Melted Crayon Art

This week, in addition to my other ongoing projects, I picked up my first set of panels for our local gallery, The Exchange.  Every year on Black Friday, they present a gallery of “Cash and Carry”, where local artists (and anyone is considered an artist) create artwork on the panels.  It’s a very popular show and many people buy the panels – all $25. I participate, as a buyer and seller, every year. The Exchange has a great mission of enhancing our community, in a variety of ways.  Here’s a link to check them out:  http://mooseexchange.org/site/

Creating is playtime.  The last two years, I did image transfers and mixed media collages for the Cash and Carry show.   This year, I started with some melted crayon art.

I got a heat gun  for my birthday this year, with the intent of creating encaustic art with photography. I’ve only just began experimenting with that, but I did make some melted crayon art on canvas with Connor this past spring.  On the left, are the ones that I made for my living room.

And here are my first three panels for this year’s show:

 

I sanded the sides of the panels (mdf) and applied gesso to the top and sides. I’ve started with applying heat to the board and melting a light layer in a base color

 

Then I started layering the wax, varying the heat and speed, tilting the panels and the heat gun- basically playing.  This piece I envisioned a spring garden, so after getting a mixed green background, I dropped yellow floors  and then some pinks/purples.  Then I played with blowing the heat again to melt them together.

After cleaning the drippy sides up, I sprayed them with acrylic sealer and put some bumper pads on the back. so that the crayon wouldn’t accidentally get on the walls.

Hope you find some time today to do something fun!