Encaustic, meaning, to burn in, is an ancient painting medium practiced by Greek artists as far back as the 5th century B.C. The oldest known pigment binder, encaustic combines molten beeswax with dry pigment and resin. Encaustic is impervious to moisture. In ancient Greece, this main preservation property of encaustic was instrumental for weatherproofing Greek warships. Pigmenting the wax also gave rise to the decorating of warships with iconography. Greeks that settled in Egypt adapted the funerary customs of honoring the dead by painting a portrait of the deceased in the prime of life or after death to be placed over the person’s mummy. Most notably known as the “Fayum Portraits”, these are the only surviving encaustic paintings from ancient times, some of which are part of the Egyptian collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
After the fall of the Roman empire, encaustic fell into obscurity. Tempura, due its ease of use and low cost to produce, became encaustic’s successor. Later, the 20th century saw a major resurgence of encaustic with the work of Jasper Johns and Diego Rivera among many others.
Encaustic is a very versatile medium that offers a variety of handling methods. Once molten, the wax is applied to the surface with a brush and fused with a heat gun, heated iron or propane torch. In earlier times, the same fusing process was achieved by putting a flame under metal that heated the entire surface of the painting. Because of the adherent nature of wax, it works well with collage material. Encaustic can be applied to wood, masonite, metal and a variety of other surfaces. The wax can be thick or thin, translucent, clear or opaque, molded, scraped, carved or etched into.
Damar resin is added to the wax as a hardening agent; this is what gives encaustic paintings their rich and glasslike sheen if buffed. Virtually any color pigment can be added to wax though consistency and pigment particle size varies.
Encaustic does not involve as much drying time as oil painting. It is possible to do a painting in as little as one sitting. Once the wax is applied and fused, it just needs a few moments to set and cool.
