Pearl Relief 1

Encaustic (beeswax with damar resin). Small encaustic painting, created by exploring my love of exploring texture and its possibilities in beeswax. Can be paired with Pearl Relief 2 and float mounted in one frame, or framed separately and hung side by side.

Encaustic is an ancient painting technique dating back to the ancient Greeks, best known in the Fayum Mummy Portraits in the 1st through 3rd centuries AD. The 20th century has seen a rebirth of encaustic on a major scale, particularly in the US, but also more recently in Australia.

Encaustic is a Greek word meaning "to heat or burn in" (enkausticos). Heat is used throughout the process from melting the beeswax and varnish to fusing the layers of wax with a heat gun or torch. It consists of natural bees wax and dammar resin (crystallised tree sap). Pigments may be added to the media, or it can be applied in a natural colourless state. The medium is melted and applied with a brush or tool, and each layer is then reheated to fuse it to the previous layer.