The pieces that I am exhibiting are made with the encaustic process - that is oil paint mixed with melted beeswax and melted in to the surface with heat. It is a challenging medium - very tricky painting with something that hardens on the brush almost immediately! The finished look intrigued me greatly; the colours are very rich and vibrant, and the surface has a soft waxy sheen which is polished with a cloth. It is very stable and enduring.
Encaustic is a hot wax painting process in which the wax-bound paints are fused together and adhered to the ground with heat applied from an external source. (e.g.: heat-gun, blowtorch, iron) The process was probably developed by the ancient Greeks, and the name is derived from the Greek enkaustikos "to burn in" referring to the final step. The Egyptian Faiyum-period sarcophagus portraits dating from the second century A.D. purportedly created by Greek painters or at least Greek-trained Egyptians, have remained remarkably well preserved - a testament to the durability of this medium -
From"The Painter's Handbook" by Mark David Gottsegen
