Tricia Dewey

Color

2012-02-11T19:21:00.000-08:00

Since the last few images have been fairly neutral, I decided to do a few in colorful palettes, which is my usual. Both of these images were done with pictures of actual three dimensional encaustic pieces I did early last year, and I decided to use them in digital work.

Images with Art Dolls

2012-02-03T19:31:00.000-08:00

My friend Lisa is a very talented mixed media artist, and I maintain her website for her. Since I am embarking on learning more about digital imagery this year, I decided (with Lisa's permission) to incorporate some of her art dolls into the images.

I used products from Deviant Scrap, Oscraps, and Scrapbook Graphics to complete the images.

Pet Project

2012-01-26T18:03:00.000-08:00

One of my goals this year is to try out different digital techniques and styles. I prefer this more contemporary version of our cat, Weepy, but will continue to try different things along the way.
My husband also prefers this version of his cat.

Pet Portraits

2012-01-22T12:01:00.000-08:00

I spent this weekend working on pet portraits of the family pets. This first one is of Flannel, my mother-in-law's cat, who unfortunately, is not with us anymore. He was a wonderful cat.

The next cat is Twinkletoes, another of my mother-in-law's cats. She is very much a bossy cat, and does rule the roost.

This third one is of Weepy, our cat-or rather, my husband's cat as she only likes him. She is very hard to photograph. She is also the boss of the dogs we have as well.

Another Digital Day

2012-01-13T17:20:00.000-08:00

I am enjoying my time off from work, although that is ending this week. I had a chance to finish an image I started a couple of days ago, along with 2 more. This first image I just finished, with elements from Deviant Art and Deviant Scrap. Last week I went to the Paul Gaultier exhibit here in Dallas, and it was really fabulous. there were lots of designs with lace and netting over the face, so this image reminded me of the exhibit.

This next picture also reminded me of the mannequins he had at the beginning of the exhibit.

And, finally, I have an image of Sully, a 95 pound Labrador that we rescued last year. We think he is about 6 years old, and he is wonderful. We also have a husky. Sully is very hard to photograph, and this was one of the best pictures.

More Experiments

2012-01-07T12:29:00.000-08:00

I am lucky that I have time this week until my regular job starts up to play around with my digital art. This first piece is done for another friend of mine who had a black cat named Gdowski. Ellen sculpts all kinds of fish and dragons with polymer clay, so I thought they should be represented. Again, these images were created using elements from Deviant Scrap and Scrapbook Graphics.

This next one is of my husky Cheyenne, who is very photogenic. Most of these elements came from Scrapbook Graphics and Designer Digitals.

Finally, the last image is strictly me playing around with different backgrounds, and roses from Deviant Art stock.

Flooring Project

2012-01-07T12:15:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine is revamping her art studio, including the floor. She wants to add old book pages and imagery, and has asked her friends to make images for her. I made these two images with both personal photography and elements from Deviant Scrap and Scrapbook Graphics.

My friend needs these images to be more monochromatic and earth toned, which is not my usual color palette, so this was a little bit of a challenge. Anyway, they are ready for her to use.

New Year, New Work

2012-01-03T12:59:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! I have started some new digital pieces, and am having a blast with Photoshop. Since I have some time in January before my work starts up again, I have been doing a number of tutorials and learning new skills in Photoshop. I have also discovered some really great sites for digital elements to enhance your own photography, or to create your own image.

These images used products from Scrapbook Graphics and Deviant Scrap. I also used stock images from JoesSistah on Flickr, and stock imagery from Celairen and Ec-stock found on Deviant Art.

Here are 3 images I have finished this past week.

Virginia Vacation

2011-11-06T08:01:00.000-08:00

We just got back from visiting family in rural Virginia, where the scenery is amazing. One of my favorite things to do there is to just drive around the countryside, taking photos of old buildings, barns, and of course the beautiful Shenandoah mountains.

Since my photography skills are somewhat lacking, I like to tweak the images I take in Photoshop, removing phone poles, signs, and cars, then I add painterly effects digitally.

New Encaustic Fossil Series

2011-09-17T17:00:00.000-07:00

This week I have started a new encaustic fossil series incorporating imagery on a wood panel, encaustic medium, and oil sticks.

