This afternoon I noticed I had bought from a jar of cold wax that I had made up myself from bees wax and 'zest' solvent, which is made with oranges rather than using turps which makes me feel sick when I smell it. Last time I attempted to work with cold wax I couldn't get used to working with large quantities of the oil paint, which is mixed with the cold wax. Not being able to wash up with soap and water was a pain too. So I steered clear of it and focused on the encaustic, which is hot wax that is painted on in layers and fused with a heat gun and dries instantly. Then you rub in oil paint colours.
cold wax on ply wood 60 x 50 cm
Anyway, I didn't think I had bought the jar with me so I was surprised to see it sitting their on the shelf calling me! So I grabbed a board, mixed up blue oil paint into the wax 50/50 and started spreading a thin layer. It was rather gluggy and difficult to spread but I persevered. I decided my palette knives and scrapers were to small for the job so I went across the road to the hardware store and picked up some cement spreaders. I bought some special cleaning fluid ( orange based again ) to clean the coloured wax off my hands and tools so that I could apply the next colour. It's soooo messy! I went through a roll of paper towel too! After I'd added a few more colours I applied the white and some more mark making and I'm sort of happy with it. In fact I'm very happy with it considering I had limited choice of colors to use. I will probably tidy it up a bit in the morning but I definitely want to do some more cold wax work when I get back to Perth.
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