Monday was a lovely day in my studio at college because I had the whole day set aside to experiment. First of all, I wanted to try building up layers of beeswax medium and fusing them in place on the boards I had prepared for this session.
I laid out everything ready to begin working and was looking forward to trying out the new Hake brushes I had bought during my recent visit to Liverpool. To my delight, this turned out to be pretty straightforward and I was able to build up some layers of melted wax, fused in place, without any problems.
With a few layers of wax in place, to create a secure base to work on, I began experimenting with different methods of transferring images onto the wax. I found this very interesting and was pleased with the results from both the direct transfer and carbon transfer methods. However, this was not an error-free process! I managed to get my direct transfers the wrong way round as they naturally print out in reverse and I didn’t allow for this. Also, the carbon transfers looked great when they were freshly transferred onto the wax but were immediately erased by the hot wax when I applied it, so it was all a steep learning curve!
I comforted myself that we learn the most through our mistakes and was still happy to be learning so much in this session. I also experimented with layering on top of the images, embedding images drawn on tissue paper and colouring the surface with oil pastel paints to create texture, layers and interest.
Throughout the experiments, I remained focussed on my theme of the Bee Goddess, Melissa. I have through my research, learned more about her myths and about the plight of modern-day bees. There are great environmental concerns about their danger of extinction (for both bumblebees and humans) because these little bees play such a vital part as pollinators in the fields, meadows and gardens.
I liked the idea of adding bees wings to the bee goddess, also a beehive hairstyle to hint at her identity. I tried to convey sadness and concern with her downward-facing pose, I imagine she would be very unhappy at how the wildflowers have reduced over the years and how that has affected the bees. I deliberately chose an old, worn effect for the transfer to give the impression of age, time and history to the image because the Bee Goddess is a very ancient Goddess, dating back to Paleolithic times. Obviously, the use of beeswax as a medium is a clear reference to the bees and Bee Goddess.
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