I recently bought some R & F pigment sticks, and they are by far the best oil sticks I have used.

I am using images manipulated in Photoshop, then printed and glued to a gessoed wood panel. Then I apply encaustic medium, fuse and then apply the oil sticks. By layering the oil sticks and wax, the painting becomes quite luminous.

I really enjoy working with these new oil sticks, and in this new more pastel color palette. I am going to let these dry for a couple of days, then see if more layers of color and wax are needed.

All Dolls Are Art Conference

2011-08-07T14:05:00.001-07:00

Well, I finally got some pictures of the things I made in my classes at ADAA. I took Lisa Renner's classes on "Reliquary Doll" and "Bird Peeps", and I just love my little creations.

Lisa is a very good friend of mine, and is extraordinarily talented. She is also one of the best teachers out there. No one, and I really mean no one else puts as much time and effort into all the class handouts and class kits.

The conference is the very first for this group, and I thought it was well organized with lots of class choices. I was glad to see some mixed media classes offered, as I do not sew at all.

Aladdin's Genies

2011-08-01T10:48:00.000-07:00

I have been working on a group of dolls I am calling "Aladdin's Genies", since they all originate with a glass bottle. I am enjoying playing around with them, and seeing all their different personalities. They are made of glass bottles, polymer clay, inks, chalks, paint, wire and fibers. I hope you enjoy them.

I also attended an art doll conference; All Dolls Are Art, which was fabulous. I will be posting pictures at a later date.

Ancient Luminous Art Dolls

2011-05-08T09:35:00.000-07:00

I haven't had much time lately for any type of art, but this weekend I got a chance to be in the studio. I wanted to make a couple of dolls using some glass bottles, polymer clay, and other embellishments, and came up with this couple.

I hope everyone out there has a wonderful Mother's Day.

Ancient Luminous Puzzle Beads

2011-02-20T07:02:00.000-08:00

I was recently thrilled to learn that I was featured on Polymer Clay Daily for my new clay beads! I have been working diligently on refining the process to these beads, and having a lot of fun in the process.

I have not made jewelry in over 2 years, so this is a refreshing diversion for me. I will most likely be obsessed with this new technique for a while before returning to my encaustic work, but isn't that what creating art is all about?

Teaching Art

2011-02-20T06:58:00.000-08:00

I have a friend whose daughter is an art teacher, and during our recent bad weather has now opened an etsy shop for her designs. She is making really cute signs for kids, family and holidays, so please check out Lori Martin Designs.

New Year, New Art Projects

2011-02-04T13:27:00.001-08:00

Wow! It has been a long time since I have had time to do any art!

I tore a tendon in my elbow, and have not been able to use my dominant hand, so no art. Plus with the holidays, it gets fairly busy at our house.

I am taking a little break from Encaustics right now. I am working on some new beads, and made a necklace with some of them. I am taking a bracelet class from my friend Lisa in March, and wanted to have some beads ready before class.

It does not show in the pictures well, but these beads are very luminous. They have a matte finish, but can be polished as well. I prefer a matte finish, so I left them alone.

Fall Encaustics

2010-11-01T09:54:00.000-07:00

It has really been a long time since I have done any artwork! I spent the past two weekends working on a few fossil pieces, and trying out some new inks I just bought. Here are a couple of the pieces I finished up yesterday.

The lavendar one is probably my favorite, and both are done with the new copic ink refills on the clay pieces.

Sea Lily Earth Globe

2010-08-07T05:56:00.000-07:00

Here is another "Ancient Earth Orb". This one is on a 5" diameter ball, encaustic wax, decorative paper, polymer clay and freshwater pearls.

Finding a base to bake the clay on in this size is next to impossible, so from now on I may be limited to the 4, 6 & 8 inch diameter balls. Since I really like the 5 inch size, I may try to find something that will work.

Ancient Earth Orbs

2010-08-05T07:42:00.000-07:00

Here is the new project I was talking about. I wanted to add Polymer Clay fossil replicas and Encaustic in a new way, and came up with "Ancient Earth Orbs". They are much
harder to do in this round shape, but I do like the results.

