Half Day Encaustic in Layers Workshop Miami

Huge thanks to Sonia Hidalgo for inviting me to share my passion for Encaustic Wax painting with her enthusiastic students at her Romero Hidalgo Artist's Studios in the Red Road Arts District, Miami, on Nov 22. I explained the fascinating history of this ancient painting medium and safety considerations before we dove in to creating 6" x 6" multi-layered encaustic wax paintings. Here's a glimpse into this studio workshop and the beautiful results...

Sonia (in black) helping with instructing students at the start of class.

Sonia watching as students prime their boards with plain beeswax, 

fuse with a heat gun, then coat again in wax medium.

Students working around the palette to build their initial layers, 

and fusing with the heat gun between layers.

Building layers of wax paint over a drawing; fusing gently.

Experimenting with pouring liquid wax paint into metal forms on the painting surface.

So proud of the finished painting!

Beautiful completed paintings by the 7 artists!

So happy to stand with the artists and join them in their happy success. :)

THANK  YOU  SONIA!

To find where I will be teaching a workshop next, check out my online calendar at
www.MultiMediaMavenArt.com and select the Events, Workshops & Demos tab
on the left hand side of the screen.

Happy Arting!   Tristina

Encaustic Kitchen Mixology

When I first read books about encaustic wax painting, they all mentioned that it is economical and advantageous based on your painting needs to make your own encaustic medium from beeswax and damar resin... Right! I figured I would never need to take the time to make my own medium because it would surely be readily available from my local art supply stores... Wrong! In a desperate pinch, I found myself having to work some kitchen magic to make encaustic medium for a class I was teaching. Now I no longer tremble in fear. It's really quite simple!

I grabbed the kitchen supplies from KMart - candy thermometer, 4 quart saucepan (I recommend one with side pouring lip(s)), a small metal strainer, tight woven cloth for straining (like organza) and a cookie sheet or ice tray... preferably a silicon one! I found some great silicon King Cube ice trays at Ace Hardware to help with easily popping out the cooled blocks of medium. SCORE! :)

If you haven't already, grab Linda and William Womack's book, Embracing Encaustic; they have an easy to understand recipe and great pictures to help you along with the making encaustic medium process. The formula simply uses white beeswax and damar resin (not damar varnish!). The resin looks like light colored chunks of amber and is quite hard. I found the Jacquard beeswax at Jerrys Artarama. Sometimes you can find the beeswax and resin at Pearl Paint, and Utrecht as well - look for it in the oil painting area.

Making the encaustic medium in your kitchen is so easy. I usually use 2 pounds (2 bags or 32oz) of white beeswax and 4 ounces of damar resin. I make sure to turn the stove top extractor fan on high, then throw in enough beeswax to cover the bottom of the pan to at least 1/8 of an inch, bring it to 175 degrees F / 80 degrees C on a burner and wait for it to melt - swirl the candy thermometer around in the wax and watch the temp carefully. When all the wax in the bottom of the pan is melted, I add all 4 oz of the damar resin at once and raise the temp to 220 degrees F / 105 degrees C. The resin will begin to sizzle and pop...this is ok! Swirl the resin and small amount of wax around until the resin is liquefied (this could take up to 15 min)  then pour in the rest of the 2 pounds of beeswax. Turn the temperature back down to 175F/80C, put the lid on the pot, and keep an eye on the melting, occasionally stirring with the candy thermometer.

 It can take a half an hour or more for all the wax to melt. When all in the pan is liquefied, use the candy thermometer to swirl together the ingredients. Pour the liquid medium out of the pan, through the fine cloth (like organza) and through the metal strainer into the cookie sheet or ice cube tray. Set aside to cool.

If using a cookie tray, cut the medium in squares with a knife while still warm. After the medium cools, pop out of the blocks of finished medium...if they are difficult to get out, put the tray in the refrigerator or freezer for 5 to 10 minutes, the flip the tray over and bang on the back. All will pop out easily!

Now that I have made encaustic medium several times, I wonder why I ever stressed so much about doing it. Is there something you have avoided doing along your artistic journey that you can try soon in order to overcome your fear? Thanks for sharing the activity you attempted and conquered with me and other readers in the comments below...

HAPPY ARTING!      Tristina

Finished R&F and the Encaustic Art Book!

