About Encaustics:
Encaustic is the medium and process of painting with melted wax and pigment. The greek word literally means "to burn in", referring to the heat fusing it requires. Over two thousand years old, hundreds of Egyptian encaustic mummy portraits (know as the Fayum portraits) are now located in the Louve, the British Museum and collections around Egypt. Although they have been found dating as far back as 100-300 AD, even recent works of the 20th century such as Jasper Johns "Flag" attest to the archival nature of encaustic painting.
In my art I have adapted the process in order to impact the earth as minimally as possible: I paint on cradled wood from a sustainable forest with encaustic medium I make in studio. It is a clear, molten combination of filtered beeswax with tree resin added for hardening and temperature stability. I add pigments into heated tins of the medium to color it and then proceed to paint, fuseing each layer with fire from my torch.. As I build up texture and color -anywhere between five to fifty layers- I inscise, scrape gouge and drip the painting into exsistance. I often hand color with oil sticks or transfer images in between layers of the wax. The finish is several rounds of coating and fusing with the clear encaustic medium for protection and stability. The resulting piece is archival, shines nicely with a lint free cloth and is solid and temperature stable from 25 to125 degrees. As with any fine art, please do not hang it in direct sunshine.