These three are the first ones I have completed, with more in the works.

The smaller pink orb is 4" in diameter, and the other two are 6" diameter orbs.

New Green Trilobite & Sea Lily

2010-08-02T19:41:00.000-07:00

I finished these pieces last weekend during an "Art Day" with a friend of mine. I used a scrap paper towel with green inks and paint for the background, then applied encaustic medium over the top.

I also have a new fossil replica that I used for the main trilobite in the middle of the large green piece. For the small Sea Lily I used a graphic image incorporated into the wax.

I also have a new project in mind (with fossils of course) that I will post as soon as I have a working prototype.

Silver Fossils

2010-07-05T13:50:00.000-07:00

I did manage to finish this one today. So far, I think this one might be one of my favorites. It is encaustic wax, imagery, polymer clay, freshwater pearls, alcohol ink and paint. It measures 6 x 6 x 2, and includes some of my new fossil trilobite replicas.

Summer Creations

2010-07-05T13:36:00.000-07:00

I have not had much time this summer to work on the "Fossil Series", but have managed in the last couple of months to get these pieces done. All of them are done with some new fossil replicas I ordered and made molds from, and I am having fun with the new fossils, most of them trilobites.

The first piece measures 6 x 12 x 2, the smaller pink one is 5 x 5 x 2, and the purple/rust one is 6 x 6 x 2. Hopefully by the end of the day, I will have another piece done and posted.

Weekend Fossils

2010-05-23T17:16:00.001-07:00

I got a new fossil replica in the mail this week-a Crinoid, and ancient sea lily creature. Since I had to use it immediately, I made my mold, and went to work. This piece is about 6 x 12 x 2, and is encaustic wax on a wood cradle with polymer clay, oil paint, paper, and alcohol inks.

I used colors that I don't normally work in, but I did enjoy the challenge. The background colors come from a piece of a paper towel that had ink on it from wiping my brush on it while working on an entirely different project.

The second piece is also encaustic wax on a wood cradle with polymer clay, oil paint, paper, alcohol inks, Pearl Ex, and freshwater pearls. It is smaller, about 5 x 5 x 2.

Clay Guild Swaps

2010-05-13T10:31:00.000-07:00

For the last meeting of the year, the swap theme is "Oceans". I decided to work on a very small scale, about 2" x 2" x 1/2", or thereabouts, and included some of my smaller fossils. The fossil replicas are done in polymer clay and alcohol inks, while the background is encaustic wax, oil paint, and alcohol inks. While they are a little too thick to make pendants or pins out of them, I decided to add magnet strips to the back for refrigerator magnets.

Textured Fossil Pieces

2010-05-03T08:01:00.000-07:00

I took a fabulous encaustic workshop in textures at the Encaustic Center, where I learned how to create textures with wax. I think this incorporates the fossil pieces into the wax much better, and I am happy with the results.

I also played around with the clay mixture, and am finding the current mix I am using is much easier to work with.

Both of these pieces use encaustic wax, polymer clay, alcohol inks, freshwater pearls and oil paint. The long piece is 5 x 15 x 2, and the square piece is 8 x 8 x 2.

New Fossil Pieces

2010-04-11T16:15:00.000-07:00

I got to spend Saturday with friends, and we spent the day working on art projects. I finished these 2 pieces, and have plans for both of them. "Amber Seas" is an organic fossil piece with trilobites and shells in green tones, and is for a friend's birthday. "Mercurical" is a blue and silver fossil piece, and is one I will probably keep. I am having fun working with this technique, and have plans to do some bigger work on larger wood cradles.

Another Fossil Piece

2010-04-03T20:06:00.000-07:00

I have now finished my second fossil piece from a workshop. I like this one better, but still need to work on shaping more. It is done with polymer clay, distress embossing powders and encaustic wax.

I did have some trouble with air bubbles, leading to a few cracks, but I think I will keep this piece anyway and hang it up where no one will see the cracks.

Organic Fossil Piece

2010-03-31T15:38:00.000-07:00

I took an amazing workshop last weekend from Jana Roberts Benzon, focusing on making organic shapes from polymer clay. The workshop has really inspired me to move forward with some more fossil pieces in Encaustic wax and clay. This is really just a prototype, but I will definitely be working on more.

