"SEE THE WHITE LILIES OF THE COUNTRYSIDE" period.

The use of beeswax in painting mixtures, or Encaustic painting, is one of the most ancient painting techniques to be used by the Greeks, Egyptians and Romans. Funerary portraits that employed this method were discovered in the Egyptian tombs of the oasis of Fayum. Other encaustic works were created by Greek and Roman artists from the 1st to the 4th century b.c. The discovery of this technique is credited to Polignoto, a Greek Jonik painter, and two other Greeks, Aristides and Praxiteles.

There are two ways of painting with bee wax; the hot way (fusion) and the cold way (saponification of the wax). In using these techniques, the painting becomes watertight due to the beeswax contained in the paint mixture. This gives the work a kind of resistance incomparable to other techniques. It is even easier to use certain pigments that are usually rejected by oil and fresco combinations. There are very few artists who adopt this technique due to a favoritism towards the oil technique and more recent mediums. One might suggest that Encaustic painting is superior to oil painting, as it is surely more water resistant than oil. You can even paint textures safely without gloss. Mr. Prata is presently one of the very few Brazilian artists who uses and teaches this technique.

"Couple"
Encaustic on canvas
80 X 1,20 cm, 1993.

"Heart"
Encaustic on canvas
50 X 70 cm, 1993.

ON LINE COURSE OF ENCAUSTICS.

Small part of the painting techniques DVD.