Interview with Tryst Gallery

I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Jim Sisley, owner of Tryst Gallery in Leesburg, Virginia in December 2018 on Facebook LIVE as the Gallery’s featured artist. Click the link or read the transcript below to learn about my creative process, inspiration behind my latest series and my back-story.

Anne Stine Interview with Jim Sisley December 2018 

PART ONE and PART TWO on Facebook LIVE.

Anne: My medium is Encaustic Mixed Media. Encaustic is beeswax that is mixed with a pigment and damar resin, a tree sap. It comes solid if you buy it but I create it by mixing all of those elements together over a hot plate. It is completely solid and you have to melt it to use it up to 200 degrees. The way that I work with it is in tins on a hot plate so it becomes molten. Then I’m able to paint on a wood panel but it solidifies as soon as it’s off the heat source. I have to reapply the heat with a blow torch and heat gun. When I reapply the heat it’s able to become molten again on the surface so then I’m able to maneuver it and move it as I wish almost using fire and heat like a paint brush.

Jim: That’s amazing you paint with a blowtorch. That’s cool. How did you get started doing this?

Anne: I originally was an acrylic mixed media painter. I love acrylics but it was frustrating especially in collage work, getting each layer to really fuse with the next. I saw an encaustic painting online and couldn’t figure out how they made it. I researched what it was and from then on it was really about self-educating about the medium and working with it over and over with lots of failures until I had an idea of how to manipulate it the way I wanted it.

Jim: So practice makes a real difference in any medium right?

Anne: Right.

Jim: So one of the things that I read about the medium is that this is a very ancient form of art and they have recorded that they have found encaustic works in the Roman ruins. So it’s a very durable medium because of the hardness right?

Anne: Absolutely. There are paintings in museums today that are over 2000 years old. It first originated in 1 or 2 BC when Rome occupied Egypt and the Egyptians used the wax to paint the portrait, on a wood panel of that person who had been mummified. They are just as beautiful as they were back then.

Jim: Yes it’s amazing. Every time I see one of the old pieces and think about what it would take to preserve it over all those years. Do you have any of that old work?

Anne: Yea, no.

Jim: The interesting thing is that the beeswax is the key. Because of its antifungal and antibacterial properties, it’s mildew and fungus resistant.

Anne: Yes, it’s able to preserve even more than oil paint.

Jim: So did you take lessons in this medium? I know you were an artist before, who taught you?

Anne: This is called the life of hard knocks and hours and hours of playing with the medium and of course reading everything I could, looking at every video that I could find from other very generous artists online that share their work on YouTube showing how to work with the medium. Then it came down to determining how I wanted to use it, how I was going to use it the way I wanted to, and how I was going to get the expression and my interpretation.

Jim: Anne has been with us from really the earliest days, maybe the second or third show we’ve had. You’ve shown a lot of subject matter. This show is all about water.

Anne: It’s called Living Water.

Jim: Good title, how did you decide on the subject matter?

Anne: Twofold. First of all, working with the medium itself, because of its molten properties it flows like water.  And when you apply it to the board and you are heating it, it will drip and ooze and cascade down the panel, so that immediately was inspiration right there. I thought if this moves like water, let me really make it move like water and see what I can do with it. There’s a beautiful sheen to encaustic. Especially working with the layers of wax. I work with it pigmented and also work with clear medium. When I lay multiple layers, and I put anywhere from 1o to 20 layers on a painting, I’m also applying that clear medium to show the depth. I then gouge into it or sculpt into it to produce ripples and reflections.

Jim: So this piece, Motion, is a great piece. It’s a very challenging piece. I haven’t seen you paint water as prolifically as this show. I was wondering what particular challenges you may have had with that. It’s a very chaotic scene.

“Motion” encaustic mixed media, 48″x36″ wood panel

Anne: It’s not chaotic, it’s passionate! (laughing)

Jim: You captured chaos. There’s never going to be a repeat, if that was a photograph it never gets to be a repeat.

