Sunday, November 28, 2010

Waxing Poetic: Encaustic painting










Until you can touch it, actually rub your hands on it and admire its creamy, firm smoothness, one cannot truly appreciate encaustic painting. Although encaustic painting has been traced back to the Greco-Roman mummy portraits near the Faiyum oasis in Egypt one thousand years ago, it is not a well known medium in modern times. Let's go investigate.


Faiyum mummy portraits


The word encaustic originated from the Greek word, enkaustikos, which means "to burn in". The encaustic painting technique involves first creating the encaustic medium, applying it to a porous surface and then fusing it together with heat. The medium is a combination of wax and damar resin. Most often beeswax is used, but other waxes, such as carnauba, microcrystalline and paraffin, may be included. Beeswax is what we use, for its excellent light-reflecting quality and ability to combine well with pigments.





The beeswax combines with damar resin, a sap that is harvested from a tree found in Indonesia. It dries in crystals or lumps. Damar resin raises the melting point of the beeswax from 140 degrees to 160 degrees, allows the wax to cure and harden over time, resists dust and helps to add gloss and polish to the finished piece when buffed with a soft cloth. Each artist has a preferred recipe for the medium; we use 9 parts of beeswax to 2 parts of damar resin. Once the resin has completely dissolved in the beeswax, the mixture is filtered to eliminate unwanted particulates.

You can see how glossy and smooth the encaustic paintings become! 









The wax mixture is applied to many types of surfaces, but each type must be both rigid and absorbent. Some examples are plywood, museum board, concrete, clay, Plexiglass, and even dried plant materials. Canvas, paper and fabric may be used, but must be backed by a firm board to prevent sagging.

Most of the examples here were created on birch plywood.

 A key component of encaustic painting is proper ventilation. With the melting of the wax and resin, especially as the temperature of the wax rises, decomposition occurs and toxins are released. Adequate ventilation must be obtained to avoid untoward reactions, such as headache and nausea. Exposure to large concentrations of the toxins can lead to bronchitis and chemical pneumonia. In our home studio, there are windows on two sides of the room, so we open one window and have installed a powerful exhaust fan in the other window, directly above the work table to capture the fumes and send them outdoors. 




Now comes the fun part! The studio has been assembled, with the exhaust system working, the encaustic medium melted and the birch plywood panel ready to go. The anodized aluminum palette we use has been specifically designed for encaustic painting by R and F Handmade Paints. We have also obtained our pigments from R and F to combine with the medium and give it the brilliant colors you see here. The pigments are in stick form and are a combination of linseed oil, beeswax, plant wax and pigment. Dry pigments may be used, but full safety precautions must be taken, as often they can be highly toxic. Oil paints may also be used, but the resulting encaustic paint can be less vibrant.

The panel should first be prepared by sizing it with the beeswax medium. The panel may also be sized with gesso or Venetian plaster. Most often, we use a natural bristle brush (no synthetics- they will melt) to apply the medium. After each layer is applied, it must be fused with a heat source. We employ a variety of sources: heat gun, propane torch and a small butane creme brulee torch. A household iron, heat lamp and even the sun may be used.

The pigment sticks are then melted, combined with the beeswax medium, and the artist layers and fuses away.



Texture is obtained by employing a wide variety of instruments: printmaking tools, dental tools, ceramics tools and whatever else the artist can think of to obtain the desired result. It's all part of the fun.


















Many special effects may be obtained with encaustic painting. The wax medium is such a wonderful surface on which to create. The wax can be etched, scratched to reveal the underlying layer (sgraffito), inlaid (intarsia) with a different color, poured for a totally different effect, and the list goes on. Transfers and stencils can also be put to use. Many of these effects can be seen in all of the examples here.










Gold leaf has been added as the last layer in these examples.



Once the painting has cooled, it can be buffed with a smooth, clean cloth. It is fully cured after at least four weeks. If it loses its luster, the shine can be brought back by buffing again. Our preferred method is to simply buff with the pad of our hand, directly below the thumb.

All of the above paintings were created by Pieter Bouterse and myself. 

Here are a few more examples created by artist Carolyn Holman.











There are many wonderful resources available on the internet. Several excellent books are also a gold mine of information. If you would like more details, please email me.


Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Crystal leaves

The magic of a frost: crystal maple leaves.





















Happy Thanksgiving to you all!


Sunday, November 21, 2010

Our Roman Holiday






Our visit to Rome began with one of the best ideas we had on the trip: ditch the rental car and walk everywhere. Because the streets can be narrow and the Italian drivers, while precise, have very little regard for other drivers, we decided to enjoy the city and not stress about having to drive anywhere. So, we turned the car in and put on our walking shoes. Once you get the lay of the land, Rome is an easy city to navigate. That said, we had perfect weather which was much more pleasant than the rain we endured during our last visit.

Rome has so many layers to it, both physically and in the variety of interesting places to see. Unless you have a good week in the city, you need to narrow your focus. We decided on visiting just a few museums and whatever else caught our fancy along the way. 





Of course, Rome's stucco buildings and pockets of flowers and plants also caught my eye!

Purple bougainvillea




Lush ivies










 One thing we did notice was an increase in the amount of graffitti. It was very sad to see. What a waste. 
Hopefully, they'll be able to figure out how to curb it.





Many colorful buildings




Of course, excavations exist and leave lots to the imagination.








This is the courtyard of the Galleria Doria Pamphilj, in the heart of Roma , which houses an incredible collection of art. I am hoping to re-create these columns in a client's new home. This gallery seems to be a hidden gem.




Just a side of a building!




A visit to the Pantheon is a must! I am standing right outside of the entrance. It is also within a few minutes walk to Campo de' Fiori (and great pizza) and just around the corner from the fabulous chocolate shop, Moriondo e Gariglio, also a must visit.






This engineering marvel never ceases to amaze! 
How did they ever do this two thousand years ago?








Trying to shoot this center took many attempts! 
I was glad it wasn't raining as the center is open to the sky.




Not long after we left the Pantheon, we stumbled into a church (I haven't the foggiest idea what its name is) and I felt like it was deja vu.






This church, Santa Maria sopra Minerva,  had an incredible sculpture created out of gilded ebony.






We also visited the Villa Farnesina, just over the Ponte Sisto bridge in the Trastevere section of Rome. It is also a hidden gem, easily accessible and crammed full of spectacular works of art, including stunning frescoes by Raphael and his followers.
 



One of Raphael's famous frescoes- in the Hall of Galathea.




These are in the Room of the Frieze. Talk about good trompe l'oeil!













We also visited the Museo Nazionale Romano, close to the train station. 
To do it proper justice, you need to spend an entire day here.


It contains the sublime fresco of Livia's garden, removed from her villa at Prima Porta.





The museum also contains thousands of remnants of frescoes, plaster, mosaics and sculpture.



















This last photo is of my favorite fresco, removed from the House of Farnesina, partially under the Villa Farnesina. If you look at the left side, it gives you a good idea of the smoothness of a lime plaster wall.





I invite you to hop over to the PlumSiena blog to see an amazing copper display in Arezzo and other inspiring images. 

We will now return to our regularly scheduled art, design and nature lineups, with a special emphasis on the upcoming holidays. 

How about a Ball Masque?