Finding my way through this medium is like walking blindfolded down a worn footpath; there are signs and markers along the way (I have a book that’s helpful) but I still can’t see where I’m going. That’s something fresh about the medium. I’ve never tried this before. I guess I’ve dipped into many different media and found each one fairly easy to manipulate (with some practice, of course) but encaustic is so dynamic and shifting…the funny thing is, some of the oldest paintings hanging on the walls of museums today (the Fayum portraits) were painted in beeswax and have survived through milennia virtually untampered by weather and handling. But when I try to fuse one layer of wax to the one beneath it, all sorts of crazy things happen: the drawing lifts, wax disperses, colors meld and mud.
Actually, as frustrating as it seems (and as nerdy as it sounds), this is pretty exciting!
But I’m not quite where I want to be with this, yet.