Our Paints
The classic composition of encaustic paint is wax, resin, and pigment.
The purpose of the resin is to raise the melting temperature of the wax. It also gives the
wax hardness, which allows it to be polished to a gloss. The Greek painters used beeswax
that had been purified and sun bleached. The resinous material was either balsam or
colophony (rosin).
R&F Encaustic Paint
is made in 80 colors. The pigment is carefully milled in a medium of
beeswax and damar resin. The proportion of wax and resin is varied for each pigment to
bring out a uniform workability and hard finish. The beeswax is bleached and
purified. The resin is purified by heat filtration. No turpentine or other solvents have
been used.
R&F Encaustic Medium
is encaustic paint without pigment. It is used to extend the colors
in order to create transparencies. It is important when extending the colors to use the
encaustic medium rather than plain beeswax. There are two reasons for this: 1) It
maintains the hardness of the film. 2) Encaustic made only with beeswax will develop a
bloom in cold temperature that can only be removed by reheating the paint;
damar resin
prevents this blooming.
R&F Impasto/Modeling Wax
is a blend of microcrystalline (petroleum) waxes and beeswax. Its
purpose is to serve as a build-up material beneath the encaustic paint. It has two
advantages over encaustic medium: 1) It is less expensive than encaustic medium, so
thickly built-up forms and sculptural work can be done more cheaply. 2) The melting point
of the impasto/modeling wax (175° F, 79° C) is a higher temperature than the melting
point of encaustic (approximately 162°F, 72° C). The difference in temperature allows
one to paint and fuse the encaustic over a shape without immediately blunting sculptural
details or impasto effects.
The impasto/modeling wax is intended to be used beneath the
encaustic. If left exposed, the microcrystalline can, over a period of time, turn yellow
due to the effects of atmosphere and ultraviolet light.
The impasto/modeling wax is not a substitute for encaustic medium.
Microcrystallines are basically much simpler waxes than beeswax. They are structurally
suitable for the intended purpose of modeling and carving, but they do not have all the
film and pigment-bearing qualities of encaustic medium. Encaustic medium and encaustic
paint, on the other hand, can always be used in place of impasto/modeling wax.