Artist Demonstration – Judith Gebhard Smith – Encaustic

The Artists’ Gallery presents: Learn Something New

Artist Demonstrations Fridays during July

Come be mesmerized by distinguished artist Judith Gebhard Smith while she creates — from beginning to end — an encaustic painting. Encaustic is a somewhat intimidating and mysterious media not known by many so will be a special experience for viewers. What exactly is encaustic? Encaustic from the ancient Greek enkaustikos, means “to heat” or “to burn”. Heat is used at every stage of encaustic painting. The medium consists of beeswax melted with a small amount of resin to impart hardness; it becomes paint when pigment is added to the molten wax. Painting requires the artist to work quickly, for the wax begins to harden the moment it leaves its heat source. What makes encaustic unique—indeed, what makes encaustic encaustic—is the application of heat between layers of brushstrokes. Heat binds each layer to the one set down before it, so while the image may consist of discrete compositional elements, structurally the entire surface is one carefully crafted mass, a whole ball of wax, if you will. from: Joanne Mattera, The Art of Encaustic Painting