I have created and posted my online class, Painting Portraits in Encaustic. https://vimeo.com/ondemand/134921 It is an hour and 27 minutes of instruction, and step by step painting of a face. It is not slick. It is like standing next to me in my studio and watching me work. The whole class is $75 U.S and can be watched over and over.

If you have no experience in portraiture, you can learn the simple basics of drawing a face; how to measure and lay out the features from another class. https://vimeo.com/ondemand/21068

There is a Face Book page for the participants in the class to post progress, share and ask questions. If you have ever wanted to paint faces, here is your chance. After you have purchased your workshop, contact me so I can add you to that Face book group. ezshwan.winding@artbyezshwan.com


Here is the portrait from the class

Monday, January 8, 2018

Like Magic

I had a wonderful 10 day tour of the state of Veracruz before Christmas and took many pictures.

We traveled almost the whole state and experienced different places and energies.
When I got home, I attempted to download the photos to my laptop, but it didn't happen. I tried every tip and trick I could think off, but nothing. Then yesterday, they appeared! I am not a computer geek and I am just trusting that some magic genie removed the obstacle.

My most outstanding adventure was visiting the island in Catemaco at the Reserva Ecologica de Naciyaga. Here witches meet annually for cleansing, and many are living here permanently. I choose to call them healers rather than witches, but make up your own mind. One can have a spa experience with mineral mud or get a shamanic style spiritual cleansing. Ceremonies are conducted, using much of the Olmec or Toltec traditions wedding.

The 1992 movie, Medicine Man with Sean Connery was filmed there.

This stone god has the traces of black around his mouth, because after a person is cleansed physically and spiritually, this god eats all that has been removed.

This circle is were ceremonies and weddings are held. The church holds no influence here.

The pure mineral water was served to us in a real disposable cup

The on-duty shaman, offering cleansings and magical potions to aid in all aspects of life

The sister triplets. I forgot their significance, but notice the black around the mouth.

The sweat lodge

Tuesday, December 26, 2017

No Honor For Aung San Suu Kyi !

the posting below is quoted from the Guardian newspaper

The Myanmar leader should be cut from Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, critics insist

It is one of the most popular children’s books of 2017, a collection of stories about female role models from Amelia Earhart and Marie Curie to Hillary Clinton and Serena Williams, inspiring girls to aim high and challenge the status quo.

"But Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, likely to be in many Christmas stockings, has run into controversy because of one of the 100 women included in its pages. When the book was written last year, Aung San Suu Kyi was deemed a worthy subject: winner of the Nobel peace prize and epitome of courage in the face of oppression. But her fall from grace over her response to violence against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims, described by the UN as possible genocide, has triggered calls for her to be taken out of future editions. In response, the authors, Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo, are considering removing her from reprints.
Labour MP and shadow justice minister Yasmin Qureshi, who has raised concerns in parliament about the Rohingya crisis, said: “I often wonder how it can be possible to go from being one of the most admired and respected civil rights champions, a symbol of courage, patience and principle, to someone who shows such lack of compassion.
“I have no doubt that history will remember her as the leader who watched on while mass killing, systematic rape and ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands who were forced to live in squalid refugee camps. I’d encourage the authors to consider that there is an entire generation of young Rohingya children who are stateless and hopeless, suffering a miserable existence. Aung San Suu Kyi’s refusal to condemn makes her complicit.”

I had included Aung San Suu Kyi in my "Women Who Changed the World" series, but now I realized who she really is. This painting is removed from my website and Saatchi gallery. I will scrape off her face and use the board for something more deserving.

Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Happy Holidays


This is an old oil painting that I did many years ago. It lives in San Francisco now

And a Happy Hanukkah to my Jewish friends.

I had been traveling for 10 days in the state of Veracruz and planned on posting many photos of my wonderful trip along with a story of my adventure. I used my iPhone camera to take these precious images, but when I tried to download them to the computer, I couldn't, so I will try again when Mercury Retrograde is over, but in the meantime I want to wish you all a happy, healthy holiday season and a prosperous new year.

