Somewhere between Painting and Photography.
[The Artistic Image] online class started this week so once again it was time to give my favorite assignment. I ask students to go online and gather inspiration of photo encaustic work that they wish they had created. I ask them to then look at what draws them to the work. What are the similarities among the pieces. And what emotions immediately come to mind.
Photographs are so much a part of our reality. We see a so many images on a daily basis. Most of them we don’t even remember. But every once in awhile there is an image that will continue to live inside of me. Most of the time, these images are the photo encaustic images that I see with every class.
This week I was particularly struck by a couple of Leah MacDonald images that were incredibly painterly. I got to thinking about photo encaustic being somewhere between painting and photography.
When photography was introduced it was said that it would kill painting. That was a little dramatic but photography has indeed taken over as the selected medium for recording the modern world. I tried to researching the estimated number of photographs that will be taken this year. I lost count somewhere between 2 to 3 trillion. That is a lot of images.
But something different happens when we add encaustic to our images. Photographs become our sketchbooks. Our starting point. We have our toolbox of techniques along with our vision or an idea of something we want to say……and we end up blurring those lines somewhere between painting and photography. And for me, the images become much more memorable.
Would love to hear from you about your thoughts. Leave your comment below.
Be well….be creative,
A wonderful blog!!! You took me there a few years back and I photograph with encaustic in mind. Always. I of course do not put every photo into an encaustic painting, but it always comes to mind. New stuff happens all the time and I am loving it. Thanks for changing my world Clare. Have a great summer!!
Hi Kay, what a fabulous comment. Thank you:)
I love being in the digital age of photography, but with all the point and shoot cameras and IPhones, and the trillions of images “out there” I think it has really dumbed down the quality and recognition of a really “good” photograph. Face Book is full of “great photo” and “WOWs” as comments, when all it is is a cute subject and the image quality/composition is poor.
I used to sell many of my framed photographs at shows, but those sales slowed in the past five years. I think it is more then the economy….I just think the average person sees a nice photo and thinks, “Why of course, I could do THAT.” I’m so glad I found the encaustic process. It has enabled me to make one of a kind art pieces with my photography and sales are doing well. Most folks don’t even realize that I start with a photograph until I tell them. I cannot draw nor paint in the traditional sense, but the encaustic process makes me fell more like an “artist”….
I agree Andrea, I don’t think traditional photography sales are down because of the economy, I also think it’s because of the number of images we see on a daily basis has diminished the photograph as a piece of art.
I too am glad that you found the encaustic process.
I had read about this assignment in one of your previous blogs and tried it recently, after a period of feeling stuck with my photo encaustic work, I found new inspiration and techniques–thank you! I plan to do it periodically. There’s uch a range oft photo encaustic work out there to learn from,, including Leah Macdonald’s.
It’s an assignment that I do frequently as well…..everytime I feel stuck! And I love to see how my inspiration shifts over time.
Hi Clare. sorry this isn’t in response to your request but wanted to take advantage of being able to tell you what a fabulous show you created in Portland. My daughter Ann Topping and I spent a long time thoroughly absorbing all of the art work. We both absolutely “adored” ( probably the wrong word) the first place winner! So thank you so much for making this show happen. Diane Cassidy