Knowra Encaustic painting Encaustic painting Encaustic painting is a technique in which heated wax binds pigments to a surface. Its layered, fused medium can produce both smooth passages and textured relief.
Beeswax : Beeswax is a natural wax produced by honeybees and used in candles, coatings, and art materials. It is the principal binder in many encaustic paints.
Fayum mummy portraits : Fayum mummy portraits are painted panels placed over the faces of mummies in Roman-period Egypt. Many were made with encaustic and preserve its luminous surface.
Cold wax painting : Cold wax painting uses wax medium mixed into paint without heating it during application. It shares wax’s matte, layered effects but does not use the heated binder central to encaustic.
Painting support : A painting support is the surface on which paint is applied, such as a panel, canvas, or wall. Encaustic’s rigidity and weight make the support choice consequential.
Portrait of a Boy (Fayum mummy portrait) : Portrait of a Boy is a Roman-period Egyptian panel portrait associated with the Fayum mummy-portrait tradition. Its preserved encaustic surface shows fine modeling and controlled brushwork.
Damar resin : Damar resin is a pale tree resin used in varnishes, mediums, and some encaustic mixtures. Added to beeswax, it hardens the paint and raises its melting point.
Ancient Greek painting : Ancient Greek painting encompasses painted works made in Greece and Greek communities from the archaic through Hellenistic periods. Written accounts describe wax painting among Greek artists and artisans.
Encaustic monotype : An encaustic monotype is a one-of-a-kind print made by transferring wax-based marks from a plate to paper. It adapts encaustic paint to a printmaking process.
Wood panel : A wood panel is a rigid painting support made from solid wood or joined boards. Rigid panels limit the flex that can crack a wax painting.
The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even : The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even is a large mixed-media work by Marcel Duchamp, completed in 1923. Duchamp used encaustic among the materials in this complex work.
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