Here's a litte encaustic painting I just finished:
Encaustic is a painting mixture of melted beeswax, dammar resin and oil pigments, that dates back to Ancient Greece, "where shipbuilders used beeswax to caulk the joints and waterproof the hulls of their vessels." Later, artists in Greco-Roman Egypt (100 B.C. - 200 A.D.) painted portraits on "mummy casings designed to transport bodies of the deceased to a spiritual afterlife."*
These days, encaustic painters include Jasper Johns, Tony Sherman and Molly Cliff-Hilts. Molly Cliff-Hilts has a terrific website which includes a slide tutorial on how she prepares and paints with encaustics. Or check out Shawna Moore's interesting video showing her creating an encaustic piece from beginning to end. Annette Kraft van Ermel was the artist who first got me interested in encaustic painting. Her paintings are absolutely gorgeous in person.
There's still so much for me to learn about encaustic painting but I'm having fun playing with it. I'm in the middle of painting the frame of a mirror in the same manner as the painting above.
*Joanne Mattera's book The Art of Encaustic Painting: Contemporary Expression in the Ancient Medium of Pigmented Wax is a must-have for anyone wanting to try encaustic painting.
