I want to make it seem like she is exhaling all these butterflies. The background was really fun to do, a lot of scraping and gouging and filling in and then more scraping. I've never made a painting quite like this one before. I'm not sure what else I will do to this one. Something......

My oil painting (on the right) is almost done. It's a manifestation of mother earth. The lighting is bad, sorry, I'll take a "real" picture of it when it's done. It's really colorful. Something I notice while I hike around or even just walk around my neighborhood are all the colors there are in nature. So many subtle variations and striking combinations. I want to celebrate the colors I see in this painting. I worked really hard on the trees. They each have at least 4 or 5 colors in the bark and I painted each leaf individually(!) which took forever. I didn't notice the time going by- it's like a meditation painting those tiny leaves.

Mural is a no go

2009-12-09T16:29:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately I didn't win the competition. I was a little disappointed after all the hard work but I gained a lot of experience that I will be able to use next time I enter. I will do a mural some day- this just wasn't it. I offer my congratulations to the artist that won. Rejection is always a part of being an artist and I have faced my share like everyone else. It bothered me for like an hour. My good friend Leslie said- rejection is good- it means they weren't ready for your art!! I definitely don't take it personally anymore. It's like water off a duck's back. Now I need to enter another contest and get some more irons in the fire!

DONE!

2009-12-04T08:52:00.000-08:00

Here is the finished proposal. Of course I could have spent another week on the details but I am happy with the painting and it's due monday, so I have to be done now so it can dry in time for it's trip to Greensboro. I am nervous to present it but happy with what came out of it. I hope I get the opportunity to paint this mural! But even if I don't I have learned a lot from this painting and have enjoyed working on it. Here are some details from the painting. Keep in mind how tiny they are! ( the people.) It's hard to really refine the faces at that scale. But I wanted to keep them small since in the actual mural they are going to be 6 times bigger.

2009-12-01T18:20:00.000-08:00

Here is the painting as I started working on it this morning (below) and as I finished at the end of my session today. I am enjoying the detail work. I focused a lot on the people today which was excruciating because they were so small. If I get the mural, it will be a lot easier to do the faces large scale. I reached my limit today with the faces and started working on birds. Both the birds and people need more work. I will be back at it tomorrow. Monday I present the painting to the committee. I know I will be ready.

2009-11-20T14:41:00.000-08:00

On Thursday I was flinging paint. I have lots of details left but I am happy. The purple house in the front is dedicated to McGirt and Horton. The left is McGirt and the right is Horton. The big windows will have portraits of them. I put an oak tree next to McGirt's side of the house as a reference to his poem. I have someone holding a candle on Horton's side as a reference to his torch poem. I am going to include 3 librarians. The kids playing are a shout out to the Boys and Girls club in the neighborhood. One house has 2 old men on the porch and 2 dogs in the yard, something I saw while I was in the neighborhood. The red house on the bottom is the sunflower house- dedicated to the kids who made a sunflower quilt that hangs in the library. There are clotheslines and a bus stop. There will be cats birds and squirrels and maybe a bunny and a lot more people in the finished piece. I am excited about this painting!

More Inspiration

2009-11-18T16:26:00.000-08:00

J ames Ephraim McGirt

Success is a light upon the farther shore,

That shines in dazzling splendor to the eye,

The waters leap, the surging billows roar,

And he who seeks the prize must leap and try.

A might host stand trembling on the brink,

With anxious eyes they yearn to reach the goal.

I see them leap, and ah! I see them sink-

As gazing on dread horror fills my soul.

Yet to despair I can but droop and die,

‘Tis better far to try the lashing deep.

I much prefer beneath the surge to lie,

Than death to find me on this bank asleep.

BORN LIKE THE PINES.

Born like the pines to sing,

The harp and song in m' breast,

Though far and near,

There's none to hear,

I'll sing as th' winds request.

To tell the trend of m' lay,

Is not for th' harp or me;

I'm only to know,

From the winds that blow,

What th' theme of m' song shall be.

Born like the pines to sing,

The harp and th' song in m' breast,

As th' winds sweep by,

I'll laugh or cry,

In th' winds I cannot rest.

