Encaustic, a wax-based painting medium, flourished more than 2,000 years ago

in Greco-Roman Egypt where shipbuilders used beeswax to caulk their

vessels and later added pigments to create patterns on flat paintings and

clay and marble sculptures. Today, encaustic painting is experiencing an

unprecedented revival. The unique properties of this beautiful, challenging

medium can produce luminous effects in hidden and revealed colored  layers.

Working with color-pigmented molten beeswax, brushes, heat guns, and an

assortment of scrapers and scribers, the artist creates by laying down and

removing layers of transparent and translucent density. Because the wax is

used to bind the pigments, encaustics can be sculpted as well as painted,

and is an ideal medium for collage and mixed media pieces.