ABOUT ENCAUSTIC
About Encaustic
Encaustic is wax based painting medium characterized by luminous color and a lush surface. It was used by Greek artists more than 2,000 years ago. It consists of purified beeswax, damar resin (which raises the melting point of the wax and makes it hard) and powdered pigment. Its exquisite visual properties make it perhaps the most beautiful paint ever known. It is also the most durable of all artists’ paints, since wax is impervious to moisture and over time will retain all the freshness of a newly finished work.
Perhaps the best known of all encaustic work are the Fayum funeral portraits painted in the 1st through 3rd centuries A.D. by Greek painters in Egypt.
The 20th Century saw a rebirth of encaustic on a major scale. Jasper Johns created his famous “flag paintings” in encaustic. Diego Rivera and Arthur Dove also used encaustics.
Links to ancient and contemporary artists working in encaustic:
Fayum Funeral Portraits
About Eggshell Inlay
This technique is believed to have originated in China, and was later transferred to Japan via Korea. It is known in Japanese as Tamago-ji (tamago meaning egg). Many examples from the Meiji era (late 19th century) exist today as small decorative boxes or bowls.
Actual eggshells are used, in their natural colors of white, brown and blue/green. Individual shell sections are carefully placed with attention given to spacing and its effect on the overall pattern.
Layers of purified beeswax protect the finished surface.