Anne: First of all, working with a board this size was a challenge. That thing is massive; I hurt my shoulder when I was creating that one. (laughing) To get the image of flowing water,  I had to paint the encaustic then take the hotgun and tilt the board a certain way so that wax would move the way I wanted it to.

Jim: It’s very organic. Honestly that’s one of the things about your encaustic work, I can’t say that I have a whole lot of other folks to compare it to, but your encaustic work you’re really letting the medium do the work. You’re letting it go where it wants to go. That’s a big struggle for a lot of artists. It’s the difference between people that really can use paint or whatever the medium is to accentuate the subject that they’re trying to get down, regardless of what their technical skills are. You seem to me to be a very technically astute and capable encaustic artist.

Anne: Well, thank you, Jim. The best part of working with a medium such as encaustic for me is the creativity and its unpredictability. That’s why I don’t see myself going back to being a traditional acrylic painter. I do use oils because you can’t mix acrylic with encaustic, it’s like oil and water. I’m working with oils and pastels and infusing them into the wax and becoming more and more educated about oil and how it works with encaustic.

Jim: The physical properties?

Anne: Absolutely.

Jim: That’s very exciting, I don’t know if you’ve studied a lot of the chemical compositions of the different media components that you put into it but what have you discovered? I think that people would want to know that.

Anne: For encaustic itself, there’s a very specific ratio when you’re mixing the Damar Resin with the pigment and the wax. You have to know what you’re looking for. It could be too soft or too hard. If it’s too hard it would become brittle and you don’t want that to happen. If it’s too soft, it’s just not going to solidify. I work with a 1 to 8 ratio of resin to encaustic then a 20% addition of pigment. Some artists will go a little softer or harder, but that’s what works for me. I use pigment powder and oils to pigment the wax.

Jim: Pigment powder, I think it creates that opaque quality that I think is in this painting specifically. But you’re also doing washes as well. I see a clear and see-through application of some of the medium.

Anne: That’s putting in less than 20% of the pigment so it becomes more transparent. And then when you are adding a medium onto the encaustic, you have to be aware of how that is going to fuse. Every layer is fused. Whether I put on a layer of pastel or oil or encaustic, it needs be fused or it could separate.

Jim: What happens if it comes apart?

Anne: Well you don’t have that archival permanence. Especially as a mixed media or collage artist, everything must fuse. Each layer should be properly embedded with each other so it doesn’t come apart and have an archival quality.

Jim: There were a lot of great painters who didn’t believe in that

Anne: I don’t want anyone calling me saying their painting is chipping! (laughing)

Jim: In 200 years.

Anne: Yea, right!

Anne: So applying, you asked me how they work together. You can apply oil to the encaustic surface but not too much or it won’t fuse when you heat it. When you use pastels, you have to make sure to rub it with your hand so you doesn’tt have that chalky look. There’s a lot that you learn through experience, through playing with it. Hours of playing with it.

Jim: So subject matter is always a challenge for any artist regardless of medium. I’ve seen you paint a lot of landscapes and I love them all but how do you decide what you’re going to paint. Do you work in themes or do you work in one-offs? Tell us about it. What’s your process?

Anne: Nature is very important to me. I have a deep spiritual connection to nature. To me, nature is my church. I grew up in Virginia and I would walk into the forest across from our house and walk through the pine trees and it would be like a cathedral to me and  I have a deep connection with nature and just magnifying the beautiful natural monuments in our world. So that’s important to me as a subject matter. I chose water because the connection of water is also important to me. So yes, the medium itself was an influence, but to me the water is also living because it evokes emotion and it has movement. This piece for instance, that we were talking about before, represents to me the turbulence of life we all experience living on this planet. It might mean something different to someone else but to me that was the feeling behind it. And, that piece across the room, “Quiet Expanse”, is an expression of the stillness of a marsh and the peace that you find when you’re next to a very peaceful, quiet marsh at dusk. It’s all about an emotive inspiration as well as the movement or stillness of water.