THE SPIRIT OF THE OAK.

The spirit of the oak am I,

With head uplifted to the sky,

Though hail and storm beat in my face,

Through weal or woe I hold my place,

With head uplifted to the sky,

The spirit of the oak am I.

Birds I have sheltered many a year,

They hear the storm, desert in fear,

The strenuous eagle strives to stay,

But, ah! at last his heart gives way,

He stretches forth his feathered form,

And sails to heaven above the storm.

Devoid of every earthly friend,

I stand undaunted till the end,

With head uplifted to the sky—

The spirit of the oak am I.

And when the raging storm is o'er,

My feathered friends return once more,

And find me standing calm and free;

They chirp aloud and sing with glee,

With outstretched arm I bid them rest,

I hold no malice in my breast,

But welcome every passer-by —

The spirit of the oak am I.

MAN, A TORCH
by: George Moses Horton (c.1797-c.1883)

LOWN up with painful care and hard to light,
A glimmering torch blown in a moment out,
Suspended by a web, an angler's bait,
Floating at stake along the stream of chance,
Snatch'd from its hook by the fish of poverty,
A silent cavern is his last abode;
The king's repository veil'd with gloom,
The umbrage of a thousand oziers bowed,
The couch of hallowed bones, the grave's asylum,
The brave's retreat and end of ev'ry care.

Inspiration from the site

2009-11-17T12:00:00.000-08:00

I love the color of these two houses together.
Thinking about including some clotheslines.
The recreation center's gazebo has an interesting roof.
Behind the roses is a yellow house- another great color combination.
This is a nursery school. More bright colors!

I want to reference some of the things I learned about the history of the neighborhood. Also the library was named for two poets so I need to read some of their works and see what that inspires. I am still figuring out how these images will translate themselves into my vision.

Mural Proposal

2009-11-15T17:24:00.000-08:00

This is a big deal for me- I am now one of 3 finalists to do a mural. I applied with my portfolio several months ago and just got a call last week letting me know I was selected to present my proposal to the jury! I am working on a scale version of what I will be doing at the library if chosen.

Since the mural is going to be in a library in an African American part of town, the mural must be Afro- centric. I am using for my inspiration the memories of an African American neighborhood I know well in Jacksonville FL. It was the neighborhood I went to school in. The houses were older and the colors were vibrant. I am trying to capture the energy and the vibes from my memories.

Right now I just have some very basic colors but this painting will resemble some of my other cityscapes- with lots of trees, cats, dogs, people, squirrels and birds.

I am taking a trip tomorrow to the actual neighborhood the library is being built in to see if I can gain more inspiration. I am so excited about this project!

Wish me luck as I focus my energies on this!

Finished!

2009-08-31T09:16:00.000-07:00

Here are two paintings I recently finished. I am finally done with my triptych. It's amazing how much longer it takes to finish a big painting while being a mom. I decided to name it The Morning After the Rainstorm.
The colors are bright and vibrant and alive. It gives me a feeling of renewal to look at it. I imagine walking through the garden or through the arboretum after a rain, and the smells of the plants and the dampness of the earth. I imagine the spirits that live there.

I also finally finished The Pollen Collecters.
Keith named this painting for me. I was at a loss for a title, as usual. It's the first painting he's ever named for me.
This is a painting of flying humanoids in buckets. They each have their own small flying bug that is trained to fly into the cup flowers and collect pollen for it's master. The background is encaustic and the rest was done with oils.

Triptych

2009-08-04T09:23:00.001-07:00

So, Here is the painting I have been spending most of my time on as of late. It is coming along slowly. I enjoy working with encaustic over collage, deciding which part of the collage will show. Also scraping through the paint to find a previous layer- I always forget what's under there! So here is the painting as it is- and a few details. I am probably about 70% done.

Beginnings

2009-06-23T13:24:00.000-07:00

I love working large. Since starting encaustics, I haven't had the space to do a really large piece because they need to be worked on flat. After some experimenting, I decided to do 3 large wood panels that will connect together to create one painting. A triptych of sorts.

