Karen's work is frequently on exhibit at the NorVA centre in Flin Flon, Manitoba.
Karen Clark is a determined and enthusiastic artist and arts advocate. She promotes, teaches and supports others in their artistic quests. She is a force for the arts in Flin Flon. These pictures are experiments in encaustic from June 2015. Using wax and india ink, a hair dryer and a blow torch, the following results emerged. |
pRINTS
Paintings
Lily Pad Project
Seven lily pad batiks came out of the same pickle jar at the 2012 NorVA Artist Retreat last summer. I designed these seven but several other artists took part and had their batiks in the same jar. The lily pad motif and colours were inspired by a photo by Cheryl Zubrack, a visiting Winnipeg artist.
The energy and excitement as the group dye batch was rinsed and revealed was infectious and loud!
About the Method
The crumple dye bath was prefaced by some loose wax splatter on pure white contain. This spatter of white rends the viewer of the original whaite fabric and brings sparkle to the end product. This element is particular to batik along with the crackled lines from wax. Next all the separate cloths were crumpled and twisted according to the various artists' desires. The cloth was packed tightly into the huge pickle jar. Golden yellow Procion dye was poured in followed by the Scarlet and the beautiful and surprising Avocado. The whole thing was topped up with clear water and left for 40 minutes.
The pieces were rinsed to rounds of applause.
The following day the lily pad shapes and stems were waxed in, some splatter was used at this step as well. The wax shapes were crackled to create more texture on the leaf shapes. The final dye bath was Cotton Black.
This collection brings back the warmth of the sun, the smell of beeswax and the fun of the whole retreat.
The energy and excitement as the group dye batch was rinsed and revealed was infectious and loud!
About the Method
The crumple dye bath was prefaced by some loose wax splatter on pure white contain. This spatter of white rends the viewer of the original whaite fabric and brings sparkle to the end product. This element is particular to batik along with the crackled lines from wax. Next all the separate cloths were crumpled and twisted according to the various artists' desires. The cloth was packed tightly into the huge pickle jar. Golden yellow Procion dye was poured in followed by the Scarlet and the beautiful and surprising Avocado. The whole thing was topped up with clear water and left for 40 minutes.
The pieces were rinsed to rounds of applause.
The following day the lily pad shapes and stems were waxed in, some splatter was used at this step as well. The wax shapes were crackled to create more texture on the leaf shapes. The final dye bath was Cotton Black.
This collection brings back the warmth of the sun, the smell of beeswax and the fun of the whole retreat.