The Art of Encaustic Photography
I studied photography at University way back in the 90’s before digital photography was a thing. Learning how to develop photographs in a darkroom was a must if you wanted to be a professional photographer!
I loved the whole darkroom process, it was an absolute joy to see prints slowly appear as you immersed printing paper into the developer. Fast forward to 2024 and the photography industry has changed so very much. My cameras are all digital and my darkroom is now stored on my Mac in the form of Lightroom and Photoshop.
About 7 years ago I fell upon an intriguing YouTube video that a photographer called Norah Levine had created; She was creating artwork with a technique I had never heard of before, she called it Photo-encaustics. I loved the organic, hands-on process which took me back to my darkroom days.
She used beeswax to enhance her photographs and create original artwork. I made it my mission to find out more about this process and enrolled on various workshops delivered by photo-encaustic artists in America to learn more about the process further, during this time I discovered some very talented photo-encaustic artists such as Leah Macdonald and Clare o’Neill
I have now experimented with Encaustic Photography and incorporated it into my art practice for the last 6 years. My encaustic artwork has been exhibited in galleries in the UK which I’m very proud of. It’s a lovely alternative archival process that uses beeswax and damar resin as a medium to create original artwork that combines photography and beeswax. It is a popular art form in America and is slowly becoming known within the UK and Ireland too.
Many people are intrigued when they see my original photo-encaustic wall art, often initially thinking it is a canvas but as they see the photograph up closes they simply just have to touch when they see the texture and depth in the piece.
After inspection, next comes the question “What is it?“ So I have decided to put together this blog post to hopefully explain photo-encaustics in a little more detail.
The official description of photo-encaustics is as follows:
Encaustic, meaning “to burn in or fuse”, is an ancient painting medium first practised by Greek artists as far back as the 5th century B.C. The oldest known pigment binder, encaustic combines molten beeswax with dry pigment and tree resin. The “caustic” part of the term indicates that heat is used to melt and blend the layers of wax into a unified piece.
The end result is a one-of-a-kind artwork filled with texture and depth. I really enjoy using wax and pan colours to enhance original photographs to build on texture and colour. Some of my photo-encaustic work is re-photographed and then the image is hand printed on to beautiful printing papers which adds another level of depth and an emotive layer to my photographic work.
There are many ways to use photo encaustics within artwork. The most important aspect when creating photo-encaustic artwork is to ensure that the photograph selected is carefully considered before applying wax. Each application of beeswax is carefully applied with a result and feeling in mind. Encaustics is a very ethereal process and just applying wax on every print with no thought process or plan would be detrimental to the print and the art form itself. It is an ever-evolving creative process which I love.
I’m really keen to promote encaustic photography within the UK so If you are a photographer and would like to learn more about the art of encaustic photography I have created some monthly workshops at my wax studio in Lancashire. To find out more click on the link below.