The panel were bought months ago. Something about the size and the blankness was intimidating. I wasn't sure where to start. A lot of artists do preliminary sketches but I don't like to work this way. To me, painting and drawing are 2 totally separate things. I like to draw, and I feel like the drawings feed into the paintings in a conceptual way.

Keith suggested that I start abstract. This is something I have done often enough. I will start a painting in an intuitive way and let the shapes suggest images to me. Kind of like looking at clouds. I decided to start this painting with a collage.

I didn't worry a lot about getting the collage "perfect" because a lot of it will be painted over when I start the painting. I love this part of the process- anything is possible at this point. The more choices I make, the narrower the path gets. In choosing one image, I reject other possibilities. This is the part of the process that keeps me intrigued. The paintings I like the most are always the ones I am working on.

I did Etsy!!!

2009-03-13T20:17:00.001-07:00

I finished uploading my initial items and FINALLY, my Etsy store is open!! Be the first to see it! here is the address- annapodris.etsy.com

Destruction is part of the creative process part 2

2009-03-10T15:41:00.000-07:00

This piece had also been sitting in my studio untouched. The encaustic background went really well and I was really happy about it. I imaged a water scene with tiny people and animals and twigs and such floating around. The problem arose when I got too detailed with it too quickly. A painting should have an in between "rough" stage where a larger brush is used. I went right into this one with my tiny "O.C.D." brush painting lots of details. The painting as a whole didn't "gel". So I scraped the oil parts off pretty easily with a razor (yay, encaustics!) and then covered the mess with some translucent green oil paints. This one also will need to marinate for a while, as I'm not sure what will happen with it. I am feeling a sense of relief to have a clean slate.

Destruction is part of the creative process.

2009-03-10T15:29:00.000-07:00

There were 2 paintings sitting in my home studio that I hadn't touched in months. Today I drastically changed them.

This is the painting I was doing of my baby girl- Ingrid, and my fur children. I always paint my pets, so I had no problem with the animal parts of the painting. Painting (well, good painting anyway) is an emotional as well as an artistic and techincal process. I really wanted a painting of my beautiful child, and set out to paint one, even though I am not a portrait painter, and have never even painted an imaginary baby. Needless to say, my portrait of Ingrid did not live up to my expectation. How does someone paint something so precious to them, something so beautiful. Badly, in my case. Which is o.k. I realized the problem and decided to do something about it, to start with a clean slate. Not to mention, painting as sporatically as I have to now that I have this other MAJOR creative process going, I have to think differently. I don't have hours to obsess over getting everything right. It has meant I have to let some things go. I have to decide what is worth obsessing about.
So I have covered this piece with blues and greens, and still don't have a plan for it's future. I will let it marinate like it is for a while while I think it over.

2009-01-29T15:17:00.000-08:00

Here is ANOTHER owl painting. I love owls- just can't help it. Anyway, a bunch of people have told me I should start using Etsy, and I may just do that. I would sell stuff like this on etsy, works on paper that are easy to ship and more budget/recession friendly.
When the Etsy thing gets going I will post that address here as well.

2009-01-29T15:13:00.000-08:00

The painting of "all my children" has changed again. I'm sure this one is going to go through a couple more stages and may change more drastically. I have been working at home in fits and starts.

2009-01-19T14:25:00.000-08:00

This is a small sampling of Ingrid talking. She talks to us all the time now, it's really cute.

2009-01-15T15:59:00.000-08:00

This is my new sketch book. I did a collage on the cover, using words and images found in old National Geographics. It is reminiscent of the collages that I used to do in college. Not quite as intricate. I plan to "kick it old school" and do more of these. The "found word" poems inspire images for my paintings.

2009-01-15T15:57:00.000-08:00

This is the painting I am working on for the show-at the Block gallery in Raleigh's municipal building on Hargett st. I did the background in encaustic and then worked in oils. I plan to do another layer with encaustic once the oil is dry. It needs to dry soon because this piece is due on Jan. 20th!

