PHOTO-ENCAUSTIC ART

Photo-encaustics is a lovely mixed-media technique that uses beeswax and dammar resin as a medium to encapsulate a fine art photography print to create a one-of-a-kind artwork which is full of texture and tones. The official description of photo-encaustics is as follows –

Encaustics means “to burn in or fuse.” First practised by Greek artists as far back as the 5th century BC, encaustic combines beeswax with dry pigment and tree resin to bind pigment. The “caustic” part of the term indicates that heat is used to melt and blend the layers of wax into a unified piece. Historically, Encaustics have been used to paint Egyptian funeral portraits and by Greeks to depict mythology in art. In the 20th Century, encaustics made a revival with well-known artists such as Van Gogh and Picasso.

THE PROCESS

I love working with melted beeswax in the studio, the texture and refracted light of each photo-encaustic piece have an ethereal feel, It is an ever-evolving creative process; it gives my work a deeper connection to the natural world using nature’s gift of beeswax. My process is a combination of my fine art horse photography and photo-encaustic art both separately and intertwined.The process itself can take many hours starting with preparing the print then I spend time adding layers of beeswax and tree sap, texture and colour, infusing with heat layer after layer to ensure the artwork encapsulates the photograph combined with textures such as natural elements, rice papers and mark making and then finishing with oil pan sticks to enhance the artwork further. The final artwork then takes up to 6 to 12 months to cure.My limited edition prints start life as original phot-encaustic artwork, I then re-photograph the artwork and spend time in my digital darkroom, enhancing textures and tones creating a new print inspired by the original encaustic artwork but possessing its own new unique style and feel.