Playing with Fire - Encaustic Painting 3-day Workshop

Linda Benton McCloskey

and the Propane Blow Torch

How much fun is this!  I'm taking an encaustic workshop with Linda Benton McCloskey and it is absolutely fascinating painting with hot wax paints!  Encaustic painting is one of the oldest methods of painting - the oldest surviving encaustic art is Egyptian Mummy art from the 1st century AD - 2000 years old with colors just as vivid today as when painted!  The beeswax dries clear (and some bees showed up today at the workshop) and the damar resin (tree sap) which the wax is mixed with (and then pigment added) makes it really hard - it even polishes to a high sheen.

I got interested in encaustic painting (I tend to gravitate toward the ancient methods such as buon fresco, medieval manuscript illumination,  and now encaustic) several years ago and purchased some of the basic supplies.  Then I read up on the process and realized that perhaps it would be better to wait for the right time instead of trying to teach myself how to use a blow torch in the studio among other dangerous components to this art.  Well, the right time is now, and a workshop, especially one with as gifted and giving a teacher as Linda, makes all the difference in time and effort spent learning - a good workshop speeds you up a great deal.

My Colors!

I've been saving up Princess Mittens' cat food cans and here they are in all their glory.  The medium (beeswax + damar resin melted together) is that translucent yellow on the far left and you mix the medium with oil paint or pure pigment so you really paint with hot wax that's been colored.  The little can near the top has clear melted paraffin in it and that's what you use to clean your pallet and your brushes.

You take your support and coat it with the hot medium 3 times and after each coat, you fuse it with a heat gun or the BLOW TORCH (learning to use it was worth the workshop...).  Then every time you use paint or embed a treasure (I can't wait to do this), you fuse it and build up these layers of translucent wax and paint, and it's just beautiful - I also love this idea of "sealing" or "encapsulating" paint, objects, paper, etc. under these layers - kind of like "building the mysterious".

First Try

This first try (12x12") already has 6-7 layers (fusing in between each) - don't know where it's going or will end up, but it surely is loads of fun!