People Always Ask This When They See my Mixed Media Art: Photography & Beeswax

I embraced "photo encaustic" about 10 years ago after taking a class from a pioneer, Clare O'Neill, in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Photo encaustic is a method of combining photography and beeswax to create mixed media art that is truly unique. You can embed a straight photo into beeswax, or you can print a photographic image on archival tissue paper then embed that into beeswax.

Any size is possible with the tissue technique: a photo can be sliced into "tiles" using Photoshop, with the tiles lined up against each other to create an image of just about any size. That's tricky but it can produce really nice results. Or, you can print onto tissue and "float" the image onto the beeswax base, surrounded perhaps by oil paint.

When people see my mixed media art they almost always ask, "Is that a painting?" "Explain the process." I've never seen anything like it." "Is it difficult to do?" "Where do you get the beeswax?"

I was enchanted with photo encaustic when I was looking to take my photography to a next level. I've never looked back.

I'll explain more about the process in future posts. Meanwhile, enjoy a few of my images here.