More Avatar Images

2010-03-22T10:54:00.000-07:00

I can't stop playing with this technique! I used an original photo of my niece taken about 4 years ago. Not really a good picture of her (she is much prettier in person than in photos), but I decided to use it to create more "Avatar" images.

Below is the original image I used.

New Digital Work

2010-03-21T04:56:00.000-07:00

I love playing with Photoshop! I bought a magazine this weekend that had a tutorial on how to make a portrait photo look like the Avatar movie creatures. Since I did not have a face on portrait, I used faces from a drawing I did in a drawing class once. I used colors slightly different from the ones in the tutorial, but I am fairly pleased with the results.

Since it is snowing in Texas in March (which almost never happens), I then decided to add some backgrounds, and further change the colors up. I don't know what I will do with these images, but I had fun working on them.

Steampunk Heart

2010-02-16T07:03:00.000-08:00

After a little break over the holidays, I decided to get back into creating. I took a class from Tejae Floyde a couple of years ago on Encased Hearts, and wanted to try one with a Steampunk theme. The heart is about 3-1/2 to 4 inches tall, and has a little heart encased in it done with a rust technique.

I think the hinge on the back was the trickiest part, since the screws had to be trimmed a little on the inside.

Ornaments

2009-12-10T07:22:00.000-08:00

Every year the North Texas Polymer Clay Guild has a December pot luck and swap that usually involves an ornament of some kind. This year since I am still liking fossils, I decided to incorporate them into an ornament of some kind. Usually I make ornaments with faces, but wanted something different for this year. We make 3 for trading, and I will receive 3 different ornaments to take home.

Swaps are wonderful ways to receive art from other artists, and I am looking forward to the swaps for this year.

The small round ones are the ones I will be trading with guild members, and the larger tear drop shapes are done with the addition of encaustic wax, and I will be keeping those for our tree this year.

New Fossils

2009-12-10T07:15:00.000-08:00

It has been a long time since I last posted. We have been on vacation to Virginia to see John's family, and we are now back home. My mother-in-law has built a new family room on the back of her house, and commissioned me to do these pieces for her walls. All 3 involve encaustics, and 2 have the fossils done in polymer clay. Only the 2 with the fossils are posted-the other one is an abstract. Now I will have to get these shipped up north.

Andrew's Dinosaurs

2009-10-18T10:09:00.000-07:00

For my nephew's birthday his mother is redecorating his room in a dinosaur theme. Andrew will be 8 in November, and is wild about dinosaurs. I have made these 2 encaustic works with polymer clay dinosaurs to go with the new color scheme. I hope he will like them.

The larger one with the single Stegosaurus (Andrew's favorite), is 10 x 10 x 2 inches, and the smaller trio is 8 x 8 x 2 inches. They are done with encaustic wax on a cradle with polymer clay, alcohol inks, and oil paints. I hope he will like them.

Alchemy

2009-09-15T14:04:00.001-07:00

Well, I have been working on a piece for an upcoming exhibit, whose theme is "The Alchemy of Encaustic". After talking with my friend Marcia from Houston, it just hit me what to do. I wanted to create a 3D image of an atom with electrons around it, and using wire and polymer clay, came up with this idea. I also used an image transfer and some stamps that I had made for this project.

Wax Play Day

2009-09-07T13:51:00.001-07:00

On Saturday my friends Lisa, Carolyn, and Ellen came over to do a little encaustic wax. We had a great time, and finished some wonderful pieces! We turned my kitchen into an encaustic studio with 3 electric griddles, 1 hot plate, torches, heat guns, etc. and spent the entire day doing encaustic wax! Here is one of the pieces I finished, and this time I decided to extend the wax onto the sides of the piece instead of staining the sides of the board. I have several more pieces started, and hopefully will have time to prepare a couple for an upcoming encaustic exhibit at Kilgore College in October.

