Encaustic Medical Art Paintings

Wow it has been a while since I have posted.  A lot has happened, my wife got a job and I went to Weber's Paramedic program, obtained my certificate etc.  I had to take Anatomy and Physiology before getting into the program so I did what I was told not to do.  I took Anatomy, Physiology, and Medical Terminology in the same semester.  I was able to pull off 2 A's and a B+ in Physiology... I was pissed, I was the 4th highest grade in the class and she stated she would grade on a curve but my grade did not change.  Either way it wasn't going to kill me to not get all A's.  I have been working as a Paramedic for Gold Cross in SLC and it has been exciting, and boring... but that comes with the job.

Anatomy was amazing and fun.  I was able to work on cadavers and man.... the colors, texture of a dead body is amazing. I placed in the back of my mind that I wanted to do medical art, and well.... that is where it stayed until a couple of months ago.  I started working with a new (to me) form of painting.  Encaustic! Encaustic is a mix of Bees Wax and Damar Resin, my ratio is 9:1 respectively   It has been a fun medium and very diverse, but I am going to do the encaustic paintings with my medical art and non-representational although I might do some representational pieces.

I did my first Encaustic painting that was of the vessels of the heart made up of ekg rhythms. It is 36x36 inches. I used Avr, and Avl in a normal sinus rhythm.  From a distance it looks like barb wire but when you get up close you can see all the P QRS and T waves.  I will post an image soon.
The current pieces I am working on are two hearts, vertebra, and the brain from 4 different views. I traditionally gessoed the 24x24 in. panels so the encaustic would stick (if you use gesso from Utrecht or that is pre-made it is acrylic gesso and the encaustic will not stick that well).  I then sanded down the panels so the surface was smooth.  I then drew the images on with charcoal and that is where I am at right now in the process.

This piece is Nodal Heart (title might change) but obviously a cross section of the heart.  When I do the encaustic over it I will carve where the SA and AV nodes are located then the Purkinje fibers etc... then place an oil slick in the carved out sections.  I am thinking to stay with black because I want these piece so be clean and contemporary.  Although a hint of red might look nice.

This piece is going to be of the heart vessels.  Basically where you see the fatty tissue that is where they will be located (they have to be protected :)). The same process as Nodal.

This piece shows the different views of the Brain even a sagittal view :).  The brain was fun to draw and very complex and I am still trying to figure out what I am going to do with the encaustic on this piece I was thinking of possibly showing the ventricles... .but we will see.

This last piece was the most time consuming due to drawing 72 vertebrae and the sacrum etc... Same as with the brains trying to figure out what to do.  I was thinking of showing the nerve endings but because there are 3 shown here that might be a bit much.  But it will come to me.

Overall I am pleased with the process and the encaustic will be really fun.  It will be very thin and semi transparent so the drawing will show through.  Why am I doing these paintings? I love anatomy and I have some friends that are doctors and they have expressed they would like original art associated to their field of work. It's a win win, I get to learn anatomy better, they get to have an amazing piece of original art.  I will update with the finished images when I am done.  Paint on!!!