Encaustics

The word encaustic comes from the Greek term enkaustikos meaning "to burn in".  This method of painting was used first by the people of ancient Greece.  During the Hellenistic period, encaustic painting spread to Egypt.  The most well-known encaustic paintings are the Egyptian mummy portraits.  They were meant to be placed over the face of the deceased when they were mummified.  I went on the last New York City bus trip on November 5th.  One of the museums I visited was the Met.  It turns out they have a large collection of these mummy portraits; they even have one still attached to the mummified body.

 

It's a pretty terrible picture but it's the best I could do in an extremely dark room with no flash.  It looks benign in the photograph but seeing it in person was somewhat disturbing.  The crazy thing is, these portraits are all still in fantastic shape.  They look like they were just painted, with little cracking if any and no discoloration.  I find the extremely long lifespan of encaustic paintings fascinating, especially when comparing it with oil, acrylic or tempera paint. 

This video starts out weird and has creepy music...so I suggest you just turn the sound off.  I wanted to post this video because it shows soooo many examples of encaustic mummy portraits.

"As encaustic painting flourished in Greece and Egypt, it was also inevitable to spread to Rome.  Pliny, the Roman historian, wrote in 1st century C.E. that encaustic wax paint was being used in the Roman portraits and mythology paintings done on panels... Archeologists have been able to discover some Roman encaustic paintings.  For instance, a painting on slate depicting Cleopatra being bitten by the asp was found near the ruins of Hadrian’s villa.  After the Roman Empire fell, artists began turning to cheaper, quicker paint instead of the encaustic paint because the ancient heating process was so laborious for the wax." (Enkaustikos.com)

After that, the medium began to die off.  It wasn't until the 18th century when the encaustic wax painted walls of Pompeii and Herculaneum were discovered that research on the method began.  Still, there wasn't much in the way of technology and the process was still as long and boring as it was in ancient times.   

BUT!  Finally!!!!!  Jasper Johns in the 50's and 60's was one of the first to display encaustic works to the public.  He was a main factor in bringing the almost lost medium to the "forefront of the art community"

This is Jasper Johns' painting, Flag, made in 1954. 
It's so interesting, to me at least, to see the progression and development of technologies and methods throughout history. 
Today, it seems as though encaustic painting may be one of the easiest mediums to use much unlike ancient times.  I decided to create my own little encaustic painting.  I ordered the supplies and dove right in!  Of course, I was completely in the dark, never using this method EVER in my life so I turned to videos on Blick's website and YouTube in hopes of helping me understand technique a little bit better.  

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So...I set up my work space...

And played around for a little bit...

And this is eventually what I came up with...

 I know, I know, it's pretty terrible but hey, it was my first try!

It was more experimentation than anything else.  There are SO many surfaces you can create, there's so many other mediums you can combine with it and it's instant gratification because it dries IMMEDIATELY!  Even though I wouldn't consider my piece a success, I loved every second of this little project! 

Information found on the Enkaustikos website:
http://www.encausticpaints.com/Resources/HistoryofEncaustic/tabid/407/Default.aspx