New Stamps

2009-09-07T13:44:00.001-07:00

I have been looking for years to find a solution to getting stamps made from my own designs. Most of the commercial machines out there are just way too expensive for the limited number of stamps I wanted, and some of the old photopolymer texture sheets I have purchased are now too brittle and yellow to use without damaging them. Until now. I have used Ready Stamps in the past to have stamps made, and the rubber was just fine for stamping, but did not work well with clay and encaustic wax. I decided to contact them, and now they are making photopolymer plates in both the hard plastic and soft clear stamps just like the ones in the craft stores. I ordered 4 plates of designs from them, and I am really liking them! They are fabulous in both clay and wax! Here is a photo of some of my doodles and the stamps that were produced. Contact them if you want to have some of your own designs done.

Ocean Floor Fossils III

2009-08-29T18:08:00.000-07:00

I have been working on this piece for a couple of weeks now. It is 6 x 18 inches, and I have been procrastinating about it for a while. I ended up not liking what was happening with it, so I have scraped it back several times, finally settling on its current look. I am glad that it is finished. My husband John wants it for his office, so I will get it ready to hang for him.

I also worked a bit on a friend's pet portrait, and when she approves it, I will post it here.

Denise's Cats

2009-08-27T10:20:00.000-07:00

I totally forgot that I did these two digital portraits of my friend Denise's new kitten and one of her older cats. Angel is her new kitten, and she is very sweet, as you can see.

Etsy Store & Cheyenne

2009-08-27T10:01:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally got a few pieces up in my new Estsy Store, so please check it out. I have not done much polymer clay or encaustic, but have been busy ordering supplies. I just realized how low I was, so I am now awaiting some orders to come in.

I also sent some of my images and drawings in to have stamps made, and when I get them I will have a "Show and Tell" here on my blog.

In the meantime, here is a cute photo of my now 8-month old husky, who is of course sitting in a chair where she is not supposed to be. I am a poor disciplinarian.

Ocean Floor Fossils II

2009-08-18T13:10:00.000-07:00

I just finished another piece in the "Fossil" Series, which included the addition of polymer clay pieces from my mold collection of fossils. I also used the shellac burn technique, which is very unpredictable, but I always like the results.

I also played around a little more with a small board, and here is a little piece I am calling "Spirit". It also has polymer clay pieces incorporated into it, as well as alcohol inks, and oil paints.

Encaustic Collage

2009-08-08T07:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I spent most of the morning playing around with encaustic waxes, and tried out some images in a collage piece. Usually I prefer more dimensional work, and more abstract pieces, but wanted to branch out for this little test piece. It measures 6" x 6".

I also re-worked a piece I did not like by scraping it all the way down to the bottom layers, then adding more waxes and more scraping until it came out a little better. This piece is 8" x 8" x 2", and has the sides stained and finished.

Tonight my husband and I are going to the closing reception of the "Meltdown" exhibit that has been running at the Art Hotel Gallery in Dallas. I had 4 pieces in this show as a student, and am pleased that 3 of them sold.

Fossil Series Addition

2009-08-02T13:31:00.000-07:00

I spent all day yesterday with encaustic wax and polymer clay. I finished a small piece (below), and worked on another piece in my "Fossils" series.

I took a bunch of molds made from some actual fossils and shells, and put them together. Then colored them with alcohol inks. The encaustic wax is colored with alcohol inks and oil paints. It measures 9-3/4 x 10 inches.

I have plans to make another fossil piece similar to this one, with some changes in color and background. I hope to have the new one done by the end of the week.

Encaustic Play Day

2009-07-26T11:35:00.000-07:00

My friend Lisa came over yesterday for an encaustic play day. We got lots of wax projects done, made encaustic medium, and our own colors. Since it is so hot here in Texas, we had fans going to try to cool off the room-we had 3 palettes going all at 225 degrees, so the room was very warm.

I finished two pieces, with polymer clay replicas of some of my own fossils and shells, and incorporated some cool shell beads I found at Michael's craft store. These colors are completely out of my comfort zone, but I am pleased with the way they turned out.

I now have all the pieces I wanted to get done for the Waxy 100 exhibit at the Encaustic Center in Richardson, Texas. This show opens Friday, August 14th at 7:00pm, and continues until September 30th, 2009. All entries in this show are under $100.00.

