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Cold wax medium has roots in the encaustic tradition, but unlike encaustic, it requires no heat. Made from beeswax, resin, and a small amount of solvent, cold wax is mixed with oil paint to create luminous, velvety surfaces rich with texture and depth. It speeds the drying time of oil paint, allows for beautiful layering, and invites excavation, scraping, and mark making that can reveal surprising passages beneath the surface. Cold wax is both forgiving and adventurous, making it an exciting medium for painters who love process, atmosphere, and tactile surfaces.
This workshop is designed for beginning and intermediate students who want to explore the expressive possibilities of oil and cold wax. We will start with timed warm-up exercises on paper to loosen up, build confidence, and discover the language of texture and gesture. From there, students will move on to two prepared 12 x 16 cradled panels.
You will learn the fundamentals of working with cold wax medium—mixing ratios, layering, texture building, and composition—while also exploring more advanced techniques such as Gamsol reductions and indirect transfer methods for creating unexpected and compelling marks.
Diane Williams and Chuck Potter are painters and educators who both earned MFA degrees in Arts and Consciousness. Their teaching brings together a deep commitment to abstraction, experimentation, and the expressive possibilities of oil and cold wax. Both studied oil and cold wax medium with noted artists Jerry McLaughlin and Rebecca Crowell in Greece and Benicia, California. Diane also studied with Jerry and Rebecca in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and with Jerry in Ballinglen, Ireland. Together, Diane and Chuck create a workshop environment that is generous, exploratory, and grounded in years of studio practice, helping students build both confidence and fluency with this rich and versatile medium.
Websites: www.dianewilliamsart.net I www.chuckpotterart.net
Fee: Members $300; Non-members $350
Materials Fee: An additional materials fee of $30 will be paid directly to the instructors. This fee includes cold wax medium, Arches oil paper, wax paper, tissue paper, Gamsol odorless mineral spirits and two prepared wooden panels.
Materials to Bring: Please bring oil paints, brayers, and Messermeister scrapers (available at www.coldwaxacademy com or Amazon), along with any tools or materials you enjoy for creating texture: burlap, bubble wrap, chains, bamboo skewers, sea sponges, and other found objects.
Where: Marin Museum of Contemporary Art; 1210 Fifth Avenue, San Rafael (at B Street)
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Fees are due at the time of registration. You may cancel up to one week prior to the start of the class and the registration fee, less $25 for processing, will be refunded to you. Should you cancel less than one week before a class/workshop begins you will not receive a refund of any portion of the registration fee.
If MarinMOCA cancels a class/workshop, you will receive a full refund.