Encaustic comments (part 1)

I thought encaustic art was all about painting with a little electric iron and brightly coloured wax. That singular notion didn't offer enough for me to explore further with the result that a vast rich seam of gloriously sensual artistic activity passed me by for so long.

I don't quite remember what led to the earth-moving moment when I looked again but I did and it did!

I do remember I was left breathless when I saw work by artists such as Roberta Lee Woods and Alicia Tormey. I was enthralled and immediately set off on new travellings to unexpected and unconsidered places.

There followed several weeks of gathering pieces of required paraphernalia including a little table-top stove, cradled boards, and surface thermometer. To these I added some tools I'd used for ceramics, along with carbon paper, pastels, graphite powder and India ink. My trusty heat gun would take on new fusing dimensions.

I read books, looked at lots of images online and watched YouTube videos to expand my perception and knowledge of what encaustic art could be for me.

This one by Kandy Lozano gives a real flavour of the possible.



While I waited for my wax to arrive I consciensciously prepared my tiny 15x15cm boards ready to begin... and I waited... and sighed.

Then one morning as the sun was loosening its rays like spreading fingers the wax lay waiting for me to melt and slip into a new phase of discovery.

So I did.

(Look out for more to come...)