I enjoy being in natural surroundings and draw many of my inspirations from nature. I always find something that speaks to me.
In my most recent travel to Arizona, two things emerged from my walking about and observing: a sotol plant with an old bloom by a boulder in Sedona, and the giant saguaros in Saguaro National park near Tucson. I did a few studies of both in encaustic.
Sotol & Boulder - Sedona, AZ
Sotol & Boulder - studies in encaustic
The shape of the sotol plant is a familiar one for me. And that’s why I was drawn to it. It reminds me of the agave, which has been part of my work for a few years now. Ever since finding an extraordinarily big agave within the grounds of the Rafael Coronel Museum (ex Convento San Francisco) in Zacatecas, Mexico, I have been working its shape in all manners I can think of! So working on the sotol&boulder theme was like paying a visit to an old friend.
Saguaro
While I find the size and stature of these giant cacti most impressive, it is the pattern of the folds, and the structure that I concentrated on. I found that making grooves into the paper before hand gave me some interesting etched lines.
Saguaro - studies in encaustic
saguaro - encaustic
Karen Chaussabel 