Studio day experimenting with encaustics.
Supports: circular conservation card. The circular support is not usual for me so challenges composition choices. To help the encaustic medium adhere to the surface I stretched linen over the surface and secured with rabbit skin glue.
Mixing damar varnish pellets with natural beeswax pellets. Heating and cooling mixing with oils and using a blow torch to keep it fluid when necessary.
- I found it quite difficult to control the wax which becomes solid very quickly. The mixing of wax and paint becomes muddy very easily.
+ It was good to try a new material. This challenges my ideas and forces me to work in new ways. The wax when dry has a sculptural quality which can be scratched and carved into to add marks to the surface. There is a contrast of shiny and matt areas due to the nature of the medium when cool. There is scope to add found materials into the wax and encase between the layers.
Comments