A few weeks back I was down in the Hyde House basement when this strong nesting impulse first came over me. Anticipating the annual visit of the Trustees who oversee Katherine Hyde’s estate, I was collecting Ms. Hyde’s paintings from their basement storage cabinets and racks. Having promised to create a photographic database for Ms. Hyde’s Trust, I had set aside the day to photograph all of her paintings—those displayed upstairs in Hyde House and the ones held in the miraculously dry basement storage.

​Finishing all the photographing and the database creation, I blissfully proceeded to move up from basement to attic giving Hyde House an extra tidying up here and there, bottom to top to be ready for our special visitors.

The Trustees arrived on a brisk sunny morning. We went through the house and over the campus. All was in serene and perfect order. Our visitors were delighted and pleased to witness once again the tender, loving care artCentral gives to this beautiful foursquare farmhouse artCentral calls home. Buoyant with the success and fun of my happy ordering, I carried home the urge for more “autumn nesting”.

With any domestic flex time available, I have been enthusiastically autumn nesting and creating order in Paradise, the old home I’ve shared with my husband David for the last two years. Finally I’m almost done with sifting through the boxes “temporarily” stored in our sometimes rather damp basement. We’ve transformed our shared office into the sewing room I’ve always dreamed of having. We’ve gathered up all the household supplies (light bulbs, tools, painting accessories, et cetera) that were scattered in random locations, and we’ve set up shelves for all-in-one-place storage. Now we can quickly find what we need without having to search high and low.

And finally, perhaps most satisfying of all, the under cabinet lighting (carried from house to house over the last several years) has been installed in our kitchen by way of our usual modern-couple team-tasking. As David observed during the installation process, our approach is not the old-fashioned, “Leave It to Beaver”, Ward and June Cleaver, 1950’s gender specific, division of labor. We switch roles often. David’s even quipped that maybe he “should have a white apron like June!” Right! And I can give him a strand of pearls to complete his domestic ensemble. Lol.

I’d already assembled most of the tools and the fixtures for the kitchen lighting installation before David arrived home at dinner time. Since he does practically all the cooking and we were both really hungry, for him to cook while I put up the lights made perfect sense. We agreed to work around each other. We did.

First David fetched the exact drill bit I was missing. Then, while I cleared small appliances and sundry items from a big section of the counter surface, David pulled ingredients from the refrigerator and pantry and did his preliminary dinner chopping. As he started stirring up a vegetable medley at the stove, I climbed up and stretched out full length on my back on the cleared countertop. Looking above me and working on the bottom of the overhanging cabinet, I carefully measured, marked and drilled holes and set screws.

Aligning and installing the fixtures went quickly and well. David rang the gong and we sat down to another of his delicious dinners. During his clearing and cleaning up before tea and dessert, I used his heavy duty staple gun to neatly secure the excess wiring under the cabinet and out of sight.

Now we’re no longer doing kitchen counter work in our shadows. As our daylight hours grow shorter, we have lovely pools of soft light to illuminate our meal preparations.

Voilà! Another pleasing nesting project successfully done just as another glorious Maple Leaf parade and celebration have passed, and still I have this urge to nest. What next?​

​​For now I’ll get ready for Jane McCaulley's GLASS ORNAMENTS WORKSHOP on November 2 (there's still room for you!), ​​and I'll spend as much time as possible with Jodie Sutton’s ENCAUSTIC AUTUMN LANDSCAPES—continuing on view at Hyde House through November 17, 2019. Gallery Hours: Fridays and Saturdays, 12:00 to 5:00 p.m. and Sundays 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. The display of these 112 stunning paintings made with hot wax is generously underwritten by Sirloin Stockade. For more information call (417)358-4404.

​THE BEAUTY OF BITTERSWEET

Along the way as we passed a boundary generously decorated with bittersweet, my father would point out the window and exclaim, “Look! There’s lots over there. Isn’t that beautiful?” Dependably, Mother would chorus, “Let’s stop and cut some to take to the folks!”

