R&F Handmade Paints

Last Saturday, January 15th, was the 23rd anniversary of R&F’s founding in the now proverbial basement in Brooklyn. But what’s so special about a 23rd anniversary? It’s not a marker like a 20th or a 25th anniversary. I have to admit even we didn’t pay much attention to it here.

But then I got to thinking how much this year really does represent something very special in R&F’s history. This was the year that we collaborated with Ampersand Art Supply to create Encausticbord^TM, and that led to the introduction of the Encaustic Center, a fully integrated selection of encaustic paints, tools, and supports now available in art supply stores around the country.

Our 1st anniversary represented our continuation of commercial encaustic paint begun by Torch Art Supply in the late 1940s, which was for many years the only commercial encaustic paint in the world. But it was, particularly back then, a specialty paint relegated to the back corners of most art stores.

Original Torch Art Supply encaustics

R&F’s original hand cut encaustic cakes

Our 23rd anniversary represents the establishment of encaustic paint as a mainstream art material. While the symbol of a 20th anniversary is china and the symbol of a 25th is silver for R&F the Encaustic Center signifies this milestone in our history.

R&F's encaustic paint is available in three sizes (40 ml., 101 ml. and 333 ml.)

The Encaustic Paint Center

One of the speakers at last year’s Montserrat Encaustic conference was Kate Smith, a conservator who had cleaned the encaustic murals in Boston’s Trinity Church.  I stayed a few days after this year’s conference to visit the church and see the murals first hand with Francisco Benitez who shares with me an interest in the history of encaustic.

The murals were painted by John LaFarge, an American painter and decorator, in 1876-77. LaFarge was the personal choice of Henry Hobson Richardson, the church’s architect, to do the murals in spite of the fact that he had never painted on a large scale before. But La Farge had by that time a long association with encaustic having been introduced to it 20 years earlier in Brussels by Henry Le Strange. Le Strange had used encaustic in 1855 to decorate the west tower ceiling of Ely Cathedral in England. La Farge began to use encaustic in 1863, initially for easel paintings, and it became his preferred medium for the rest of his career.

Work on the Trinity Church murals was begun in late 1876 and continued through the bitter winter weather in the unheated and unfinished church, often competing with masons and other workers for use of the scaffolding.

The type of encaustic that La Farge used and his reason for using it were different from how encaustic is generally thought of today. In his previous work, he combined wax and oil. Bu the common practice for encaustic mural work was to use colored sticks of beeswax and resin (usually copal, a very hard resin, or elemi, a soft sticky resin) that were melted into a heated solvent, either turpentine or oil of spike lavender. Venice turpentine was sometimes also added. The paint was applied warm or cold.

This gave La Farge a medium that could be applied relatively quickly over dry plaster, as opposed to the painfully slow process of buon fresco in wet plaster. It also gave him a bright but matte surface that resembled the traditional fresco. For that reason, he did not fuse his encaustic.

The question that is often asked today is whether this is really encaustic or a form of cold wax painting, similar to that used by Brice Marden. There is no easy answer. Encaustic has historically been defined by its principal material (wax) or by its technique (fusing). The term encaustic, coming from the Greek, “to burn in,” does refer to the technique. But needn’t be the deciding factor, and we are certainly not intending to make any judgment here.
La Farge intended his work to be considered encaustic, and as with encaustic, the work that I saw at Trinity Church is as vibrant and beautiful as it must have been 130 years ago.

Jim Haskin and Richard Frumess in 1996

January 15, 1988 is an important anniversary here at R&F Handmade Paints.  He had been making encaustic paint since 1982, but that was the day that Richard Frumess, working from a basement in Brooklyn, went to New York Central Art Supply and made his first commercial sale as R&F Encaustics, Inc.

In 22 years there have been many changes, including the name of the company, but R&F still remains dedicated to making the best paint we can.

As the R&F family continues to grow and face the realities of today’s global market, we wanted to take a moment to look back and remember our humble beginnings.  For more on our history click here.

Our 2010 Workshop Schedule is now available.  We are excited to add new workshop locations, including the new Encaustic Art Institute in New Mexico, Penninsula Art School in Fish Creek, Wisconsin, and Seattle.  Our Visting Artist Series was such a hit this past year that we had to do it again - it is so much fun to have these wonderful artists come and spend time with us. The workshops are custom designed by each visiting artist, according to their own unique talents. This years’ line-up of artists includes figure painting with Francisco Benitez, oil stick painting with Charles Forsberg, and encaustic exploration with Cari Hernandez.  We have also added new one-day intensives that will focus on specific techniques.
Click here to view the full schedule.

Give the gift of a fabulous encaustic workshop and save!  R&F is offering a special 10% tuition discount for early registrants. To take advantage of this offer, just give us a call at (845) 331-3112, and say “I want the Early Registration Discount”. Please note that this offer is only good for workshops administered by R&F.  We have extended this discount from now until January 8th, 2010, so you don’t have to worry about signing up before the holiday rush.

Ultramarine Blue Pigment

Ultramarine Blue has a fabled history. It is naturally derived from the semiprecious gemstone lapis lazuli. It gets its name from the Latin, meaning beyond the sea, since the best source of lapis was in the northeastern corner what is now Afghanistan. (more…)

The staff at R&F Handmade Paints would like to send a big THANK YOU to all of our friends who came out Saturday night for the opening of DAYDREAMERS, the R&F staff show.  (more…)

Cynthia Knott, Naiad, oil, encaustic, and metallic on linen, 40"x74", 2005

We are always thrilled when one of our customers gets well-deserved recognition. The latest instance was Cynthia Knott from eastern Long Island who recently received a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award in October. (more…)

Jane Guthridge, Dancing Light 2", 19"x19"

Meininger’s in Denver, Colorado will be hosting an in-store encaustic demonstration on Saturday November 14th, from 1 - 3 pm. (more…)

Michelle Marcuse, Unaware of Daylight, encaustic on masonite, 16"x16"

Dick Blick in Philadelphia, PA will be hosting an encaustic and pigment stick demonstration on Thursday November 12th, 2009 from 4 - 6 pm. (more…)

Tracy Spadafora, Untitled, mixed media encaustic

(more…)