I've always enjoyed using the encaustic process for preserving interesting artifacts. Embedding an object into wax medium is a way of saying, "look" - much like the process of taking a photograph. For this piece I layered several coats of wax medium over a board pre-treated with encaustic gesso, fusing between layers with the heat gun. I then used a small piece of rusted pipe to incise the circles into a grid pattern. I used alcohol ink (terra cotta) to fill in the circles and wiped it away - but not completely - to lend a rust color to the background. Finally, the rusted metal object (found in my backyard on City Island, along with the aforementioned piece of pipe) was embedded into the center of the piece to show off its rusty beauty.

I love rusty things and the shape of this one is really intriguing to me. Stay tuned for more rusty things to be celebrated in future encaustic works from the studio. Thanks for visiting!