10 Things I Know for Sure About Encaustic

By Joanne Mattera
Previous post: Encaustic Issues

I made my first encaustic painting 45 years ago in art school, and I’ve been painting seriously with wax for over 30 years. My book, The Art of Encaustic Painting, was published 14 years ago, and the International Encaustic Conference, which I founded and direct, will convene for the 10th time in June 2016. I’ve learned a few things over the decades. Because I hear a lot of misinformation in conversation and certainly see a lot of questionable advice in the various Encaustic pages on Facebook, I’d like to share 10 things I know for sure:

1. All encaustic painting is wax based, but not all wax-based painting is encaustic 

While beeswax mixed with damar resin is the primary wax for encaustic painting, microcrystalline wax is a viable alternative. Tony Scherman, based in Toronto, is a prime exponent of encaustic with microcrystalline.

Tony Scherman, Serena Williams, 2014-15, encaustic on canvas, 72 x 84 inches, photographed at Miami Project, December 2015; the wax is microcrystalline

However, beeswax softened into a paste with turpentine is not encaustic. Encaustic means “to heat or burn in,” as everyone is aware, and heating solvent-based wax is a bad idea, both in terms of health (you don't want to inhale the fumes) and flammability (the solvent can ignite). By all means incorporate cold wax into an oil painting to give your paint more substance or to create a deep, rich surface. But it's not meant to be used with encaustic.

Cold wax medium is made for use with oil paint, not encaustic

2. Wax emulsion, aka saponified wax or water-soluble wax, is not actually encaustic

Wax emulsion is a mixture of wax and water, brought into a permanent mixture means of an alkali, such as ammonia. A few examples:  A form of this paint, known as “punic wax,” was famously used by the Greco-Romans in some of their their funerary portraits. Many of Kay WalkingStick's early paintings are made of wax emulsion that she prepared herself according to the recipe Ralph Mayer offered in his The Artist's Handbook.  And today, the Cuni family of Madrid makes a version of this paint from a proprietary recipe. The specific ingredients of the various emulsions may be different but they are related. 

                   Some Fayum portraits were made                          with wax emulsion

Emulsified wax does not have to be heated to be workable--WalkingStick's mixture has the consistency of mayonnaise, and Cuni's paint comes in a tube--but you can go over painted areas lightly with a heat gun to speed up hardening.

3. Acrylic polymer and encaustic are not compatible. That includes acrylic-based gesso

Here's Mark Gottsegen in an article in the New American Painting blog from 2013 on gesso: "Acrylic dispersion grounds, the most common type of ‘primer’ found in art stores today, are made with an acrylic polymer instead of the protein-based glue found in actual gesso. Sometime around the middle of the twentieth century, companies started using the word ‘gesso’ to refer to acrylic dispersion grounds and the term stuck. . .Today it’s common to hear just about any white painting ground – be it real gesso, an oil ground, or an acrylic dispersion ground – called gesso.  But in fact they are all different materials, with different properties, suited for different applications.  The ground you chose to paint on is an important part of both the aesthetic and structural make-up of your painting.  It’s worthwhile to look into the benefits and drawbacks of each."

Encaustic requires a ground of specially formulated gesso--low-acrylic or no-acrylic binder--which allows wax to be absorbed by the ground and sink into the substrate. The substantive filler in all gesso is whiting or chalk (gesso, is Italian for chalk) but the binders are different. And while we can occasionally work a little oil stick or oil paint into our encaustic painting, we stay away away from acrylic paint because its chemical structure is incompatible with wax. You can find more on gesso here from R&F.

Just to confuse the issue a bit, WalkingStick has colored her wax with acrylic paint rather than oil, because the emulsified wax—i.e. the mixture of wax and water--has become water based in emulsion. (The science is sound.)










Gesso formulated for encaustic from  R&F Paints, left, and Evans Encaustic

4. Oil paint, acrylic paint and encaustic—in fact, all artists’ paints—share the same pigments

Only the medium is different. But because the mediums refract light differently, the same exact pigment may appear different in a different medium. To clarify: Reflection is the bouncing back of light that enters the surface of a painting. Refraction is the angle at which it bounces back. 

The pigment in all paints is the same

5. While there are all kinds of ways to make a painting, an artist’s best tools are her brushes

Sure, scrapers, palette knives, and pigment sticks are all great tools for painting, but learn how to handle a brush, and not just to apply medium. Paint handling is a skill that can only be learned by handling paint--by charging different kinds and sizes of brushes and daubing, swiping, schmearing and stroking it onto the surface to develop it into a composition. Don’t limit yourself to scraping. You're a painter, not an archeologist.

