Experiments in Encaustic Painting

8x10"   encaustic on board

Ever since February when I started working in encaustics, I have been totally addicted to it!  I've barely done any acrylic painting at all (with a few exceptions, I'll post about those soon).  It's been so much fun to experiment and find out how to work in this medium. 

To begin with I tried painting a few landscapes in my traditional style of painting, but that was quite painful and I wasn't really happy with the result.  Well, it ended up not too bad, but I was not able to achieve the look I was after ...

my first landscape attempt ... 6x6"

Then I started concentrating on the mixed-media/collage approach.  I love this type of art, and after not doing it for so long it was really liberating.  And I've always loved crows and birds, so naturally this started to come out in my work.  I mainly used transparent and white wax, with image transfers and come limited colour, and mostly I worked with the surface being pretty smooth ...

3x4"

6x6"

And then I discovered the birch trees!  I started experimenting with texture and applying layers of different coloured wax, and cutting back into them when the wax was hardened a bit.  This was so much fun!  I did different coloured backgrounds -  blue, red and yellow, super fun!  

6x6"

6x8"

I have so many ideas that I want to put into action - just not enough time!  I'm working a full-time job and really only have time to paint on the weekends.  But I know I have to be patient, it will all come.  And I have a feeling that one day soon I'll figure out how to do the style of landscape paintings that I'm known for, only with wax ...