3D Encaustic Sculpture Techniques | Dare to move off the panel!

The Versatility of Encaustic

After painting realistically for 30 years and doing sculpture for ten years, I began working with encaustic. Like many others working with this medium, I was attracted to its translucency, luscious sheen and tactility. But I probably most appreciate the versatility of the medium, as one can use painting, collage, printmaking and sculptural techniques with it.

Three-dimensional encaustic sculptures can be formed using encaustic medium with wire, wire mesh, bamboo, plaster gauze, paper, natural fibers and more.

Encaustic Sculpture 3-Dimensional Exploration

I took a 3-D Encaustic workshop at Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill on Cape Cod about 6 years ago with Miles Conrad, an accomplished professional artist and owner of Conrad Wilde Gallery in Tucson, AZ. I respect and admire him as an artist and I love his work. It was wonderful to learn from him.

Working with encaustic off the two dimensional plane

After returning home, during one moment of exploration, I repeatedly dipped shaped paper into encaustic medium, built up the thickness of the surface, and adhered components together to make a larger sculpture. My Cluster series was born.

I’ve since use fabric and other fibers to create three-dimensional forms that resemble works in nature, but are unique abstractions. As with Earth Pod below, I have also cast encaustic into molds that I made from my sculptures.

3-D Encaustic Sculpture Workshops

Classes with Helen are available on Catalyst Art Lab.

Dare to move off the panel!

I hope that our art and this post inspire you, even if you aren’t able to attend the workshop, to explore 3-D encaustic sculpture.

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About Helen Dannelly

Helen Dannelly studied painting at San Francisco State University with Bay Area Photorealists Robert Bechtle and Richard McLean. She studied sculpture, including metal arts and bronze casting at the University of Minnesota, and at Diablo Valley College in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2009, she began working in encaustic which she enjoys because of its versatility. An award-winning sculptor, Dannelly has exhibited at Slate Contemporary in Oakland, CA, Conrad Wilde Gallery in Tucson, Adam Peck Gallery in Provincetown, MA, and in juried and invitational exhibitions nationally.

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• 3D Encaustic Sculpture Techniques | Dare to move off the panel! - June 24, 2017

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