Encaustic Paintings

This wonderful medium is a mixture of beeswax and damar resin. It’s melted in small pots on a hot griddle and applied with natural bristle brushes. I add oil paints as my pigments or melt down pre made encaustic bars. The smell of bee’s wax is beautiful, however you have to work in a well ventilated studio with a fan to the outside. Each layer of molten wax is applied and dries almost immediately. I then fuse each then layer with either a blow torch, heat gun or iron. Each subsequent layer is fused and it takes many layers to build up enough depth to allow me to carve and distress the surface. I often rub pure oil paint or paint sticks into little grooves I’ve created for small details.