2009-01-14T15:55:00.000-08:00

Here is a collage I made that reminded me of the drawing I had done a few days earlier.

2009-01-14T14:53:00.000-08:00

Here is a sketch of my house- I used it to start a painting. The theme of the show is "home".

Home studio

2009-01-12T14:43:00.000-08:00

Here is where I am getting some work done currently. Not as much as I'd like with all of the distractions of a new baby. But when she's napping I steal away to this room and paint. I definitely feel a sense of urgency when I am working now. Since I never know how much time I am going to get I tend to work in short spurts. I enjoy my creative time more- I can't take it for granted. I am also enjoying my time with Ingrid- I guess you could say I have the best of both worlds!

2009-01-12T14:38:00.000-08:00

So, I've changed the painting a bit. I never claimed to be the world's most conventional baby portraitist, but I am trying. I really want a painting of my little munchkin- but not a cheesy "precious moments" type painting- it just wouldn't work in my house! So here is my attempt. I am happier with her picture but I am going to do Nugget over and probably Remedios too ( the black cat) cause she doesn't really fit in that corner.

2008-12-03T17:33:00.000-08:00

Tree painting-

here is an oil painting that has been in the works. It may end up getting a layer of encaustic after the preliminary oil part is done drying. I am interested in combining the two mediums to get the best of both worlds.

2008-12-03T17:24:00.000-08:00

Ingrid and friends

this is a painting I started today, just everyone that was in my house was sleeping except me.

2008-12-03T17:20:00.000-08:00

New paintings....

After Ingrid was born I began working with oils again.

this piece has an encaustic background with oils on top. it will have a lot more

leaves, berries, and little people when I am done....

I am working now in my home studio.

2008-12-03T17:17:00.000-08:00

Ingrid Flewellyn Norval

born october 16th at 12:55 pm

weighing 7 pounds 11 oz.

preoccupied

2008-09-11T12:32:00.000-07:00

It will be a while before I can get back into posting regularly. My painting schedule has been thrown out of whack by my other creative project and also a mishap that ended in a broken ankle. I have done a few new pieces, however, but did not document the process. Anyway, you can view the new work here: www.annapodris.com/gallery/v/Newpaintings/

Spinning Snowflake, Thinking of and Owl

2008-05-27T11:10:00.000-07:00

Here are two new finished encaustic paintings. "Spinning Snowflakes" was featured in the previous post because I put an azalea flower in it and wondered if it would turn brown. You can see on this post that it kind of did. But it's a nice brown that seems to work with the piece.

Will it turn brown?

2008-04-23T09:53:00.000-07:00

One of the newest pieces- this one has some stenciled raindrops and a watercolor and pen drawing done on rice paper.

Ummm.. It's been a while since my last post.. I have been involved in another creative process and busy with that still. More on that later.

In the painting above, I have embedded and azalea flower in clear wax. Hopefully it is completely sealed from oxygen and won't turn brown. We will see!

Fun with stencils

2008-02-14T12:58:00.000-08:00

In both pieces I cut paper stencils to create shapes that had sharper edges.

Owl and fire gets a stencil

2008-02-08T07:29:00.001-08:00

I cut a stencil and painted encaustic over it to create the flower. Other subtle changes as well.

Fire and Owl

2008-01-30T09:20:00.000-08:00

I have added a blue sky to the fire painting seen in previous posts. I am now working on integrating the blue with the fire, through line. Also the owl obsession continues.

coming along slowly

2008-01-22T12:06:00.000-08:00

Here are some details from the piece with the working title- is 8 enough?

above is the door below is a bird I drew on rice paper, cut out and added in.
Here is one of the faces that is looking slightly better than the others. The faces are really taking the longest amount of time because they are being done, scrapped and redone at least twice a day. Working the facial details in wax is a lot more difficult than in oils. It's the challenge I have set for myself in this piece, with 8 people and all. The look of the people rendered in wax is dramatically different from the smooth and subtle oil painting renderings, which gives them a rougher look, that I am learning to enjoy.