 The perfect ending to a fantastic workshop visit to R&F Paints...I got to spend the day yesterday learning about ecaustic wax painting from Lisa Pressman and had a whole day to myself today in the workshop focusing on working with encaustic paints. One of the things that Lisa said about working with encaustic is that, "It's all about the heat." So true; I got to experiment with that today using both the butane torch and multi-temp heat gun. Here's the result of what I worked on yesterday and today:

My encaustic wax paint pallet. The wax is heated to about 200 degrees.

The brushes are kept on the hot plate or the bristles go hard in 30 seconds!



 The painting standing up is my finished 'tree bark' work. Others are in progress...

Detail of tree bark work showing black lines and pinholes filled with graphite.

The opaque areas will turn translucent as the wax cools and hardens.

Here's a piece in process. Will finish at home...

 I'm placing a photograph I've roughed up with sandpaper and coated with wax medium onto a large panel.

 Here's my peeling paint and photo painting in progress... Will finish at home.

Detail of painting with photo I took in Antibe, France a few years ago.

 It's so wonderful that R&F has available all the paint colors and tools for working with both oil paint pigment sticks and encaustic wax paints as part of their class/studio fee. I got to play with all the colors I wanted for the past 4 days! I met so many talented and inspiring people at the workshop (Dayna, Ian, Leslie, Serena, Kitty and Irene) as well as the folks who work at R&F (Richard, Pamela, Darren, Laura, Kelly, Kristin, Melissa, Sienna and a few others). I even bought 2 new Encaustic books and 5 DVD's, so will be giving you those reviews as I read/watch them!

 Today I also finished the 'Encaustic Art' book by Lissa Rankin. Loved the last several chapters discussing how different encaustic artists store, pack and ship their paintings as well as a discussion of how to educate galleries about encaustic if they are not familiar with the medium. I even read the last page with a short bio on Lissa and in the very last sentence it gave a web site address for sharing resources, education, how-tos, photos and creative inspiration for encaustic artists: www. EncausticandBeyond.com. This book was great to the very last sentence!!!

Encaustic Art HeyDay!

Usually Wednesdays are my studio day. Today, however, I did not go to my studio and stayed home instead playing with my new R&F encaustic paints! Last night I had used R&F's Encaustic Gesso (a much more high solid gesso with much less binder than a typical acrylic gesso) to prepare a bunch of artist's boards for encaustic painting. I just couldn't keep my hands away from them this morning...

I had fun experimenting with the encaustic medium, impasto medium, and colors Azure Blue, Warm Pink, Naples Yellow and Zinc & Titanium Whites, all that I heated in tins from R&F Paints on my pancake griddle. I added to the encaustic paints my own acrylic hand-colored papers, postage stamps and images printed on tissue from my Epson printer. I played around with some of the techniques from Lissa Rankin's book 'Encaustic Art' and found out which worked as stated for me and which didn't! Here are some of the results:

The painting with the flower I call "Daffodillia" and the spatter paint one I call "Taverna".

Daffodillia is made using Patricia Balldwin Seggebruch's amber shellac wet burn method. I'm such a pyro...love to watch the fire coming off the panel and the wax floating around in a random pattern - fascinating.

Taverna reminds me of a Greek tavern where fun and frivolity reign supreme among a close knit community. Think I'm going to have to keep this one in my private collection!

I'll be working on arranging and organizing my home studio over the next few days. It'll feel so good to have a place all set up with my supplies easily at hand and my sewing machine set up and ready for regular use. :)

So Excited About Encaustic Supplies!

Yesterday I received a box of Encaustic Wax painting supplies from R&F Paints!

I know, you must be thinking, 'How do you paint with wax?' I thought the same thing, too, and have had my interest piqued lately with many articles in art & craft magazines / books including this painting medium. What I discovered in the 'Encaustic Art' book that I am currently reading (by Lissa Rankin) is that wax has actually been found preserved as a painting medium in Egyptian Fayum portraits from as far back as the first century BC!

I've also been inspired to use wax in my mixed media paintings lately from watching the DVD 'Encaustic Techniques' by Patricia Baldwin Seggebruch. Hence... this latest R&F Paints order. Some of my "Fossil Bones" series paintings have encaustic medium painted over my own hand-colored papers before glueing/nailing on the petrified bones. I ordered the new encaustic products to take working with the medium to the next level with some of the techniques found on the DVD. I'll let you know how it goes...