Page 28 - Half-Circle Journey

MICHELLE BELTO (Co-Founder and Facilitator)

The Enso Circle, First Term

My goal for this first residency was to “find my way” with working with pigmented wax. The

approach has a lot to do, I thought, with how the work is started. With the first approach, I
began with mark making with a variety of marking tools and then covered the surface with

Pane’s Grey and then with Mar’s Deep Yellow, followed by Neutral white. The marks were

wasted. I couldn’t get back to them.

In the second painting, I began with the same colors, but used the colors in the same

way that I often use collage in Layers work. Fusing did the rest. I like the process of using

pigmented colors as collage, I may take that idea with me going forward.

The third panel began with my handmade paper. I used watercolor, marks and rusted collage

paper as a start. I wanted to see if the type of support had a role to play. (It didn’t). My
intention was to get more of a neutral white glaze, but I forgot my intention!!! and used an

opaque white. I began to scrape and basically got frustrated.

None of these pieces have been taken beyond the start, although the first one has more

interest and probably could be completed. I am going to try my cold wax start approach

on paper, so that I have a larger surface to work with for one and secondly, I think that the

paper will help me not to “just cover the surface with pigmented wax.” My downfall is to
cover everything and “hope” that I can scrape back to something that moves me forward.