Encaustic medium is essentially beeswax mixed with damar resin. It is applied by keeping the wax melted to a certain temperature and then brushed in layers onto an artistic surface (I use untreated wood and heavier-weight watercolor paper.) The melted wax can be left natural to obtain a characteristic luminous glow, or the artist can add pigment for color. Art supply stores also carry a huge range of premade colored wax blocks and sticks. Each layer needs to be “fused” onto the previous layer by using a heat gun or blow torch.
Encaustics Techniques
Encaustics are a tremendously versatile art medium, easily adaptable to techniques such as figurative or abstract painting, three dimensional representations, and collage. I especially love it for creating collages because it suspends many layers of ephemera (old lace, vintage text pages, archived photographs, snippets of thread or gold leaf) into a rich and complex composition.
*This video clip gives a sample of how I made a recent encaustic collage. The artwork is a printed photo of an original acrylic painting I made a year ago. I also incorporated a torn piece of vintage dictionary page, as well as a bit of green handmade art paper.
1 thought on “Encaustics”
Very Interesting technique