In our (a group of artists online) neverending way to work our way through Mary Todd Beam’s Celebrate Your Creative Self, we have been working on some white space in paintings. I understand the need for white space but I have trouble keeping it in creations.

One method discussed in the books is wax resist. This time I took a piece of cold pressed watercolor paper. I lit a candle and dripped wax on it. If you don’t think my two teenage boys looked at me like I was nuts, think again. After this, I mixed a combination of a pearlizing tint and red and gold acrylic paints to get an orangy paint color. This was still way too thick so I added water to get the consistency I want.

After I painted the entire page with this color combination, I let everything dry. After drying, I took clean newsprint and ironed the wax off the paper. I had tried to direct the wax so as to make shapes but the finished product does not look as if I did.