I’m excited to share my latest obsession with you. I love being creative using different Art Mediums and at the moment this is my favorite. It’s called Photo Encaustic.
The word Encaustic comes from the Greek Enkaustikos which means to burn in and refers to the process of fusing with heat. Encaustic is a combination of beeswax and damar resin, (tree sap in it’s rawest form) melted and applied. Wax is a durable material excellent for sealing and preserving.
Pausias, a greek painter from the first half of the 4th century, is credited with inventing the Encaustic Painting method.
In ancient Greece, ship hulls were waterproofed with beeswax and tinted with brightly colored pigments. In 800 B.C., Homer writes of painted warships sailing into Troy.
The early religious art in pharoah’s tombs contain encaustic wax paintings, this technique which is seeing a revival in modern times, by painting fine art photographs which have been mounted on wood, with the wax medium.
The oldest surviving Encaustic panel paintings are the Romano Egyptian Fayum Mummy portraits from Egypt around 100-300 A.D. These are realistic Encaustic portraits on wooden boards that were used for Mummy Masks. They were painted by Greek painters who settled in Egypt and adopted the Egyptian custom of mummification.
These nature-based materials from ancient times are surprisingly consistent with those found in an encaustic studios today.
I combine modern photographic and printing technology, with ancient crafting techniques to achieve a work of art that is tactile, archival and organic. I just love the painterly surface the wax creates, compared to prints behind glass.
This video shows part of the process for a Photo Encaustic painting that I did in the studio.
I use my original photography for most of my work. But if you’d like an Encaustic painting of your photograph, send me a digital copy, let me know what size you’d like and I’ll give you a quote to do it.
Some of my Photo Encaustic work will be on display at the French Door in Franklin for the month of March. It will be available for purchase.
Creating Art is like medicine for my soul. It inspires me and is an escape from the outside world. I hope my Art inspires you to try new creative experiences too!
Debbie