We did stop. We stopped and helped ourselves to the abundant bounty free for the harvesting and filled the large basket we carried for collecting the treasure that was to be our yearly offering.

As we arrived at our farmhouse destination, Daddy pulled into the front yard. From under the glowing yellow maple tree he dramatically honked our car horn over and over. Uncle Chester flung open the screen door, waved and crossed over the wrap-around porch. With his burly arms he gathered us up and then our overnight cases. When Aunt Gladys came out wiping her hands on her white apron, Mother presented her with our bittersweet brimming basket.

While Daddy parked by the chicken coup, my brother and I raced to be first at the outhouse. Until my brother was old enough to go to school, I always won, being four years older.

Though we wanted to explore the big hay barn, dinner smells drew us inside and to the dining room. There we found Aunt Gladys expressing her delight as she decorated the dinner table “just so” with our vining strands of festive orange berries. Mother Nature was palpably present blessing the table before we even sat down and Uncle Chester said our grace.

Uncle Chester and Aunt Gladys have passed. Their memory-filled farmhouse is gone—burned to the ground by a lightning strike. Mother and Daddy and my brother are all gone, too.
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Ah, such bittersweet memories. They return this time each year as our trees color and the air turns brisk and my husband David and I decorate our old home with autumn leaves and strands and wreaths of bittersweet and other autumn berries. Nothing much else is needed except for a scented candle burning in each room, offering up the memories of bittersweet seasons already passed.
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October is a bittersweet, sad-and-happy month. All the while we are saying our good-byes to the bright sunshine and warmth of the summer just passing, we are celebrating with the pageantry of Maple Leaf as we anticipate the festivities of the holidays—artCentral’s Holiday Boutique and the 5x7 Silent Auction and the splendid, fund-raising Amaryllis waiting to burst into brilliant scarlet blooms.
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As songster Billy Joel reminds us, “Life is a series of hellos and goodbyes.”

Even an exceptional art exhibition must come to an end with our regretful good-bye, but not quite yet. You still have plenty of time to say “hello” to Jodie Sutton’s ENCAUSTIC AUTUMN LANDSCAPES—112 stunningly awesome paintings made with hot wax—continuing on view at Hyde House through November 17, 2019. Gallery Hours: Fridays and Saturdays, 12:00 to 5:00 p.m. and Sundays 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. The display of this beautiful collection is generously underwritten by Sirloin Stockade. For more information call (417)358-4404.
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I send you best wishes for this beautiful bittersweet season.

​When David gets his curiosity all revved up and puts his questions to me, he just won’t give them a rest until he gets sufficient explanations to satisfy his persistent queries. At last he’ll have his answers here

​Encaustics were first created in Greece.

An ancient painting medium with roots running as far back as the fifth century B.C., encaustic, meaning “to burn in or fuse”, was first practiced by the artists of ancient Greece.

As the oldest known pigment binder, encaustic combines molten beeswax with dry pigment and tree resin. Encaustic is completely resistant to the effects of moisture. This main preservation property of encaustic was instrumental for weatherproofing Greek ships. Introducing pigments to the wax brought about the decorating of ships with colorful iconography.

Greeks that settled in Egypt adopted the custom of honoring their dead by painting their portraits. Their encaustic rendering of a deceased, in the prime of life or after death, was placed over the mummy of the person.  The Fayum Portraits are the most well-known of these funerary paintings. They are the only encaustic paintings that survive from ancient times.

Some of the Fayum Portraits dating 3,500 years old are part of the Egyptian collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as well as in other museum collections around the world. All of these encaustic works are in very good condition considering how old they are. In comparison, most Renaissance paintings are only 500 years old, cracking and in need of extensive restoration work.

​In ancient times, the encaustic fusing process was achieved by putting a flame under metal that heated the painting.

Today the encaustic is a very versatile medium that offers a variety of handling methods.  Once molten, the wax is applied to the surface with a brush or other tools and fused with a heat gun, heated iron or propane torch.  In earlier times, the same fusing process was achieved by putting a flame under metal that heated the entire surface of the painting. Because of the adherent nature of wax, this medium also works well with the application of collage materials.

