What Is Encaustic
Painting?
Encaustic painting is a technique of heating a mixture of
beeswax and dammar resin, and applying it to a hard, po-
rous surface, such as wood or ceramic. Paper and card can
also be used as supports, To create paint, powdered pig-
ments or a small amount of oil paint can be added to the
beeswax medium, Some companies, like R&F Encaustics
in the United Slates, sell encaustic paint in the convenient
form of small blocks.
Encaustic is an ancient artistic form dating back more
than 2,000 years to the Egyptian Fayum mummy portraits,
which were painted on wooden boards and attached to
the faces of burial mummies. The fact that these were not
unearthed until the late nineteenth century is testament
to the durability of the medium. Jasper Johns is probably
the most famous modern practitioner of the art of encaus-
tic painting, which has been enjoying a revival since
the 1990s.
Once you start experimenting with painting in hot wax,
you can easily become completely hooked, The smell
is delicious, the textures are sensual, and the colors are
earthy. You can create paintings that look like old tablets
or walls on which words have been scratched, erased,
pasted, and overwritten. You can build layer upon layer,
sometimes etching and scraping to reveal the layer below
You can encapsulate copies of old documents and images
from antique magazines in clear wax medium.
ABOVE, Manuscript,
Ann Baldwin, 11 ~ x S·
(27.9 x 12.7 eml. encaustic
collage on cigar box.lEFT: Annotations (detail].
Ann Baldwin, encaustic, oil
stick on hollow-core door.