Encaustic things

In the past couple of years I've gotten excited about ceramics and gelli plates and...encaustic painting. Encaustic paint is made by adding pigments to beeswax (with a bit of tree resin added to firm up the wax).

Some of the things I love about encaustic include the sense of texture and depth, the movement of the wax from solid to liquid and back to solid, and the endless chances for reworking and interacting with the surface. I appreciate the more natural materials and reduced plastic packaging compared to acrylic paints.

It's a time of a lot of experimenting - there are so many factors to explore. One thing is clear though, the sense of texture that I love with quilting I also love with encaustic!

I've been trying to create shifting color and dreamy light effects, with some successes. These 5" x 5" paintings were all done on affordable birch panels but I like some of them enough to mount them on cradled boards for hanging.

A one-pound bag of encaustic medium created no less than 20 small paintings so a little does go a long way! Still, it's true that encaustic medium and paint are rather expensive, and that fact may motivate me to list some of my paintings for sale as I go! For now, I am leaving them scattered around the dining room so I can keep making eyes at them. Do you have a favorite encaustic artist? I would love to know!