“Quiet Expanse”, encaustic mixed media, 30″x40″ wood panel

Jim: You know water I think is one of those elements that it’s never the same. There’s a great old saying that a person can’t step into the same river twice because the person is different and so is the river. Every single time. And one of the things that make it so healing is that reflective quality of light regardless of the time of the day. It could be absolute midnight and you still get reflection in the water. It’s a very difficult dynamic to capture. So I’m curious how you study to capture, do you draw first? Do you do Macketes? How do you approach that you’re able to recreate and capture water?

Anne: The challenge with encaustic is that I can’t paint outside, with all the cords and outlets and electricity and fire that’s required to do what I do.  However, I’m exploring this. For my next collection I’m incorporating plein-air. This collection was all done in the studio working from photographs I took of water sites. Most were done at Sleeter Lake in Round Hill, Virginia. It’s a reservoir, a lovely lake that you can go kayaking on. I work from photographs because I‘m able to use them for inspiration. The painting never looks like the photograph.

Jim: I was going to ask. How close?

Anne: I use it as inspiration to get started and let it the creative process take over.  You can’t see that piece over there, but that rushing water painting was inspired during an afternoon with my son at a creek in Purcellville.

“Rushing Water”, encaustic mixed meia, 36″x24″

Jim: So you’re not a control freak as an artist. I’m just going to feed this back to you. It seems to me what you’re doing from the photo references, is that you want to get the general feeling of it. And what you’re creating is as much about Anne’s patience, hand and experience with the elements that move it around. Your brush for the lack of a better term than the medium, the paint in painterly terms and you’re okay with it just going that way right?

Anne: Yes. To me that’s art. That’s what brings the heart into a work. I could never see myself doing photorealism. For me, it has to have a piece of my heart in it.

Jim: I think for a lot of painters and I’m hearing that from you as well is that letting the painting go where it wants to go, to let the art piece go where it wants to go allows it to be something that couldn’t be any other way. Right? It’s kind of this partnership between the artist and their medium.

Anne: I call encaustic a naughty child. You try to control it and it just won’t work. You need to give it some space and you have to guide it as opposed to controlling it.

Jim: So I just wanted to touch on the beginning of your art career. Did you go to school anywhere? Are you a self-taught artist?

Anne: I went to Virginia Tech and I studied communications and art and that has helped in my art career. I’ve been able to pull from that.

Jim: What have you pulled from a communications education?

Anne: Well, the business part of art and publicizing the work. I think it’s helped me because being an artist is 50% business 50% creating if you want to make some income from it. It’s helped me to promote my art as well as work it as a business. Studying communications has given me the background I needed to help promote art organizations, other artists, and the art community through social media and print media.

Jim: But you worked in other mediums too?

Anne: Yes, I also studied art and I’m constantly learning. I’m taking courses whenever I can, learning under masters whenever I can find someone available.

Jim: So, who has been a big influence?

Anne: The impressionists were my biggest influence. Monet is my absolute favorite and I was able to visit his garden last Summer, so I painted some water lilies. You know the iconic waterlily painting you have to paint if you go? (laughing)

“Summer of Reflection”, encaustic mixed media, “24”x24″

Jim: I have to say I see a lot of people trying to do Monet-like work and they use paint or watercolor or something and 99.99% of them all fail and you’ve done it extraordinarily well.

Anne: Thank you. Impressionism is where I’ve parked myself.

Jim: Hard to stay away from. It is a phenomenal thread of work. Who do you buy? Local artists, have you bought any local art lately?

Anne: I love Leanne Fink’s work. I love her use of color. Penny Hauffe’s work is beautiful.  I started as a muralist.

Jim: Was it hard to scale down?

Anne: It was a relief to scale down, let me tell you. I did it for 15 years. It was a lot of big work. The piece that broke me was a ceiling. I did a ceiling and I said that’s enough. I put my ladder away and started my original work. Also, I felt as an artist it was time to step away from commission work, being told by someone else what to paint.

Jim: And paint your heart and soul?

Anne: And paint my heart and soul.

