AVIVA! (detail) 6”x8”, Encaustic Wax, 2011.
Aviva! Was inspired by Susan
L. Walters ordered pointillism
where the dot of color is the
essential element. The painting
was finished with layers of tiny
colored wax dots blasted over
wax paint layers and the spontaneous
wax line of a Wax Writer.
Swapping ends with Hot Air
Brush with its large dots, splots,
and blobs blown off cold wax
paint with hot air, the tiny dots
were made with hot wax and
cold air.
The Pen with a wrecked old Hot
Brush melted the wax paint in its
badly mangled brass bristles. A
standard air brush blew a stream of cold air through
the tangle of crunched brass bristles and melted
wax. The result was a somewhat astonishing mist
of tiny colored wax dots that mostly ended up in
layers over the surface to finish the painting. Each
layer of tiny dots required very light hot air burningin
as the wax dots cooled a bit as they whistled
through the air and onto the painting.
To paraphrase Shirley Charnell, “If it has wax paint
on it, a print can be made from it”. Shirley’s Garden
started as a print pulled from a failed painting and
mounted on a support. Carol Bennet Heidenriech’s
method for a support heated on a hot palette was
used to warm the printed support. The Pen w/1/4”
Hot Brush, working from solid waxes, established
the concept as flowers. The Pen w/1/8” Pen Point
worked into the waxes on the painting to finish the
flower concept. The fine details in the painting were
done after the meticulous C-5 Pen Point technique
of Rosemary Rupp for tiny tiles and wax frosting.
Ann Huffman
Enkaustikos is a lovely and lost Greek word. With
an exclamation point after it, Enkaustikos! sounds
like a sneeze. Enkaustikos simply meant, “to
process with heat”. In this age of the internet,
where change is a given, it is heartening that artists
still make a wax art processed with heat that is as
old as time itself.
We simply call it “encaustic”.
Portfolio
Shirley’s Garden 7”x5”, Encaustic Wax, 2010.
Mrs. Appletree a.k.a. Ann Huffman
[email protected]
About her book, please visit:
www.fineartstore.com
19
Summer
www.EAINM.com