Origin of Encaustic Painting
Encaustic painting (also known as hot wax painting) is a form of painting that involves a heated wax medium to which coloured pigments have been added.
It refers to an ancient technique, dating back to the Greeks, who used wax to caulk ship hulls.
The word encaustic originates from Ancient Greek: 'enkaustikos' which means 'burning in' and this element of heat is necessary for a painting to be called encaustic. All kinds of tools can be used.
My Encaustic painting
Nowadays for instance it is possible to create art with an electric iron and wax crayons. These are the tools that I exclusively use.
The process of using molten wax makes it easy for me to become an energy channel, because my head is totally not in control when making my creations.
It means working in the flow and that relaxes me.
I am able to fully surrender to the result that wants to come through.
My art process always starts with setting an intention for the piece I want to create.
When for instance I want to make a creation for a specific kind of person, my intention would be that the piece of artwork is going to show what that particular person needs right now.
Intuitively I am being guided to choose wax crayons with certain colours and directly 'paint' with them on the hot iron.
I apply the hot iron straight onto a special thick piece of paper or on a canvas.
When my hot iron touches the paper or canvas I am guided to let the iron flow in all kinds of directions.
The molten wax dries almost immediately.
For instance it could be that landscapes, different kinds of animals, special beings from other dimensions, symbols and specific objects seem to appear out of nowhere.
In the video above you can see a glimpse of my creation process. Down below is the end result of this piece of artwork.
Copyright Rieke Baptista 2022
