Waxing Lyrical – about the History of Encaustic

The history of wax, notably Beeswax, is an interesting one.
The use of it as an art form known as “encaustic” dates back many centuries and was used in the making of religious icons across Europe. The term encaustic comes from ancient Greek “encaustikos” which means “to burn in”

Painting with wax can be traced back to ancient Greece and is mentioned in early Roman texts. Among its many uses were for portrait painting, relief panels, and to colour marble .

The greatest property of wax is that it is waterproof and so for this reason was used to waterproof sailing ships. Although not an easy process to apply in larger artworks, it was used because of it’s durability, to decorate statues and temples. Encaustic was used extensively not only for paintings of religious icons, but also to depict the faces of royalty and nobility in their family vaults and tombs. Wax has been used around the world extensively in the production of cement floor tiles, their colours remaining intact after hundreds of years, enduring even extreme floods.

Encaustic made a resurgence on the art scene in the early 1990s, when a company in Sweden produced a set of small blocks of beeswax in an array of striking colours. Suddenly, all across Europe, artists were embracing and re-discovering this distinctive medium with gusto.

Making art with wax is exciting, challenging, and always different.