Encaustic Workshop

This weekend went by very quickly, mostly, because I was holed up in a studio taking an encaustic workshop from 10a.m.-5 p.m. both days. I've known about encaustic painting (hot wax painting) for a while and was kind of interested in it, but I didn't really need another activity to take up my time.  However, I do love to take classes and learn new things. 

What motivated me to sign up for this workshop was my experiment with rusting fabric.  I liked how the fabric turned out but knew that, even after neutralizing and washing out the fabric, the fabric would still continue to rust over time due to exposure to air.  I know I can try sealing it with acrylic medium (and I will try that sometime), but I thought, "What if I could use it in encaustic painting and then it would be sealed." 

Fortunately for me, we have a local instructor who does workshops every so often and I finally signed up for one this weekend.  The medium is really amazing with so many different ways to use it.  It really could be an entire semester or year long course.  But we only had two days.

It was fun, educational, concentrated and tiring work (standing up on concrete all day for two days).  I will just show you a few of my things to give you an idea of techniques.  I have not done this before at all and there were only a few pieces that I really ended up liking.

This is the instructor, Eve-Marie Bergren, on the right and another participant, Malia.

You can see the hot plate and brushes among other stuff on the table.

This was the first piece I did to try the opaque colors and to build up texture. This board is about 6 x 6".  I liked this size because it was big enough to try stuff on, but not too big to make it seem like a commitment.

On this piece I tested layering transparent colors and carving into the wax to add color afterward.

This piece uses both transparent and opaque colors, as well as drawing between layers with Neocolor II crayons.  I also tried the impressing of metal letters on this with the pink color rubbed in at the end.  I love the technique of rubbing color in the impressions and "pock" marks at the end.  I like how it accentuates the texture.

Here is a piece with an image transfer of a moth and the blue is the same rub-in color technique. I also used gold transfer paper to write the words.

This is the one Anna would like to frame and put in her room.  I tried using some sheer layers of fabric in this, tulle on the bottom (and underneath other layers) and a sheer with the gold dots on top.

This is the first piece where I tried the rusted fabric along with a couple of other strips.  I like how this turned out.  I also rubbed in color afterward.

Here is a second smaller one that I like even better.

This is just a little piece to show how you can collage things in the wax.

There was a lot of information to process.  I will write more about what I learned later.