As a hardening agent, Damar tree resin is added to the molten wax. The resin also acts as a bonding agent as well as a hardening agent for the beeswax. Like in ancient times, this resin is what gives encaustic paintings their rich and glasslike sheen if buffed. Just before guests arrived for Jodie’s Opening Reception, Jodie moved through all the galleries carrying small, soft white cloths and gently buffing each of her paintings—making them at their very best for their evening debut.

Encaustic is best painted onto rigid wood. A variety of other surfaces can also be used. The applied wax can be thick or thin, translucent, clear or opaque or molded. The wax surface can be scraped, carved or etched into. Jodie Sutton uses various techniques and tools, including exacto knives, to achieve the exquisite details and textures in her painting surfaces. Among my favorites of her details are the randomly appearing dark, dashed lines. She makes these using a small pointed-toothed wheel, the very same type of wheel I once used when transferring onto fabric the cutting lines printed on tissue paper dress-making patterns. Virtually any color pigment can be added to the hot wax though consistency and pigment particle size varies. To intensify details, Jodie uses pigment sticks (that come premade from R&F Paints) rubbing the color into the lines and wiping away any excess.

​To view Jodie’s painting process please visit:
https://www.jsuttonstudio.com/?fbclid=IwAR1coDUNqcEI-sFSx46f4meZ3RMuGWmC2fsawyjrxHt9dQPFdYmoyUIucz8.

ENCAUSTICS: When and where did they begin?

With your now knowing the answers, be sure to visit ENCAUSTIC AUTUMN LANDSCAPES which continues on view at Hyde House during weekend hours through November 17, 2019.

    Works of a Wonder Woman on artCentral's Walls         

​My husband, David, artCentral’s prepitor (art handler and installation guru) and I watched with satisfaction. After finishing our day job tasks, for three nights we had worked very late installing Jodie’s art. For hours we moved throughout the galleries, upstairs and down, thoughtfully considering the conversations suggested by these beautiful encaustics. As we placed all of Jodie’s 112 awesomely stunning paintings we kept thinking and talking about how much we’d like to purchase and gift every single one to ourselves and others. Finally, we made our choices for acquiring four of these treasures.

​Jodie’s creations, painted with molten, pigmented wax, (sometimes applied in as many as fifty layers) range from 4”x4” at $35.00 to 30”x40”at $700.00 with a wide variety of sizes, presentations—framed or matted or unframed—and price points in between. Please do come see for yourself this astounding, budget accessible collection of beauty and wonder. Just as we have, you, too, will quite likely fall in love with Jodie's exhibition and find a favorite painting or two to take home.

​I have worked for the same company for ten years and just a year ago started working from home. My job varies from day to day. One day, I could be working on a print brochure and the next I could be working on a web page design for a mobile device.”

“I enjoy my full time job,” this artist tells me, “I get to be creative and work for a company that focuses on helping children and teachers succeed. However after sitting for forty hours in front of a computer each week, painting gives me a much needed break from the technology that I enjoy.”

While fully committed to her family and her forty-hour a week day job, Jodie still manages to carve out studio hours. She stands in that class of exceptional artists I think of and admire as the Wonder Women of the Art World. Somehow they have those special skills that enable them to be fully present to their families and day jobs while they create a significant body of highly accomplished art.

Loving spirits are surely with this young woman! Daily they are giving her the grace to live a complex life with great poise and success. I am grateful to have Jodie’s talented graciousness glowing on the walls of artCentral.

Jodie Sutton’s ENCAUSTIC AUTUMN LANDSCAPES, generously underwritten by Sirloin Stockade, will continue on view through November 17, 2019. The public is invited. Admission is free. Weekend Gallery Hours are Fridays and Saturdays, 12:00-5:00 p.m., and Sundays, 1:00-5:00 p.m. On October 19th, the Saturday of the Maple Leaf Parade, artCentral will be open by prearranged appointment only. Please call (417)358-4404 to schedule your visit.
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To watch videos of Jodie at work visit https://www.jsuttonstudio.com/….