Inspiration/ References

2008-01-15T17:11:00.000-08:00

I found this great little book of birds published in the 60s. I love the illustrations and also recognized some of the birds from my backyard. I used it for references .

I drew these chickadees on rice paper, which I used clear wax to fuse it to my painting. The clear wax also turns the paper kind of invisible so the only thing that shows in the painting are just the pen lines that I drew.

Everyone knows I have a thing for owls. This is a burrowing owl. Although I still haven't seen one in person, I have watched some great footage on Youtube.

These birds all appear in my newest painting introduced in my last post- Incarnations.

Bells reworked- now called Incarnations

2008-01-12T09:41:00.000-08:00

The above is the painting "Bells" reworked with encaustic. It was originally an oil painting. Since it was done on a panel I was able to go back into it with encaustic, which requires a rigid substrate.

pouring hot wax

2008-01-08T11:04:00.000-08:00

I start with a wood panel and use tape around the edges, to keep the wax from spilling off the edge.
Using a potholder to pick up the edge of the wax container, I pour the wax on the panel.
It takes almost no time to cool and harden, so I work quickly pouring colors while the others are still hot, so they can mix.

After the last pour, I wait at least 20 minutes before taking the tape off the edges. You can tell a lot of wax was built up during this process.

She gets a tree and birds.

2008-01-04T11:28:00.000-08:00

Here I have added a tree and birds to this little piece. This photo was taken before I fused the layer of wax. It's hard to tell from the picture, but the wax has a different texture before it's fused, more brushstrokes and a bit rougher.
Here I am fusing the painting with a heat gun. It is necessary to fuse each layer after painting. Fusing re-melts the layer just painted along with all the other layers, so as it cools and solidifies, the wax becomes one body, adhering the layer.
Here is the painting after it was fused. It is much smoother and glossier.

Adding fabric to "8 people"

2008-01-02T09:38:00.000-08:00

The next step was to turn it into a house. I plan to put some more clear layers on it next and add some lines outlining more windows and a door.
Here it is with a few coats of wax on it.
To attach the fabric I painted it on with clear encaustic wax medium.
I placed this antique cross stitch on the painting where I wanted to put it. I decided to use the sun as the top window of the house.

Anna Podris- works in progress

We are all castles.

January, month of re- envisioning.

Nostalgia

Collaborative work with Alison Overton

Electric cat and friends

Owl and Butterfly, more progress on the collaboration

(Fraternal) Twin paintings- a few more layers.

Another series, a new collaboration, a couple of paintings in progress

Getting excited about my show with Megan Clark!! Also new paintings in the works.

Awesome student work pt.2

Madness

New small series

layers of wax

Awesome student work!! Next class starts in August!

Forming ideas for future paintings

Beginning of a painting

The mysterious sea and the new transit building

Winged Brother of a Cat

New series started!

Bright colors for a grey saturday

Take my class! Come to my opening!

Everything is new under the sun

Looking through a glass onion

Oil glazes and more

Come take my Encaustics Class!

The Biggie

Soliloquy

Arches and cones

Supernatural

Possibilities

Best Roots

Little New ones

Studio adventures

A whilrlwind

A fresh start

Family Fun Day!!

Summer's end

More space for paintings

Oil paintings- coming right along

Encaustic class

Exercising brain

A door

Tears of a bird

post encaustic oil paintings.

Inspiration from Elizabeth City.

Empty studio, random daydreams

Making lines

Stencils.

Iconography

A manic creative outpouring

Diptych and more diptychs

Diptych.

Monoprints!

Bird Triptych

Layers

Spring!

Inspiring Me

Blips and blurbs

breathing butterflies and two newbies

swirling ideas....

Mural is a no go

DONE!

More Inspiration

James Ephraim McGirt

Success is a light upon the farther shore,

Inspiration from the site

Mural Proposal

Finished!

Triptych

Beginnings

I did Etsy!!!

Destruction is part of the creative process part 2

Destruction is part of the creative process.

Home studio

preoccupied

Spinning Snowflake, Thinking of and Owl

Will it turn brown?

Fun with stencils

Owl and fire gets a stencil

J ames Ephraim McGirt