A selection of brushes from my studio

6. Words matter 

There is no such thing as “photo encaustic.” Wax-covered photographs, yes. Digital photographic images collaged with wax, yes. But unless you are printing a photographic image onto wax, or you’re using wax to print the image, it’s not photo encaustic. Honestly, there's nothing encaustic about a photograph dipped into wax.

And you’ve heard me say this a million times: There is no such thing as “encaustic art.” Art is art. When was the last time you heard a reference to "oil art"? If, as an “encaustic artist" you need a qualifier, you may not be ready for the identity of artist. (It’s OK to be a student a while longer, or a hobbyist forever. No judgement there.)

Vermeer's Girl With a Pearl earring is not "oil art." Why should Kevin Frank's portrait of Wendy Whelan be "encaustic art"? 

7. There are a lot of unqualified teachers  

Too many, I'd say. Standards are important. It's not elitist to seek out or demand the best teaching, and be wary of anyone who tries to demean you as "elitist" when you do your due diligence. Ask to see a teacher’s resume. Where did s/he study? How long has s/he been working in encaustic?  What is s/he charging in relation to what her/his teacher charged? With a longtime teacher you’re getting years of experience from many sources distilled into a class, workshop or course. With a turnaround teacher—i.e. one who has taken one workshop and then started teaching—you’re getting a limited view and experience. If you’re going to take the time and spend the money to learn, go for the best. (And question the ethics of someone who learns from a teacher and then sets up shop down the road from that that teacher.)

Want to engage with in conversation with other teachers, or listen in on what they are talking about? The Facebook page, Artists Teach Artists is open to all. It grew out of the annual panel discussion on teaching, Standards and Practices in Teaching Encaustic at the International Encaustic Conference.  

Left: Page from the Facebook group, Artists teach Artists
Right: the Standards and Practices panel at the Encaustic Conference, which takes place every year. Panelists, left to right, are Milissa Galazzi, Sara Mast, Cherie Mittenthal, Toby Sisson 

8. Relatedly, the road to Hell is paved with bad You Tube videos 

You may luck out and find a good one, but typically these videos are full of bad information, bad art, bad technique, and bad science. Want to learn encaustic? Take a good beginner course and work your way up to a good intermediate or advanced course. Good teaching is available coast to coast--from workshops at Wax Works West in Corralitos, California, to those at Truro Center of the Arts on Cape Cod, and many places in between, like Paula Roland Workshops in Santa Fe; Miles Conrad Encaustics in Tucson;  Evans Encaustics workshops and residencies in Atlanta; R&F Workshops at the factory in Kingston, New York, as well as with the company's staff of traveling artists. 

You can find some many good teachers here, all members of ProWax, a group that is vetted for professional involvement and engagement.

Yes, there are some good videos on You Tube but there's a lot of incorrect information, too. If you're just getting started, find a good live teacher

9. Not all “encaustic art” organizations, websites, informal groups or Facebook pages are worth your time and money 

Affiliate yourself with the artists who have experience, who share generously, who are willing to tell you when your work doesn’t cut it (instead of “loving” everything you do and offering no real constructive criticism). Affiliate yourself with groups that will give you honest feedback based on their understanding of art and their involvement in the contemporary mainstream. And participate in events that don’t nickel and dime you. Yes, it costs money to run an organization or conference, but look for the ways the organizers are serving you with perks, extras, and freebies because they value you as an artist, not a money machine.

A few that I've found to be eminently helpful: 
. ProWax Journal, founded and edited by Maritza Ruiz-Kim, which is accessible online; and ProWax Forum, founded and maintained by Deborah Winiarski, to which you need to request admission. (Disclaimer: I founded the ProWax group, a small private group of professional artists working in the medium of wax, from which these two groups sprang.) 
. The websites of several paintmakers: R&F Paints, Evans Encaustics, Miles Conrad Encaustics, Kama Pigments and Enkaustikos
. And I'll be honest, you will not find a better event than the Encaustic Conference that I founded and run. Artist Binnie Birstein, who has attended every year, calls it "a life changer"

Are you familiar with ProWax Journal? It's an online quarterly filled with good writing and ideas

10. The most important part of an encaustic painting is not the wax. It’s the idea

Yes, technique is important. Yes, you need to learn how to handle your tools and medium and to think about how to make a painting that doesn’t fall apart. But the real issue is this: What do you have to say? And why do you need to say it in encaustic?

Your comments are welcome in the Comments section below. It's OK to disagree. That's what makes a discussion.