Seggebruch - Encaustic Painting Techniques: the Whole Ball of Wax

Cincinnati
createmixedmedia.com

The beauty of art: Isnt that whats drawn you to this book, to this medium, to painting at all? The splendor of it? The simple pleasure of looking at a beautiful painting and feeling your heart respond, your soul wake up? Not your mindits been working on overtime with lifes tasksbut your heart and soul.

So it was for me upon discovering the joy of encaustic. It is where I found, and continue to find, my closest connection to the world at largeand to the smaller one on the inside. This medium is a dynamic one where anything goes and the possibilities are endless. If you are seeking creative release and experimentation, you will find it in this medium.

Encaustic literally means to burn. In its most basic interpretation, then, encaustic is hot, melted (or burned, if you will) wax. It can be as simple as beeswax melted and applied to an absorbent surface. Ancient beginnings harken back to Trojan ships sealed with pigmented wax; the original intent to make them watertight evolved into a means of decorating and personalizing each ship. The modern-day revival of encaustic and the experimental anything-goes nature of todays art world have allowed for a tremendous resurgence of painting in hot wax, experimenting with any and all techniques in it.

My goal is to bring the encaustic workshop to you in your own studio as I walk you through each step in creating beautiful encaustic paintings. If this is your first taste of encaustic, begin with the simple application of wax to the board. Then, once youre comfortable with the basics, begin exploring all the possibilities in the medium, step by step. Delve into incising, try your hand at collage or jump into image transfers. Each chapter provides new techniques that will further enrich and enliven your encaustic painting and your own enjoyment of working in this versatile medium.

If you have experience with encaustic and have come to this book with the hope of finding new and exciting techniques to enhance your work, skip to the chapter headings and pick one to inspire you to fresh approaches to the medium. Then try them all. Play, experiment and discover the rich, organic nature of the medium.

And, as I do in all my workshops, I invite you to keep in touch. Feel free to ask me the question thats got you puzzled or simply to share your experiences in encaustic with me by visiting PBSartist.com.

At the end of all the toe-tapping, blood-pumping fun technique chapters in this book, Ive included an Inspiration Gallery filled with examples of my paintings that combine the techniques outlined in this book in new and interesting ways. I hope it shows you that this is just the beginning of what you can accomplish in encaustic! And remember, creativity happens in the pauses; pause, take a deep breath and turn the page. Lets begin!

Oftentimes artists will shy away from encaustic because they fear a costly investment to get started or a messy setup that will take over their studios. Neither fear is warranted. The cost can be kept minimal by investing in hardware products from home stores or hardware stores (which work just as well as more specialized products), and the mess is nonexistent. The product is self-contained in its cooled state, and all tools and surfaces can be cleaned by simply melting the wax away. In fact, if youre using brushes and other tools specifically for this medium, they need not be cleaned at all!

You need only a few basic essentials to begin encaustic painting. Ive listed them here, along with a few of my favorite tools, to get you started. As you begin to explore the techniques in this book you will realize that the possibilities for tools and materials compatible with encaustic are endless. Anything goes! Once you master working with the basic elements of the medium, the sky is the limit.

Refined beeswax is the standard in encaustic painting. It has been treated to remove the natural yellow of the beeswax. It produces a clear, glass-like painting when used with or without damar resin. Refined is a better choice than bleached beeswax as the bleached wax can yellow over time due to the chemical processing its gone through.

Natural beeswax is a gorgeous choice for rich, organic painting because it is still in its natural yellow state, and it lends that quality to the finished work.

Damar resin can be added to the beeswax to add a bit of durability and luminosity to the encaustic painting. But this additive is not required, and some artists work strictly in beeswax and obtain durable, luminous results.

Medium is the name given to the combination of beeswax and damar resin. You can make your own, but premade medium is the most advantageous choice for ease of use. This is a combination of refined beeswax and damar resin that has been designated the optimal combination by the producer. All that is required of you is to melt it down and paint. The choice between refined beeswax, natural beeswax and medium is a personal one, and I encourage you to experiment with each to find your preference.

There are many sources for encaustic wax out there, from your local beekeeper producing natural wax to international companies creating beautiful refined waxes for clear, white application. I encourage you to explore your options, but if you are a beginner, I recommend using refined beeswax or medium from R&F Handmade Paints. R&F has been perfecting its products for decades and is dedicated to producing the best encaustic products for artists. This, combined with the fact that its customer service representatives can answer any questions a beginning encaustic artist may have about product and technique, makes R&F a fabulous resource for all things hot wax.

The palette in encaustic work is where the wax is melted, mixed with colored pigment and kept fluid. Any flat surface that can be heated will suffice as a palette, but it is important to have a regulated heat gauge, rather than one with simple low, medium and high settings, in order to control the wax temperature. The temperature of the palette needs to be around 220F (104C) to maintain an optimal melted wax temperature of 180220F (82104C).

Two great palette options are an anodized aluminum palette designed specifically for this purpose or a simple griddle from the small appliance section of any home store. The anodized aluminum palette is great for mixing colors directly on the surface, as it has a clear surface that maintains true color representations in mixing. But this surface does require a separate electric stove element placed underneath the palette to heat it. The griddle is not an advisable surface for directly mixing colors, but it is fairly inexpensive, has a nice, large surface area, and heats up evenly and automatically all on its own.

The cleanest and most efficient way to have multiple colors of wax melted at the ready at one time is to use tins arranged on the palette to hold different encaustic paints. I prefer 16-ounce (473ml) seamless printmakers ink cans from Daniel Smith Art Materials, but anything similar would also work. I have found these cans to be indispensable in my encaustic setup because they allow for large volumes of wax to be at the readyand for my brushes to remain upright in their designated cans. You can mix a different color in each one, and if you need just a small amount of a color, you can even use the lids to mix limited quantities.