Encaustic Photography

My encaustic photography artworks are created using a lovely technique that uses beeswax and dammar resin as a medium to encapsulate fine art photography printed on different papers adding texture, natural elements and paint to create a one-of-a-kind emotive artwork which is full of texture and tones.

Encaustics means “to burn in or fuse.” First practised by Greek artists as far back as the 5th century BC, encaustic combines beeswax with dry pigment and tree resin to bind pigment. The “caustic” part of the term indicates that heat is used to melt and blend the layers of wax into a unified piece. Historically, Encaustics have been used to paint Egyptian funeral portraits and by Greeks to depict mythology in art. In the 20th Century, encaustics made a revival with well-known artists such as Van Gogh and Picasso.

I love working with melted beeswax in the studio, the texture and refracted light of each photo-encaustic piece have an ethereal feel, It is an ever-evolving creative process; it gives my work a deeper connection to the natural world using nature’s gift of beeswax. My process is a combination of my fine art horse photography and photo-encaustic art both separately and intertwined. The process itself can take many hours starting with preparing the prints and cradleboard then I spend time painting layers of beeswax and tree sap, texture and colour, infusing with heat layer after layer to ensure the artwork encapsulates the horses which feature in my work combined with textures such as natural elements, rice papers and mark making and then finishing with oil pan sticks to enhance the artwork further. The final artwork then takes up to 6 to 12 months to cure.