The summer has been fabulously busy here at the Wild Fire & wax studio and I cannot believe that September is already looming with its explosion of golden hues. I just cannot wait roaming the woods with my dogs and taking all those golden reds and oranges back with me in the studio! BUT, it is not only going to be fun and games as I have so many projects involving encaustic workshops already shaping up for 2019 and some of them even taking place in Europe and overseas…But more about this another time my impatient firebirds!
A little story
My summer encaustic schedule has been a big success and was booked out pretty rapidly this year! The demand for the Dublin workshops has been extraordinary; I can see that there are many of you down the East coast who love playing with fire!
I would like to thank each and every participant who has shared with me their experience and their stories. So many talented people out there, too many to mention and I feel blessed to have shared with you what fire me up along the way.
I personally think that one of my most favorite experience came from Mary (I changed her name for privacy; however, I am sure you will recognise a bit of yourself in this).
Let me tell you her story.
Mary impulsively booked for one of my workshop taking place the following day in my studio in East Clare. She would not usually be the impulsive type, as she told me after, yet she felt compelled to cross the country to spend two days in East Clare learning a medium she knew nothing about. In her initial email, She mentioned having neglected her creative side for a very long time, not ‘being an artist’ and was rather downbeat in the choice of words she used to describe herself. I get that completely, life, work; children do keep us busy and very often the first thing that does go is looking after ourselves. She arrived early for the workshop and after I gave a short introduction about encaustic painting and demonstrated the techniques involved in the process, she was on her way.
Literally.
A burst of life
I witnessed a woman becoming alive, discovering parts of herself she had kept so hidden, her new found creativity springing forth like a freshly discovered spring water well . There was no stopping her and I watched in awe what she created from a careful distance, still letting her know that I was available in the case she may need me. Her face, posture, everything about her changed in a matter of hours.
She came back home with ten artworks she was proud of and a beautiful glow on her face.
The following day , she did send me an long email letting me know that when she came home and showed her new works to her family, they encouraged her wholeheartedly to make time and space at home for this newly found passion, not only for a new medium but , and more importantly… For herself!
Mary’s story is not an isolated event and is something I encounter all the time during my workshops. It is a the type of recurring stories that keep me doing what I do, being purely a facilitator for my clients to find the time and space for finding themselves via a beautiful creative medium which allows them to ‘go with the flow’ .
I read somewhere that there is no such thing as a ‘creative’ and a ‘non creative’ person, but instead, there are people who use their creativity and those who don’t. In other words, everyone has the ability to tap into a huge creative potential, but because of repressive aspects of the way we experienced life, most t of us don’t have the skills or confidence we need to express our creativity. It is just a matter of allowing ourselves the time and the space to be in contact with ourselves that the magic does happen. I call it carving time. There will always be something else which will distract us from what really matters; it is just a matter of allowing ourselves the time to play. And Mary did demonstrate to me once more that it is possible for each and every one of us.
Here are some of the works produced by people who never did encaustic before and excelled in the medium.
And now…A little secret!
Today I am going to tell you a secret …as you may already know, the date of the online launch of my autumn schedule of encaustic workshops is closing in, and I have a little surprise for my waiting list and subscribers…
You will have the opportunity to be the first to peruse the dates via email and have a sneaky peak before everybody else, with of course the opportunity to avail of an early bird offer !
This means that you will have the leisure to pick your workshops before the official launch!
Considering the high demand for my workshops this year, it is lovely to know you do not have to rush! Now that’s lovely news don’t you think! So keep an eye on your mailbox next week for this little gift from me to you.
Have a wondrous and creative week !
Don’t forget to share the encaustic love to anyone you would think may be interested into trying their hands at this amazing process and do not hesitate to drop me a line if you wish to know more!
Thank you all for your wonderful support and looking forward sharing this amazing process with you in the near future!
Isabelle
#firepaintwithme
PS: I post regularly my artist process, free encaustic demonstrations and what fires me up along the way on my blog. If you wish to be notified by email, please subscribe to my mailing list, thank you!