I have been posting an image a day on Instagram and this one has been the most liked. It is very different from previous work, and I am wondering if I can create some more in this vein. It is cold wax and oil, 24" x 24" and I titled it "Waiting"

Monday, December 4, 2017

November Has Been a Good Month

6 paintings and a print were sold in November. I am completely recovered from the E-coli infection and parasites in the blood. I had been feeling listless, exhausted, with a daily headache and a queasy stomach. I didn't have the energy to create or plan future workshops. I felt as if some old person had taken over my body. I didn't know why until the lab tests.

Well, I am back, excited to make new paintings and to welcome students to my classes in encaustic; both beginning and advanced and oil and cold wax. I am even considering offering portrait painting in encasutic.

Tomorrow, I am off to Veracruz for 9 days. Life is good.

Encaustic Diptych

Oil and Encaustic on panel

Encaustic diptych


oil and encaustic on panel

A print of this painting was sold by Saatchi gallery

Wednesday, November 22, 2017

I Didn't Stop In Time!

It has been spotty working in the studio. Since we moved into a large house with a large back yard and loads of plants to care for, I seem to find many other things to do rather than paint. I could pretend that I do all this extra work, but actually I have a wonderful assistant and he can do everything and I mean everything; gardening, plumbing, electrical work and he is also my studio assistant. Of course the stumbling block could be that once again I screwed up a perfectly good painting by thinking I could improve it. Well, I certainly didn't.

Also I have been a bit under the weather and that became a real challenge 5 days ago. All will be well. I saw my dear doctor this morning and he assures me that I will be perfectly well for my planned trip to Veracruz Dec, 5.

I decided to attack a lovely encaustic diptych that had a few scratches. I painted oil and cold wax on the first layer

Next, I went back with black cwm and oil. I should have stopped at this point


This could have been a painting on its own.

Same painting. Getting worse and worse. if I had used encaustic, I could scrape it off and start again.

The saving grace was ordering 3 perfect boards that my assistant prepared; one for encaustic and the other 2 for cold wax and oil. Now the fun and challenge can begin.

I had a nice surprise. I opened a Face book post by one of the authors of the new Cold Wax book and found that one of my paintings was posted as an example.

http://www.artistsnetwork.com/medium/cold-wax-art

DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE HOLIDAY SALE FROM NOW TO DECEMBER 22. 30% off plus free shipping from Mexico. The online workshops will be discounted also, BUT in order to participate you must sign up for my mailing list. If you already have subscribed, you are registered and can choose what you want. I can offer gift certificates if you want to choose something for a someone else.

Friday, November 10, 2017

How Important Are the Arts?

I got that question this morning during a live interview at a gallery opening in Denmark. It was an honor to be part of the opening exhibition even though we are in different countries and different time zones.

How important are the arts? this reminds me of my father's comments as I pleaded with my parents to go to art school. He said. "What good is art? You can't eat it or wear it?

My answer to the question today was something like, "Without art, life is colorless"

Here are some other artists' quotes; "Art is art. Everything else is everything else." Ad Reinhardt

"Art is lies that tell the truth." Picasso

Perhaps my favorite quote, at least for today; "A great artist...must be shaken by the naked truths that will not be comforted. This divine discontent, this disequilibrium, this state of inner tension is the source of artistic energy." Goethe

I am sure not only artists feel the divine discontent. It is what we do with that discontent, isn't it?

I was discontented with this painting several years ago and I destroyed it. The image popped up on a post from Pinterest. Someone had saved it. I thought, "Wow, that was a good painting. Why did I not let it live?"


encaustic. I may try to re-create it.

online encausic classes

https://vimeo.com/ondemand/4167

Comments on the videos.
"I have been an Encaustic artist for just 4 years. I love learning from other artists, and Ezshwan has much to offer. These tapes are great for techniques and building confidence."
"I have enjoyed all your videos and it has been worth every penny! I have learned a lot a that will keep me busy. Hopefully I can take a trip down there for a class!"
"I recently purchased your online workshop and have really enjoyed it . I want very much to try and travel to San Miguel for a private lesson. I've loved your work since finding you online.,particularly your figurative work. So look for me in the future.... You are on my wish list!"
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