Waxy Beginnings

Melting beeswax to make encaustic medium.

Finished cakes of encaustic medium that contain a mixture of beeswax and damar resin.

Over the weekend I finally had some time to begin my new venture with encaustic painting. I have been wanting to explore this medium for a long time. After reading several books, reading technical information on the Internet and watching a bunch of youtube videos, I felt ready to tackle this. I was surprised at how everything came together so easily. As I am not one to follow recipes while cooking on the stove top, it was a bit of a challenge to follow an exact recipe for making encaustic wax medium. But alas! I did conquer my resistance and here are a few photos of the process. It is not very glamorous, however, I hope my new artworks created in the medium will show the depth and subtle beauty of the wax.