Erin Keane
Erin Keane
Erin Keane is an artist working with photography, encaustic beeswax, and bookbinding. In photography, she explores elasticity of light, and combines photography transfer with encaustic beeswax to create soft imagery with a luminous glow. In bookbinding, she explores structural form and complex bindings, and designs encaustic journals to honor books as an art form. Erin lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains outside of Asheville, North Carolina, and works daily at her cozy home studio near Pisgah National Forest. She spends her leisure time hiking, canoeing, camping, creek stomping, porch sitting, and star gazing. Her adventures in the mountains, lakes, and rivers become embedded personally into her imagery.
Website: erinkeane.com
Facebook: facebook.com/ErinKeaneStudio
Instagram: @erinkeane_artist
Classes with Erin Keane
Lesson #1: Light is elastic: Photography + Encaustic
When light passes through layers of wax, it creates luminous imagery with visual depth and texture. Using a combination of encaustic wax and photography, we will explore the elasticity of light as it dances around reflection, shadow, and motion. Erin will give instruction on her personal method of developing photography which involves transferring the ink from her prints onto panels and saturating with wax. The imagery that develops from the transfer process has a soft, rustic, gently distressed appearance and can be used as a standalone method or can be a foundation for mixed media painting.
Lesson #2: Beeswax Bound: Encaustic + Bookbinding
Books! Oh how we love books... brand new, pristine with blank pages, primed for possibilities... filled with messy yet beautiful thoughts and words and sketches. Binding encaustic panels into journals turns them into miniature artworks. Erin will give instruction on encaustic collage to create richly layered book covers, In addition, you will learn how to sew the covers into journals using paired needle Coptic binding. This method of bookbinding is structurally strong and well suited for writing and drawing as the pages open flat. Encaustic journals can be displayed as an art form or be used for creative meanderings.
Lesson 1 Supply List
Ampersand Value Series Unprimed Basswood Artist Panel (I am using 6” x 6” x 1.5”)
Printmaking or watercolor paper, 6” x 6” (I am using Stonehenge, 90 lb, Natural color)
Blue Painter’s Tape to protect the cradled panel edges, waste paper to protect the table
PVA Glue (I am using Lineco pH Neutral Archival Quality Bookbinding PVA), 2-inch foam brush
General tools: cutting mat, craft knife, scissors, ruler, water in a bowl, sand paper, paper towels
Digital photograph of any subject matter (my subject matter is reflections, shadows, and motion)
Photograph print for transfer: 6” x 6”, flipped in mirror reverse, high quality ink on 20 lb copy paper *I use a pigment ink printer with genuine inks, but any print will work (ink jet, toner, color copy, xerox)
Glue Transfer Agent (I am using Golden Matte Medium), 2-inch foam brush or acrylic paintbrush
Encaustic Medium, 1-5 lb heated to 160 degrees, alternatively Yellow Wax Medium for a warm tone
2-3” hake brush, heat gun, electric skillet, heated palette, silicone mat, pottery loop tool, tweezers
Optional: any encaustic materials, tools, methods you’d like to combine with photography transfer
Lesson 2 Supply List
Ampersand Encausticbord Flat Panels (two per book, I am using 3.5” x 2.5”)
Encaustic artwork on these Encausticbords, wax cleaned off edges and backside *I will show my method of encaustic collage, but the instructional focus is on bookbinding
Decorative end papers, hair smaller than 3.5” x 2.5”, two per book (I am using Lokta paper)
PVA Glue (I am using Lineco pH Neutral Archival Quality Bookbinding PVA), 1-inch foam brush
General tools: cutting mat, craft knife, scissors, ruler, pencil, waste paper, paper towels
Bookbinding tools: curved needles (2), bookbinder’s awl, bone folder, punching cradle
Text Block (book pages): 5 signatures of 5 folios each, each folio cut to 3 3/8” x 4 1/2” *I use Mohawk Superfine 70-80 lb paper, or Strathmore 60-80 lb drawing paper
Template for punching holes: 3 3/8” tall, holes place 1/2” from top and bottom
Drill with 5/64” drill bit, scrap plywood board to protect table, wax paper
Irish waxed linen thread in 4-ply thickness, 45 inches in length