72-Encaustic Painting, the methods and joys of layering

Our guest host Diane Kelly of DCKellyStudio.com will help us explore Encaustic Painting and the many methods that artists use with this very flexable medium.

Encaustic paint is made from beeswax, pigment, damar resin and occasionally other additions to harden or crackle the paint., like carnauba wax. Encaustic paint is used hot, and is kept so on a heated palette, and fused with heat, either in the form of a heat gun, blow torch, or by exposure to brilliant sun during a warm summer.

The name encaustic comes from the Greek 'enkaustikos', meaning to burn in. All layers of wax and collage need to be fused after each application of new wax. The surface can be made rough, you may collage items into it, the paint can even be cast into sculpture. It can be made as shiny as glass, and buffed to brilliance. It can look very different, like an oil painting or even like a coarse plaster wall, depending on how it is used.

88 88 ArtLook, 8888ArtLook.com, Annette Coleman, AnnetteColemanArtist.com,
Diane Kelly, DCKellyStudio.com
Jim Caldwell, ArtworkNetwork.com
Catherine Carilli, catherinecarilli.com
Jackie Butler, artgraze.com
Encaustic Art Institute, EAINM.com