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Not a widely used medium, encaustic-based works of art are fairly rare in the marketplace. Just this morning, I cruised over to Etsy and typed in searches for original paintings in oil, watercolor, acrylic, and encaustic. Results were:

     1. Oil: 285,269 results found

     2. Watercolor: 356,183 results found

     3. Acrylic: 321,375 results found

     4. Encaustic: 2,894 results found

Wow. That's even lower than I expected. Why is that? And what draws a person to execute work in wax paint instead of one of these other, more mainstream, media?

My story goes like this.

Not a formally trained artist, I dabbled throughout my life in various creative pursuits as a balance to my scientific life. I sewed. I did various DIY decorative projects around my house. I was one of the first batch of jewelry artists on Etsy while it was in its "beta" versions. (Fun times!! Now it's all big business it seems.) I made handcrafted collage greeting cards. And it was those collages that most frustrated me. "Mixed media" was not the big thing it is now, and there was no internet community of artists like there is now, so I was pretty much on my own. The work was clumsy and non-cohesive, though kinda cute and good to give to loved ones instead of the generic Hallmark cards out there. But I couldn't get them to look the way I wanted - a seamless, single piece of work, rather than bits all glued together. Then one day about 12 or so years ago I happened upon an art exhibit at the Austin airport. There were these luminous creations on display, unlike anything I had ever seen. They were dimensional, glowing assemblages of ephemera and fabric and thread and....what is that holding it all together - "encaustic"? I had never heard of it. But the translucent yumminess of it intrigued me. "THIS is what I want my work to look and feel like," I thought.

It took some time to track down what that medium was and simultaneously find workshops and tutors to get training, but over the course of about a year and a half, I did just that. I took the time to learn from the best at R&F Handmade Paints and others, and I have been in love and painting in encaustic ever since.

Encaustic is not just beeswax, but a combination of beeswax (usually purified, pharmacy-grade) and a natural tree resin called damar, first developed about 3000 years ago by the Greeks. When melted together, the wax and resin have a higher melting point and a higher clarity than that which can be achieved with beeswax alone. Once cooled and cured, the wax/resin mix is also much harder than beeswax, though still very much wax-like. It has a natural matte finish that can be buffed to a high shine if desired (think French wax furniture polish). It is a paint "medium" just as linseed oil is a medium for pigment to make oil paint, or acrylic formulations with pigment for acrylic paint.

But even just on its own, without added pigment, it melds and unifies anything that is compatible with the wax. It is arguably the most versatile art medium. It can be flat and smooth, or rough and highly textured. It can be opaque or translucent, built up into three dimensions (See Lynda Benglis at MoMA in New York, or Laura Moriarty's geologic sculptures), and even carved back (See Karl Kaiser's blog post about his carved work). About the only artist material that doesn't really work with the wax is acrylic (wax doesn't stick to plastic), so the mixed media opportunities are virtually infinite. Because the medium or paint is applied hot, it is "dry" in seconds (great for the impatient), and if you don't like what you see, can be scraped off and even re-used by re-melting. A painting can be done quickly, or executed over a virtually limitless timeline. And did I mention its smell? Oh my, so good.

But that brings me to the downsides. Encaustic medium and paint must be melted to use, so that usually means electricity. (This is not a plein air painting opportunity, unless you're sitting in sunlight to the tune of 170 degrees Fahrenheit.) Melting is done with heated palettes (think pancake griddles), and layers of paint applications must be fused together with either a heat gun, blowtorch, or iron. Because beeswax and damar are natural materials, they produce volatile organic chemical gases when heated, and especially so when overheated. So, a ventilated studio is required with a careful monitoring of the temperature of the melted wax. NOT a hassle-free set up. Because encaustic must be applied to a compatible surface that binds well with the wax, some limitations also apply to the substrates that can be chosen for use. Anything absorbent is good, but if too flexible (like a canvas panel) it can lead to future cracking. Best to paint on rigid substrates like wooden panels, which are expensive, although paper can be successfully used when applications are thin and the paper is mounted to something supportive. The supplies are not readily available at all art stores, and art schools generally don't teach the necessary techniques for both application and safety, so the medium seems unapproachable to many. Lastly, during its 20th century renaissance, a number of artists were not keeping safety in mind as they experimented with it, mixing and heating the wax with various toxic solvents. Encaustic developed a reputation as "toxic" when in fact, it was being abused. So, a lot of barriers are there to keep artists away.

I'm glad I wasn't deterred. Encaustic's luminosity, versatility, and forgiving nature have contributed to important aspects of my artistic voice. We dance together, the wax and I, and I'm honored to have you as witness to my journey with it.

(If you're interested in a short description of the long history of encaustic painting, check out this article by R&F)

I'm sure you did it as a child.....well, I'm still doing it: looking at clouds. Seeing shapes, seeing colors, marveling, as the song goes: