Floating on a Breeze

There is a particular quality of light in a garden just before everything stills. The hydrangea blooms have gone cream and full. The butterflies are there, one settled and one "floating on a breeze. Nothing is rushing anywhere.

Floating on a Breeze captures that suspended moment in layered pigmented beeswax and tree resin, built up slowly on a wooden cradle board until the blooms became sculptural and the butterflies found their place inside the surface rather than on top of it.

Three butterflies inhabit this piece. One rendered in alcohol ink, blue-grey and delicate, wings open mid-rest. One copper-toned, settled on a leaf, wings folded inward. One pressed into the wax itself, white and dimensional, emerging from the surface as though the painting grew it. The hydrangea clusters anchor the lower left in cream and ivory, their texture built petal by petal through the encaustic medium.

The background moves through sage, soft green, and warm cream. It does not sit flat. It breathes.

This is the companion piece to In Flight. Both speak of the garden and it's inhabitants. Together they are a conversation. Separately, each is complete.

Floating on a Breeze began the same way In Flight did: with wax, heat, and no fixed plan. The hydrangea blooms were built first, petal by petal, until they had enough weight to anchor the composition. The butterflies came after, each one placed intuitively. One built up through accretion over a stencil, sculptural and dimensional. One in flight, wings open, already leaving. One seated, wings uplifted, its luminescent blue surface and coppery orange underside visible in the same gesture. That last butterfly stopped me. The same creature, two entirely different natures, depending on where the light falls and how the wing turns. The ebony frame was chosen last, and it was the only frame that felt right. Dark enough to hold the pale surface without competing with it. This piece and In Flight were made in the same season, from the same impulse. They belong together, but they do not need each other.

About the Medium

Encaustic painting is one of the oldest art forms in the world, dating to ancient Greece and Rome. Pigmented beeswax is applied in layers, fused with heat between each pass, then polished to a luminous finish. The surface shifts with light and perspective. No two viewings are identical.

 Specifications

• Medium: Encaustic (pigmented beeswax and damar resin) with alcohol ink and handmade paper inclusions
• Support: Wooden cradle board
• Frame: Ebony wood float frame, included
• Dimensions: 45.7 x 45.7 cm (18 x 18 inches), framed
• Ready to hang
• One of a kind. Original artwork.