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Content:
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1. Simplified
description
2. Short
History
3. The
Basic Method
4. Advantages
5. Supports
6. White
Grounds
7. Brushes
& Cleaning
8. Pigments
9. Wax
10. Heat
& Heating
11. About
Heat
12. Additional
Tools
13. Burning-in-process
14. Ancient
Techniques (extended article)
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1. Simplified
description:
The
paints are very easily made of molten bees wax and raw pigments.
The hot bees wax and the pigments are mixed together and brushed
on any support in their liquid state.
It's as easy and simple as it sounds. Use your artistic
imagination with
this
ancient technique!
2. Some
steps in the history of encaustic:
(short!)
The
history of painting in encaustic technique dates back to ancient
times. The word encaustic comes from the Greek word 'enkaustikos'
which means = 'to burn in' - the final step in this technique. It
is to believe that the painting technique was invented by the
ancient Greeks and spread around the Mediterranean area. The
ancient Greeks used charcoal fires to melt their waxes in boxes
made of bronze. They used on top of the box a plate with a grid of
depressions for the molten colours and keeping the implements
warm. The artists of that time have had a great knowledge about
pigments to use in encaustic and developed their skills to a
masterly craft.
The oldest findings at the Greek Acropolis in this painting
technique are dating back ca. 450 B.C. Some
features of marble statues are highlighted with encaustic paint.
Also it is to believe that the Greeks used encaustic paint in the
earliest form of easel painting.
The Greeks spread their knowledge also to Egypt. Findings at the
Faiyum District near Cairo are dating back ca. 200 B.C.,
where encaustic paintings are found on ca. 600 famous mummies
cases.
Click here to see examples
of the findings.
Click here to see complete
mummy examples with
embedded encaustic
paintings.
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Ca. 80
B.C. is the date of findings in the Roman Empire - in
cities like Herculaneum and Pompeii. Here the painting technique
was used for murals. There is evidence from the first century AD
that Caesar commissioned an encaustic painting from an artist
called 'Timomakos' - which sounds like a Greek name. (Most common
Greek names are ending with an syllable like '-akis', '-akos' or
'-oulos'.)
Also
the Christian Court of Constantinopolis and the Byzantine Empire
ordered ca. 600-700 A.D. their artwork in
encaustic technique from Greek artists or Greek trained artists.
In the time of the Renaissance period artists
like Lukas Cranach and Andrea Mantegna experimented with encaustic
paint. A story tells about Leonardo DaVinci that his painting
'Battle of Anghiari' is a failure of a ruined 'burning-in process'
with encaustic paint.
The 18th
Century saw a revival of encaustic painting in France.
Artist like Loius-Joseph LeLorain, Jean-Jacques Bachelier,
Alexandre Roslin and mainly Joseph-Marie Vien exhibited encaustic
works throughout France. In the Acedémie Royale des Inscriptions
Vien exhibited the first encaustic painting 'Head of Minerva'. His
painting lead to an European enthusiasm. Carl Gustaf Pilo in
Sweden, George Edwards, Horace Walpole, Joshua Reynolds, George
Stubbs, Johann Heinrich Muentz in Englandare only a few named
artists who picked up the technique of painting with wax. German
artists like Jacob Wilhelm Christian Roux, Benjamin Calau, Franz
Xavier Fernbach, Joseph Fratrel and Juleps Schnorr Von Carolsfeld
spread the encaustic technique in German studios. Italian artist
used the technique too: Giuseppe Cades, Felice Giani, Luigi
Campovecchio and Giovanni Battista. Ca. 1850 many
European artist used the encaustic technique. Many of them used it
for murals. In France Eugene Delacroix, Hippolyte Flandrin and
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, in Switzerland Arnold Boecklin used the
way of painting with wax and were experimenting with this
technique.
In
North America and Central America the process of working with
encaustic started in the 20th Century. The
Mexican artist Diego Rivera is well known for his murals in Mexico
City. In the 40th Karl Zerbe and David Aronson perfected their
craft in using wax as a painting medium. But the international
most know artist is Jasper Johns. His non-traditional techniques
with three dimensional numbers and figures in encaustic helped
this medium to get back to the contemporary world of art. Today
many art students and established artists put their hands on this
technique to extend the range of their painting mediums. Examples
are the American artists Ann Huffman, Karen Jacobs and many other
around the globe. And everything started with the 'Old Greeks'
about 2500 years ago.
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3. The
Basic Methods - on a low budget:
Encaustic
is a very simple and easy to use technique. Also the tools you
need can be found in most households. Again the simple basics:
molten bees wax in natural or refined form and raw pigments are
mixed together = Ready is your paint.
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4. Some
Advantages of Encaustic:
-
'Drying' times:
The main advantage of encaustic painting is that the
paint will 'dry' very fast to a hardened state. Unlike oils you
don't have to wait for several days or months that your paint will
dry. The melting point of bees wax is 65°. In the basic method
there is no need for thinners or solvents whatsoever. But I
suggest that you keep the studio proper ventilated.
-
Permanence:
After the wax hardened it's in is permanent state. You
can buff it to give the painting a lustre sheen or leave it matt.
Encaustic work will last for ever if you don't heat up your room
with a temperature more than 65°C (163°F) (melting point of
beeswax and yourself) - otherwise your painting runs off the wall.
The encaustic paint is stable in a range of approximately 4-44°C
(40-110°F).
In a very cold environment encaustic paint will shrink slightly.
If it is not well fused between layers of each colour or to the
ground it will then may start to separate. In this state it can
cause cracking on the surface during transport.
If your painting has encountered to more heat and the paint has
soften (what will cause no real damage) - wait until it has cooled
and buff the surface again. Encaustic paintings are durable
against: acids, moisture, atmospheric gases, dirt, mildew and
fungus. It also don't attracts insects to feed on. The ingredients
are only beeswax and pigments - no oils are in this formulae - so
you don't have to worry about darkening and cracking like some
oils in oilcolours do. There is also no fading or flaking.
Think about the 'Faiyum' portraits from Egypt - they survived more
than 2000 years without any natural damage and show until today
their colour brilliance. Great!!
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No rules:
Unlike in oil you don't have to follow the rules 'fat
over lean'.
-
Working techniques:
Think of any technique you used in mediums like oil,
acrylic, watercolour, gouache, tempera or whatsoever and apply it
to your encaustic paints.
Poor
it, splatter it, drip it, layer it, think of any technique you
used until now - work detailed or wild - use thin glazes
or build up super thick encrusted impastos - it's up to you and
your mood, technique and your subject matter.
With encaustic you can also make very cool collages, you can
sculpture it, shape it, model it, relief it, casting it, carve it,
scratch it, model it - encaustic is a universal material to work
with and it gives you the freedom to be inventive.
- Re-working at any stage:
If you are not satisfied with the step you have done -
simply scrape away the colour with a sharp knife. You can work and
re-work at any part of your painting at any time and as often as
you like. You can do so after some years, too! The advantage of
encaustic paint is that you only have to re-heat it to add
modifications.
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planned and
coming soon:
Encaustic Advanced Methods
& Techniques
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