What is encaustic you ask?  Well, here's the low-down. Encaustic painting dates back over 2000 years ago to the ancient Greeks and Egyptians.  The Greek word encaustic "burn in" refers to the process of fusing the paint with heat.

The encaustic paint is beeswax mixed with or without pigment and a small amount of damar resin.  It is applied molten to a rigid substrate using a brush and kept heated on a palette to 200 degrees. After each layer of wax cools, it is then fused with a torch or heat gun, thereby creating a luminous polished effect. Each layer becomes bonded to the previous wax layer by fusing, creating a durable and moisture resistant surface.  Encaustic responds beautifully to scraping, burnishing and the addition of oil paints, paper, metal, found objects and other mediums.  Its spontaneous and variable nature renders results that are unequaled in the art world.