Jim: If there were a young budding artist wondering if it was something they should get into and you wanted to give them some words of wisdom of your travel down the artistic road, what would it be?

Anne: I’m a big believer in following your dreams. I didn’t start out as a young person thinking I was going to be an artist. But, I had a dream and I never let it go. Jut immerse yourself in what you love and be around people who love art and people who encourage you. I have an amazing friend group and an amazing husband and family that really promote me and encourage me every step of the way. Keep following that dream. Also, study under people whose art you love.

Jim: Ladies and gentlemen I just want to thank Anne Stine for her time.

www.annestinepainting.com

The first developmental stage of a new painting is the infancy stage where the artist is full of hopeful anticipation. When paint first touches canvas, creative spirit is high and the artist just knows that this will be the best painting ever!

Next, the toddler phase is when the artist attempts to apply all she knows about the medium to shape the painting into what was first imagined. Similar to the “terrible two’s”, there are challenges for sure —  cleaning up mistakes, applying artistic discipline and gently guiding the imagery towards the original vision. Much patience is needed, but nothing prepares the artist for the demands of the next phase . . .Adolescence!

“Who are you? What have you done with my sweet, endearing little one?” rage in my thoughts as I give my teenager daughter that “look” only a mom can deliver. So, meet my teenage painting. . . 

I’ve worked and worked but nothing went right with this piece. I must have scraped and repainted it a dozen times, but I still wasn’t satisfied.

Luckily, experience has taught me to recognize when it’s time to back off. The more I push, the more push-back I’ll receive. I’ve been known to check up on my teenage daughter one too many times after a heated “discussion” and the results were always disastrous. Sometime it’s best to stop the meddling, walk away and allow emotions to settle and friction to dissolve between mother and daughter — artist and painting. The temptation to quit hovers in the air like a dark cloud, but that won’t solve a thing. Anyway, it’s more fun to see what will develop over time with a lot of love and patience.

Back at it the next morning refreshed, I still don’t understand the creation before me but I’m able to see it from a different perspective. Try a little of this, take away a little of that — ideas flow and something new begins to evolve. I’m surprised to realize that this painting was never meant to be a landscape after all, It’s a koi pond!

“Koi Garden” 24″x24″, encaustic mixed media

“Of course! Why didn’t I see that before?” I say to myself. Now, the work flows. I follow the creative spirit and the painting matures into what it was meant to be. If you’ve hit ultimate frustration mode, perhaps you’re trying too hard. Despite all our efforts as artists, a painting can not be forced into something it isn’t. There are developmental stages it must go through.  And, the same goes for our beautiful children. I humbly admit there have been times when I’ve tried too hard to manipulate both.

Please leave a comment on your creative process in painting and/or parenthood.

I’m always a little sad in September. The turning of the leaves and crisp morning air means fall is coming to Virginia. My spirit longingly desires to be back at the Outerbanks, North Carolina where the smell of salt water permeates the air. Fall is a time when I try to recreate summer moments from favorite vacation photos or the images locked away in my mind.

“Descending Dusk” is just such a painting. However, I never made it to Mantel, North Carolina, where the photograph I used for inspiration was taken. My dear friend posted this image on Instagram and with her permission, I knew immediately I had to paint it.

This view from the bay just after sunset portrays that sleepy, cozy feeling you get at the beach when the day has ended and all creatures great and small are making their way back home after a lovely day in the sun. A warm blanket of dusk falls upon the landscape. You can imagine hearing the sounds of locust buzzing, seabirds calling, and a faint hum of a passing boat. Beachgoers slowly drag their beach gear up the dunes and back home with visions of a shrimp dinner in their heads.

“Descending Dusk” is a cold wax mixed media painting on 20″x20″x1.5″ gallery wrapped canvas. I like to make a textured underpainting of acrylic medium before applying the wax. You can see here how I used medium with a stencil to create the numbers and letters. Vintage french dictionary text and more number images are added to emphasize the theme of descending day and time.

Next, comes the cold wax application with a palette knife.

