Abstract Landscape painting using cold wax medium
Artists are always searching for new materials and different ways of representing their feelings, their thoughts and ideas. The medium of cold wax provides a gateway into a world of experimental techniques and creative possibilities. The key ingredients are inexpensive and are relatively simple to combine using an old pan and a griddle. I use a basic recipe of 3 parts turpentine and 1 part beeswax. If I need a softer, more fluid medium I add more turpentine to the mix.
This painting is a mixed media work on a 40 x 40 cm canvas and I have used paper collage and card to establish different relief levels within the painting. The cold wax is a versatile medium and will act as an adhesive layer besides providing opportunities to apply heavy impasto. The rapid drying times speed up the working process and allow swift changes. By varying the oil paint and medium ratio, opacity and translucency can adjusted. Sgraffito techniques can also be used.
This work is an evocation of the Cambridgeshire Fenlands. This is an unforgiving, flat landscape, gouged and crisscrossed by rivers and dykes. It owes its existence to the draining of the Fens by Dutch engineers over 400 years ago and makes no claim to sentimental notions of a pastoral idyll. It is, however, honest, direct, immediate and without pretence… this is genuine beauty, artless charm and magnificence.