The Lovely Andrea Bird

I had the pleasure of taking a class with Andrea Bird, of Wax Works Encaustics, a few weeks ago. This class was part of the annual CanwaxWest series that brings in outside artists to Penticton, BC. Though I teach, I am always a student first and never want to miss an opportunity to learn from the best. 

"Andrea Bird has been making art and leading creative workshops for decades, the last focusing on encaustic exclusively. She is in love with this luscious, spontaneous way of painting – considering it more of a ‘dialogue between artist and painting’ than any other medium she’s used.  She mostly teaches advanced workshops that add techniques, or delve into the creative process, mining this rich ground to learn more about what it means to create!"

If you are familiar with her work, you know that Andrea is famous for her dreamy abstracts and luxurious grid style paintings. She works mixed media techniques in with traditional encaustic painting to lovely effect. If you are not familiar, please visit her website in the links below.

This annual class was also an excellent opportunity to reconnect with encaustic friends both locally and from farther points out. Shary Bartlett, whom you know from EncaustiCamp and Encaustic Revelations, came up from Vancouver. She and I will be heading over to the 11th Annual Encaustic Conference in June of next year. Irene Gut, who is a genius with the iron and card technique, came all the way from Fort St John - over a 12 hour drive!

As with all things this enriching, the class was over too quickly. I feel that I took many good lessons away about my process and personal aesthetics. Here are a few of the paintings above that I worked on during class. You can see my "Pablo Heart" in the November Rip Off Post. I strongly encourage anyone who is seriously interested in working with encaustic to head on over the The Hive and take a class with Andrea yourself. 

https://waxworksencaustics.com

http://andreabird.com