New Encaustic Series

2009-07-23T08:04:00.000-07:00

Well, as promised, I am posting a new encaustic piece that is the first in a series I am planning. The piece includes a polymer clay mold that is from an actual nautilus fossil my dad owns. The rest of the piece includes encaustic wax, alcohol inks, cheesecloth, oil paint and oil pastels. I plan to do more with this nautilus mold, and will try to incorporate some other fossils that were given to me by my dad.

Art at Ellen's House

2009-07-22T12:43:00.000-07:00

Last weekend some of us and I went over to our friend Ellen's house in Arlington for an art get-together. We had tons of fun, food, and got to work on whatever we wanted. While I was not as productive as some of the gals there, I did manage to complete 4 face pins like these two, and plan to open up an Etsy store very soon.

I also made a mold from one of my father's nautilus fossils (he is a retired geologist with many rocks and fossils about), and plan to use replicas in a series of encaustic works. I will post those pics as soon as I finish them.

New Doll

2009-07-06T17:19:00.000-07:00

I have been working very hard over the July 4th weekend on a new art doll inspired by Joyce Cloutman's workshop, and some new encaustic pieces for the upcoming "Waxy 100" exhibit that will start in August. Since the due date for artwork is July 30th, I decided to get started now. Up to 5 pieces per artist will be admitted. I am excited to be able to participate in this. Anyway, here is the new doll. She is made from wire armature, polymer clay and encaustic wax.

Also, my friend Denise came over on Saturday to play with encaustic wax, and that is when I completed some wax pieces and started on a few more. This particular piece was something entirely different, but after scraping off the parts that did not work, I found this abstract was what it wanted to be. That is the way a lot of things turn out for me-I have something in mind, but the piece decides how it will turn out in the end. The piece on the left is actually my favorite of the ones that were completed this weekend, and I may just have to hang on to it for myself. We will see. Here are pictures of the other two that were completed. I still have to add the D-rings and braided wire for hanging, then they will be ready for the wall.

Butterfly Elf Workshop

2009-06-28T05:44:00.001-07:00

I took an exciting workshop yesterday from Joyce Cloutman of Austin, Texas. She is just starting out teaching, and the workshop was great! I am pleased with my little butterfly, and am planning on using some of these techniques on a doll that I hope to start sometime next week. Of course I did not finish the butterfly during the class, and I was not sure what I would place in her hands. My friend Nina said that a little "pod" of sorts would look good, so she gave me some to try. I found one that worked fairly well, and used some acrylic paints and fibers on the pod. The body of the butterfly was painted with alcohol inks. While Joyce taught us how to sculpture more Elf-like faces, I prefer to use a face mold (I am not very patient with sculpting).

Studio Re-organization

2009-06-25T07:38:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I decided it was time to re-organize my art studio. It was truly a mess, with almost no working space. My studio is 10 x 11 feet, and I also have a closet to work with. This is completely adequate, but I had accumulated so much stuff that I could hardly move around, much less make art. So, I was ruthless and went through everything, putting aside anything that I had not used or read in the last couple of years, or was sick of. I also had a ton of just plain trash. I then made a list of everything that I wanted to sell off in order to make a little extra cash for even more art supplies! So I posted my list on the two groups I belong to, and everything went over the next 2 days! Now, everything is organized, and I am finding it much easier to create. Here are some photos of the studio as it is now. I now have all my computer and printing equipment at the "clean" side of the studio, hopefully away from paint and wax splatters. Hopefully, I can maintain this.

Galleries Posted

2009-06-24T20:23:00.000-07:00

I have posted my galleries in slideshows in the right column, as I will be discontinuing my website at www.tdartdesigns.com. I am not sure when that website be going away, but it will be within the next week or so.

Cheyenne-6 Months

2009-06-24T17:27:00.000-07:00

Well, I am practicing placing pictures to this new blog, so I thought I would start with recent photos of Cheyenne, who is now 6 months old. She is sitting on my husband John's lap, where she is very happy.

My New Blog

2009-06-24T17:12:00.001-07:00

I have finally taken the plunge and put up a blog so I can share my art with all my friends and family! I will not promise to update daily, or even weekly, but whenever there is news I will post. I also plan to customize this page, so please check back whenever you have time.
Thanks,
Tricia