Since this painting was created using a palette knife exclusively, it is rich in texture and movement. You can see how the paint builds up on the canvas layer after layer and I’m able to scratch into it with a sharp tool for added visual texture.

The final piece beside the original photograph shows how cold wax medium can add great visual texture to landscape paintings.

This piece will be exhibited in a local art show this month. Contact me for more information if you are interested.

Learning about Love in the Studio

This summer, I completed a bible study of 1 Corinthians 13 titled, “Bible Study for Busy Mamas, Thirty Days in 1 Corinthians 13,” by Pam Foster, that centered around defining demonstrating love in life. Most of us are familiar with this well-known scriptural passage popular in wedding ceremonies. You know the one that begins “Love is patient. Love is kind.” My NKJV Bible translation has a slightly different version of verse 4, “Love is long-suffering. Love is kind.”

Long-suffering? I wondered . . . What does that mean? What does it look like to DO long-suffering?

In the Blue Letter Bible app, long-suffering is defined as being of a long spirit, not to lose heart. To persevere patiently and bravely in enduring misfortunes and troubles. Slow to anger. Slow to punish.

Okay, I’ll go for it. So, I meditated on the question: Where do I need to not lose heart, to persevere patiently and bravely endure troubles? I was expecting the usual thought of practicing patience and kindness with my kids, my husband, my friends, etc. However, a surprising thought came to mind instead —  I needed to show patience and kindness to myself . . . in the studio.

Ain’t got that lovin’ feeling

I don’t know about you, but I wrestle with bad days in the studio frequently. They hit usually after coming off of a big production time like before a show. As the dust settles, I start having troubles. Just such a time hit me hard after a big art tour in June where I produced 25 paintings in three months! Work was not going well.  A week filled with scraped paintings culminated in a fierce attack of my inner bully. (I elaborate more on how to fight back the bully in the article, “How to kill the mental bully and start creating”.)

The unkind self-talk started with small accusations like, “you’ve lost your touch,” and “it’s because you took a vacation that your rhythm is off.” I ignored the insipid thoughts, like we all do, and continued to work, but to no avail. I was stuck in the pit of self-loathing, self-pity and ugly paintings.

After the work I had done in this bible study on love, I knew it was time for me to take a deep breath and change these thoughts around. I needed to purge the lies and remember the truth that each failure is one step closer to the art I’m meant to create. My unique style and perspective is mine and mine alone, and every failure reveals what doesn’t fit in my style. How will I discover what is truly my voice if I don’t take risks and fail? This weeding-out process of techniques that don’t fit and the cleansing of poisonous self-critical thoughts is so essential to the creative process and maintaining peace.

Stop the Madness

Of course, this isn’t easy. The first step is realizing it’s happening.  I used to keep pushing harder when frustration hit. Now, I stop and meditate on all of the good around me.  I put down the brush and take up pen and paper and begin jotting down everything good that has happened recently in my personal and professional life. I know it sounds cliche, but the act of counting my blessings changes my thought patterns and gives me the boost I need to be patient and kind to myself in the studio. This process of weeding out the lies and affirming the truth can take some time, but it’s worth every minute. Just this simple change in my thought pattern increases my joy and I can start fresh again at the easel.

So, if you find yourself in that maddening creative pit, STOP! Make a list at what you’ve accomplished and hang it up where you can see it every day. Presently, I don’t have a large inventory and it worries me. But, when I read my list of what DID go well these past few months like creating a new website, opening a studio and starting to teach; I can give myself a break and say, “Good job!” instead of “You’re behind!”

Remembering the Mission

Finally, I remember my art career is not about the shows, the profits, or the ego boost from recognition. My passion for my work is about bringing joy to others. That’s my mission. I believe art is the tool I was given by God to complete this assignment. The work is hindered when I focus too much on self, promoting self, and caring what others think. The creative process just seems to flow when I make time to show up in the studio with a patient heart and see what was given to me to do during that special time. Slowly, a rhythm will appear. Good work will come. Then, one day I sit back and see there is a collection before me. A collection created by the collaboration between the creative spirit and me.

What’s your mission? Jot that down and hang it up next to your blessings list as a way to remember why you’re toiling away at the work you love.

Love is patient and kind. Demonstrate this to yourself in the home and in the studio. Take life slower. Be patient with yourself, your art, your progress and other human beings. Just make art, the progress will naturally come. There is no one to catch-up with or out-do. It’s your story, your life, your precious time. Just your art that comes from a special place, unrushed, sacred.

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This blog is about the creative process I went through as an artist to create a mixed media collage memorial painting of my father. There is a lot of thought that goes into creating a mixed media memorial collage. If it’s your own family member or loved one, the journey can be heartwarming and emotionally turbulent at the same time. After the death of my father, Phillip, it took me six month to build up the courage to begin a painting representing how I wanted to remember him. But, I am so glad I took that leap of courage and began the process.

The Subject for the Painting

My dad was “a work of art” or “a piece of work” — depending on how you knew him.  An orphan found on a doorstep in Washington D.C. in 1922, he spent his childhood growing up on a farm as a foster kid/field hand. He fought for his country at age 18 in the “Battle of the Bulge’ in WWII. He loved his country. He loved his family. And, he loved God.  Family and friends alike knew if they were in trouble, Phil would be the first one to show up to lend a hand.

Dad – the subject of my painting

When his health failed him in his 80’s, I stepped in to care for this fiercely independent man for six years until he died in 2014 at age 92. Those were very tough years filled with many conflicting emotions and struggles. I watched him change and become someone I didn’t even recognize anymore. But, when I lost him to dementia all those struggles didn’t matter any more. I was empty. And I didn’t know what to do with all of these conflicting feelings bottled up inside me?

A vintage letter from WWII

Collecting the mixed media “pieces of life” 

Several month later, I came across in an antique store a vintage letter written by a mother to her son fighting in WWII. It struck me hard — celebrate the man. Celebrate his courage. Capture him in his prime. Work through these feelings of loss in the only way I knew how — paint. I went back to the letter and pulled a quote that spoke of the longing in a loved one’s heart. It read, “sight for sore eyes to see you”. That quote summed up how  this hollow empty place in my heart felt now that he was gone. But what else could I use in a collage?

Old photographs give personality

One of his favorite photos of himself was taken when he was on leave in Paris during The War. Perfect! I photocopied it and added water to smudge the ink, and a cool pink color came to the surface. Ripping the paper was a tangible way to represent the brokenness this man had endured throughout his life.  I drew the other half of his strong face with Indian ink — representing the young man I never knew personally. Then, finished the mixed media collage with a stamp of the Eiffel Tower, the face of one of his watches that I disassembled, and a clock image.

To me, it’s all about time — the time I didn’t know him in his youth, the years I had with him,and the months going by as I miss him. I assembled the “pieces of life” onto an 10″x 10″x 1.5″ cradled wood panel primed with a burnt umber base coat using Acrylic Soft Gel medium. I applied pieces of teal tissue to add a bit of color and antiqued the whole piece with a burnt umber glaze.

A Treasure Chest of Memories

Diving into the creative process of painting a mixed media painting of my father helped me come to terms with my feelings. The end product is a painting that holds so much emotion and memories personally — like a little treasure chest simply titled, “Dad”. My memories feel safe now — hidden in this little chest. When I summon up the courage, I gaze at this painting and recall his boisterous laugh, the mischievous twinkle in his eye and how he would give me the biggest bear hugs in the world — all treasures of a precious time with my dad.

“Dad”, 10″x10″x1.5″ cradled wood panel. www.annestinepainting.com

Dear Reader, I recommend creating a memorial painting of someone whom you hold dear or contact someone who can create one for you. It’s an heirloom piece that captures not only the person, but their spirit as well. You will value this painting as one of your most precious possessions. Feel free to contact me for more information about mixed media painting or inquire about a commission.

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What has been your experience with creating an artwork that captures an individual’s life? Please leave a comment below.