Tuesday, July 22, 2008

The Great Reef Encaustic on Birch Panel

Encaustic on Birch Panel
24" x 30"
$300

To purchase this work, please visit my Etsy Store.

Note: My blog readers are being given first look at this beautiful work of art. B
ecause of the drying time of the varnish, this piece will be available in my Etsy Store on Aug. 2nd. To pre-purchase this work, please Email Me.

3 comments:

latoscana said...

Shelby..
I am confused about the varnishing aspect of the encaustic painting.
What do you use?
As far as I understand there is no need for varnishing because the (varnish= damar) is already in the pigments.
Am I wrong?
Thanks

Unknown said...

You are correct. Because there is some dammar in the pigments, you do not have to varnish it, necessarily. However, because it is wax based, it does develop a sort of dusty look to it. I have also found that if I polish my piece first, then varnish it, it keeps a beautiful sheen that brings out the subtlety of the work. Also, I'm pretty tough on my work. Adding a coat of varnish keeps it from getting dinged or damaged as I am moving and transporting it around.

So no, you don't technically need varnish, but because my work is fairly flat, can be polished, and I'm tough on it, I prefer to do so. When an encaustic piece develops a dusty quality, you can always use a very soft cloth to repolish it.

Anonymous said...

HI, I DON'T KNOW IF YOU CAN HELP ME BUT I HAVE SEEN SOME ENCAUSTIC WORK WITH A VERY HIGH GLOSS TOP COAT AND IT IS ROCK HARD. I KNOW IT'S NOT RESIN BECAUSE ITS NOT AS THICK. HOW WOULD SHELLAC WORK. WHAT OTHER TYPES OF VARNISHES WOULD WORK? THANKS, KRIS