The Shining Lights. Encaustics

Sketches for paintings are pinhole photographs taken by me.

Painting works have two forms:

paintings on canvases and multi-element objects that consist of encaustics, a pinhole photographic print and a small lightbox with a negative.

With the help of the form of work, I try to show the process of creating the world that it creates.

What is encaustics?

Encaustics is a painting technique in which the binder is wax and pigments. It represented wall and easel painting already in antiquity. At that time, the foundations of the paintings were bone, marble and wooden board. They were made with pigments mixed with beeswax. The paint was applied with heated putties of various kinds.

The most beautiful paintings from the first centuries of our era in encaustic technique have been preserved in Egypt – in the Fayoum. These were coffin portraits – huge eyes were to give the faces of the portrayed an expression of spirituality.

In the seventh century, encaustics was replaced by a new, cheaper tempera technique, which made it almost forgotten. It was not until a few hundred years later in the eighteenth century that the discovery of Herculaneumi
Pompeii restored interest in encaustics.