Encaustic Icon

Mont St. Michel Madonna and Child

5x7"

Encaustic with Collage

I really enjoyed weaving a spiritual theme into the encaustic medium in this piece.  After I fused the color, I heated the wax surface so it would easily accept the collage elements which included an altered image from a photograph I took of a very old sculpture of the Madonna and Child at Mont St. Michel in France.  This was my last layer and in fusing it, I was careful to scrape away the wax from the image to preserve the clarity.  The use of the sienna earth colors and ultramarine blue color echo the ground of the rocky island on which the Abbey sits (built around 800) and the blue sea which completely surrounds Mont St. Michel at high tide.