PROCESS

Encaustic painting, also known as hot wax painting, involves using heated bees wax to which colored pigments are added. The liquid/paste is then applied to a surface—usually prepared wood, though canvas and other materials are often used. The simplest encaustic mixture can be made from adding pigments to beeswax, but there are several other recipes that can be used—some containing other types of waxes, damar resin, linseed oil, or other ingredients. Pure, powdered pigments can be purchased and used, though some mixtures use oil paints or other forms of pigment.

Kat Allie makes her own encaustic medium from beeswax, damar resin, and oil paint.

Metal tools and special brushes can be used to shape the paint before it cools, or heated metal tools can be used to manipulate the wax once it has cooled onto the surface. Today, tools such as heat lamps, heat guns, and other methods of applying heat allow artists to extend the amount of time they have to work with the material. Because wax is used as the pigment binder, encaustic can be sculpted as well as painted. Other materials can be encased or collaged into the surface, or layered, using the encaustic medium to adhere it to the surface.

HISTORY

Artists have practiced the technique of encaustic painting for over two thousand years. It is the oldest painting technique still in use today. One of the earliest applications of encaustic paints dates back to ancient Greece, where artists highlighted the features of marble statues with wax paints. This treatment adorned many statues that were part of the Acropolis, including The Parthenon. Encaustic painting was so popular that the artists of that day referred to their wax paints as “waxes” just as modern artists speak of their “oils” and “watercolors.” This incredibly durable medium was used to adorn sculptures, murals, boats, and architecture. Greek influence in art and culture spread to Egypt during the Hellenistic period. The Egyptians quickly mastered the art of encaustic painting, as evidenced by the famous mummy portraits excavated in Egypt’s Faiyûm District (near Cairo). Greek or Greek-trained Egyptian artists commonly painted portraits on small wooden panels that were attached to mummy cases or the wrappings of the deceased. Since the beginning of the 19th-century, over 600 of these portraits have been excavated. These portraits are remarkably well preserved and strikingly lifelike, testifying not only to the advanced skills of these ancient portraiture artists, but also to the unique color qualities and durability of encaustic paints.