Unexpected things happen when you are painting.

I anticipated a cooler tone when I picked up an oil pigment stick and ran it across the lower left hand corner, but there were surprising (even alarming) traces of Indian Yellow and Green Gold.

I stood back as the music of this piece at once resolved on a high note.

April fields began to green and tree buds swell, yet the almost daily spring snowstorms continued to blanket these Northern Catskill Mountains as if sensing the pandemic mood.

I created this 12 by 16 painting using encaustics and oils with beeswax over watercolor on a cradled panel. It is on display at the Rhode Island Watercolor Society’s online exhibit: It’s All About Color. Visit my Art Process page to see the evolution of this piece from watercolor to encaustic to oil to finished work.

This year, crocuses endured several April snows before fading away into the fresh spring grasses.

Fading Crocus, an 8 x 8 x 1.5 encaustic with oils and beeswax over watercolor painting will be on display this summer in the Bloom and Grow exhibit at Annmarie Sculpture Garden and Art Center in Solomons, MD.

Just the subtlest touches of encaustics and oils with beeswax over a watercolor base seem to bring out the best in each media and result in work that is truest to my experience of the beauty of the northern mountains.

There’s a special kind of light in the northern mountains at dusk in the late winter. Continuing my attempts at capturing large spaces in tiny paintings, this 6″ by 6″ mixed media piece started with a watercolor wash coated with encaustic medium. Then layers of encaustic paints and just a touch of oils with beeswax.

I’ve been working on very small paintings lately. The little 5 by 7 winter landscape features a watercolor layer coated with layers of encaustic medium and then oil paints mixed with beeswax and linseed oil.

Why do I paint with encaustics? The glow, the texture, the layers.