When I was in grad school twenty-five years ago a fellow classmate suggested I might like adding cold wax to oil paint to produce an interesting effect . Why he suggested this I don ’ t remember . Why I tried it , I can ’ t recall other than I was searching . Right away I loved the softness of the wax paste and the way it easily mixed with the oils to produced a more matte opaque paint . A new way of painting began for me then and I have continued to combine cold wax to oil paint . Brushes have never felt comfortable . They feel too removed . I soon I found brayers worked great for applying the stiffer oil , wax mix to the painting surface . I also liked the way I could blend colors with the brayer , very similar to print making . I liked applying many thin layers of paint to build up the surface and then scrape and draw through . Wonderful variations in color were revealed through the scraping process as the different colored layers were exposed .
Today my process is similar . I usually work on panel because I need a hard smooth surface in order to brayer . Paper works well too . Often I will glue some kind of collage down onto the surface . It may be a simple shape I drew , a leaf , or a scrap of paper I found on a walk . I have quite a collection of stuff . This is a fun time . I just put down anything I am attracted to . It doesn ’ t matter if these pieces are in the final painting or not . It just allows a fun beginning to work off . Often the collage is painted over early on only to be uncovered much later as a total surprise . These are gifts . In order to later uncover these collage pieces without damage I have to first protect the glued collages with hot wax . I melt wax with some damar crystals and pour it over the collage . Then I scrape the excess wax off leaving no seams . The surface is now ready to be painted on . When I paint over a collaged section and later want to reveal it , I just scrape off the paint and there is the collage protected in the wax . The wax also allows me to draw in to its surface with a sharp tool to create interesting effects .