Encaustic - what`s that?
An ancient technique - the art to paint with wax & fire.
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Ancient technique
more about the history of encausticEncaustic goes back to Antique times and is much older than oil painting. Traces of encaustic have been discovered on Egyptian mummy portraits, wall paintings in Pompeii, the Trajan Column in Rome. Some very old Christian ikons, e.g. in St. Catherine's Monastery on the Sinai, are also worked in encaustic technique.
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Natural materials
Beeswax, Damar tree resin, shellac, whenever possible natural pigments and wood as a painting ground - encaustic offers the possibility to get along almost without artificial painting agents, thinners and chemicals.
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Not melting on the wall
more handling hintsEncaustic is very durable because beeswax and damar resin act as a sealant themselves - the artwork will not yellow or darken. The addition of damar raises the natural melting point of the wax to over 70 °C.
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Dimensions "hot & cold"
The pigments are diluted in hot wax and applied while the wax is still warm. As soon as the wax has cooled down, it can no longer get painted. So it is heated again and again and many layers are applied on top of each other and fused together.
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Painting with the Flame
Most of my compositions are created using the so-called shellac burn technique. Pigmented shellac is applied to the cooled wax and, after a short drying time, heated in sections with a gas torch so that it breaks up and wonderful net structures emerge. -
Depth effect
Encaustic paintings are famous for their translucency and depth. The light is reflected through the various layers of wax down to the painting ground itself. The interaction of transparent and opaque layers and the shellac elements create a wonderful effect of depth.
