About Encaustic Paint

“Encaustic” is a paint medium that has been used for centuries. It is a composition of beeswax, damar resin, and pigment.

The ratio of beeswax, resin, and pigment may vary by artist per application. It may be applied in layers, carved, collaged, dipped, cast, modeled, sculpted, textured, and combined with other medium.

The process requires initial melting, usually on a heated palette, before it is applied to a substrate. Each layer must be bonded to the prior layer through fusing via a blowtorch, heat gun or a heated metal tool.

My method is to apply seven or more layers with various brush sizes. I fuse each layer with a blowtorch, and I sometimes remove wax, reapply and torch again. I often include oil, pure pigment, watercolor, ink, shellac, pastels, and found objects in my pieces.

Encaustic is traced back to the 4th Century B.C. The oldest surviving paintings are Romano-Egyptian Fayum mummy portraits from 300 A.D. These realistic portraits on wood were used as mummy masks, with hundreds on display today at various archaeological museums. The longevity of these works demonstrates the perseverance of this beautiful medium.

Encaustic painting reemerged during the Bauhaus Movement in Germany. You can see examples of encaustic painting across genres over the last century, including murals and artwork by Diego Rivera, Jasper Johns and James Ensor. Some contemporary artists use encaustic paint over photographic prints, and many encaustic artists continue to experiment and expand applications with each new work.