Wedges and Wood and Wax, Oh My

I am challenged in moving my explorations in encaustic wax painting to larger sizes. Partly it's a confidence issue as I improve my technique with hot wax and partly it's a storage issue of larger pieces that will have layers and layers of wax on the surface. They have to be stored a little more carefully than my oil paintings.

I know exactly what I want to do for my first two large encaustic paintings. I decided the way to leap in was to build a couple of my own wood supports to paint on. Saturday, I went to Home Depot with my friend Peter and bought two 4x8 foot sheets of thin plywood. We then cut (okay...*he* cut) the sheets into various sizes to fit some pre-made left-over stretcher bars I had been given by my friend Lisa. The stretcher bars actually have a side to them that has a molding look and is nicer than just a flat surface. So I decided to paint the front side (that has the molding) black and glue the plywood board (with wood glue) to the back side, giving it an already framed look. I will paint my encaustic wax painting on the plywood but inside the "frame" on the front side. In order to not get wax drippings on the painting "frame", I'll have to mask it off with painters tape, but it will be much lighter than adding an additional frame at the end. I guess I'll find out if all of this effort is worth it.

My first larger piece will be 27"x19" of the actual artwork space, but with the built-in "frame", it's 32x24". So it's a start. I finished painting the "frame" black last night (gesso'd it first). It needs another coat today. I'll glue tomorrow and keep it braced for a day and hopefully begin work on laying down the initial layers of wax this weekend.



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