To help me understand how her encaustic paintings are made, I asked Artist of the Week Kate Huser Santucci to walk me through the process using this piece as an example.
“I started with a piece of scrap plywood” she told me. “I taped the edges and put on a layer of encaustic medium (a mixture of beeswax and tree resin). Then I added heat, so that the layer of encaustic medium will firmly grab onto the grain of the wood. After that I could start painting a number of layers of encaustic paint, which is just encaustic medium with pigment added.”
“Every time I add a layer of encaustic paint I heat it with a torch, so that it grabs onto the layers that have been applied. If I add a lot of heat the new layer is smooth. If I use less heat there is more of a texture. At any time, I can scrape off one or more layers in an area, so you can see more of what lies underneath.”
“I set this piece aside at one point because I wasn’t sure where I wanted the painting to go. Then Summer came and I just loved the look of flowers in my yard. I decided to add a flower image to this piece.”
“I used a photo as a reference and did the first layer using a smaller brush and encaustic paint. After that had been fused onto the piece I switched to oil paint with just enough wax in it to allow it to bind with the layers I already had. I started to paint the oil with my finger. If you look closely you can see that I’ve put in reds and oranges and golds and pinks. As a final step I add fine detail with a very small brush.”
For more photos of Kate’s work, and photos of her studio, go to https://billfranz17.com/
