Encaustic Paints & Mediums

Encaustics are hot… literally. Mixing hot wax and pigment to make a paint is nothing new. Ancient Egyptians used the technique from as early as the second century. They attached encaustic paintings to mummies (some of which survive to present).  The resurgence in popularity, however, is more recent. R&F offers paints that make the discipline approachable to the modern painter.

An artist with a hot plate, a natural bristle brush, and a few squares of encaustic color can make a painting in ‘wax’. More advanced encaustic artists infuse layers of wax with a heat gun or use a hot stylus to manipulate the wax’s surface. Encaustic gesso provides an amply absorbent surface, usually a rigid panel. The heated paint is applied directly, often in translucent layers.