EncaustiCamp 2011, Part 1

One week ago, I was standing in a junior high school quadrant listening to Patricia Baldwin Seggebruch as she welcomed the first group of artists to her vision of EncaustiCamp. I was so excited to be a part of this very special event and had been looking forward to it for many months. I'm happy to report that my expectations were fulfilled...and then some!

July in Salem, Oregon....attending a "camp" dedicated to the art of encaustic wax? HELLO....I'm there! The day started with a whirlwind caravan of campers invading the art spaces of Portland after meeting up at Voodoo Donuts: SCRAP....Muse...then wandering through the Pearl District before heading south to Salem. What a wonderful way to get to know fellow artists and adventurers! After a few map mishaps, I finally made my way to campus in time for Trish's welcome speech and evening demonstration to kick-off the 3-day camp.

My first day was spent with instructor Bridgette Guerzon Mills, encaustic book artist extraordinaire! She shared her work, her knowledge, her techniques, and herself with the entire group. Incorporating encaustic painting with bookmaking and transfer techniques were exciting enough. But then.....she introduced us to the union of paper and encaustic wax to create pages within our trifold books. I was immediately in love with this new technique!

Encouraging us to work with our own photographic images and create a theme for our books, I focused on jellyfish and then added some candid photos of my daughter at the beach. The final product......Jellyfish Beach Book.







My triumph of the day was to successfully transfer a color photo to my waxed paper page, which turned out to have a wonderfully aged look:





Day one ended with a great meal, made fresh with local produce. This was followed by an Instructor Q&A led by Trish. I drove back to the hotel that evening with my mind abuzz with new ideas, inspiration, and of course---wonderful wax!

EncaustiCamp is too much to share in one post, so until next time....

Live the dream:) Brenda