R&F Tier Artist Instructor Debra Claffey earned her BFA in painting from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and an AAS in Horticultural Technology from the University of New Hampshire. In both 2011 and 2021, she received grants from the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. Her work has been shown throughout New England, including AVA Gallery, the Southern Vermont Arts Center Gallery, Cotuit Center for the Arts, and at Worcester State University, and is part of the permanent collection of Laventhol & Horwath in Boston.

Yes, in fact we recommend giving it a try. Our Pigment Sticks® offer a terrific tool for painting and "drawing" directly onto your support. Beyond this, as you play and push their limits, and combine them with items you may already have in your studio, you'll find out just how much you can do.

We return to our toptone and undertone series with three colors known for their expansive range and transparent qualities. Stil de Grain, being a synthetic iron oxide, has a clean top tone, and its undertone is golden yellow. Payne's Grey is a very deep eggplant violet and a good replacement for black, since it will not sully other colors. If you work the color (such as a scumble technique) you can bring out the more neutral grey undertones. Brown Pink has a dark reddish-brown top tone and a fiery pinkish-brown undertone. It's like an intense Burnt Sienna and makes an excellent glaze.

The proper care and storage of encaustic and R&F Pigment Stick® paintings is similar in many ways to the handling of all fine art. For this reason we want to share with you a terrific resource written by the pros in the conservation department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Artist David A. Clark has shown at a range of locations including OTA Contemporary in Santa Fe, New Mexico; the Conrad Wilde Gallery in Tucson, Arizona; The Painting Center in New York City; and the Palm Springs Art Museum in Palm Springs, California, among others. His work has appeared in Art in Print magazine and is in the permanent collections of both the Process Museum and the Hunterdon Art Museum. He is an annual presenter at the International Encaustic Conference in Provincetown and has taught at R&F, Idyllwild Art Center, Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill, and internationally at Zijdelings in The Netherlands. R&F is delighted to have a piece of his work in our permanent collection. We spoke with David recently to learn a bit more about his work and process.

This week we return to the origins and development of the R&F color names and the pigments they are comprised of. We begin with two vigorous colors, Sap Green and Raw Sienna. These colors have an extensive history in the world, and are known for their luminous undertones.

R&F Pigment Sticks® have none of the additives, extenders, substitutes, or facilitators that are commonly used in industrial production. However, it's still a good idea to minimize skin contact with paints and pigments when possible. This is especially true if you will be adding solvents, driers, or other materials when painting.

We return to our blog series "From The Collection" this week to focus on artist and teacher Elise Wagner. R&F is fortunate to have two pieces by Elise in our permanent collection. Elise is a painter and printmaker who has spent the last three decades of her life in Portland, Oregon. Originally from Jersey City, Elise found the subject matter of her work shifted when she moved to Oregon. With paintings that reference climate change, satellite imagery, and aerial photography, Elise's art focuses on the impact humans have had on their environment and raises awareness of how fragile our existence truly is.

One of the best ways to take advantage of the transparent qualities of encaustic and explore color relationships, is to work over a colored ground. Fluid acrylics provide a great way to evenly "tint" R&F Encaustic Gesso prior to applying encaustic or oil paint. You'll find instructions below sharing this simple and effective technique.

The opacity of a paint describes how it interacts with light. Opaque colors hide what is underneath them, while transparent colors allow light to pass through and partially reveal the underlayer. Our newest demo video highlights the differences between opaque and transparent colors, offering two simple exercises you can do at home to learn more about opacity and transparency.

Diana González Gandolfi is a painter-printmaker with an extensive exhibition record of solo and group shows including the Hunterdon Art Museum in Clinton, NJ; The Noyes Museum, Oceanville, NJ; The Newark Museum, in Newark, NJ; The De Cordova and Lincoln Museum in Lincoln, MA; The Boston Museum of Fine Arts; The Print Club in Philadelphia, PA; The Bronx Museum of Art; The Boston Public Library; and The International Print Center in NYC to name a few. She has also shown internationally in invitational print exhibitions at the Yinchuan Art Gallery in Yinchuan, China; the Khmu Art Museum in Tallinn, Estonia; Altos de Chevron Gallery in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic; and Centre d’art du Mont-Royale in Montreal, Canada.