Collecting, Pressing, and Organizing Dried Flowers and Foliage for Encaustic Collage Last weekend I shared an encaustic griddle with artist Denise Callaghan. Denise brought with her to the workshop a large binder filled with dried flowers for encaustic collage. Her binder is beautiful—pages and pages of pressed and dried flowers and foliage. Denise kindly gave… Read more Encaustic Collage with dried flowers and foliage
Encaustic is an ideal medium for assemblage, mixed media, collage painting. Encaustic wax can both preserve and adhere collage elements to artwork. 5 Rules for Encaustic Collage / Mixed Media / Assemblage Here are five guidelines for adding collage elements to an encaustic painting: Ensure that your ground is rigid and absorbent. Encaustic painting on… Read more Encaustic and Collage / Mixed Media / Assemblage
Unlock your Creativity | Start Copying As I explore creativity in my own life, I have been reading Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You about Being Creative by Austin Kleon. In this book, Kleon isn’t suggesting that we plagiarize or break the law, but he does give us permission to look at the work of… Read more Exploring Creativity | How to Steal Like an Artist without plagiarizing
Some time ago I discovered Debbie Lyddon’s Marshscape Collage series on Pinterest. Since then I have often returned to look at Lyddon’s website and blog. I have used fabric as collage in encaustic painting but now I was thinking textile art first. I began looking for a new way to bring together textiles and encaustic wax painting. What is… Read more Introducing Encaustiflex
Before you begin to paint with encaustic, you’ll need to pick-up encaustic art supplies and set-up a studio space. Once you have all the supplies you need in-hand, come back here to learn how to paint with encaustic. 5-step Encaustic Wax Painting Tutorial 1. Select and prepare a substrate Start with a suitable substrate, you may… Read more Encaustic Painting Process | How to paint with Encaustic
When you’ve finished a work of art you will want to sign it. The question of how to sign encaustic art comes up on forums and in Facebook groups often. Here I’ve pulled together some ways I’ve tried or seen other artists use on their encaustic paintings. 6 ways to sign encaustic art 1. Incise into the wax… Read more How to sign an encaustic painting
Here are three simple products that are terrific for cleaning and organizing your encaustic griddle or palette. 1. Use metal clips for palette cups Metal palette cups used for encaustic painting get hot. But thankfully, metal craft clips allow you to easily move the cups around without burning your fingers. Some artists use binder clips… Read more 3 products for managing your encaustic griddle or palette
As I drove to day-two of the “Sinking In” workshop with Andrea Bird, I listened to a TED talk of David Kelley (see below) discussing how to build your creative confidence. He told this story: I remember one day my best friend Brian was working on a project. He was making a horse out of the clay that… Read more How to Build your Creative Confidence
Disclosure: Chartpak, Inc. sent me a variety of Higgins Inks to review for this post. Ink can be used to great effect in encaustic painting. You can draw or write directly on the wax and either leave it on the final layer of a painting or you can add more layers of encaustic medium on… Read more Using Inks in Encaustic art
Journalling scares me. If you have read my previous post, Sinking In: strengthening the conversation with our art and ourselves, you’ll know that I have always shied away from the idea of keeping a journal. I have a fear that someone will read my private thoughts. In my painting Sinking in: “Dear Inner Critic…” I wrote directly on… Read more Creative Practice | Journalling
Artists working in encaustic are always on the lookout for new ways to create texture and patterns in the wax. I started eyeing my favourite water bottle seriously considering cutting the silicone sleeve to use it as a stencil but instead, I searched the web for heat-resistant stencils made of silicone and I found Marvelous… Read more Marvelous Molds and Encaustic
Disclosure: Jacquard sent me a free sample of Pearl Ex Powdered Pigments to review for this post. I have shied away from using dry pigment powders since Gregory Wright’s patterned effects demonstration at the International Encaustic conference. Gregory cautioned that some dry pigments may be poisonous and that repeated exposure can have serious effects on the… Read more Pearl Ex Pigment Powder and Encaustic