History

Close your eyes, and imagine that we are time travellers, taking a journey back to Ancient Egypt over 2000 years ago.

As we enter the Pharaoh’s palace, we see the Royal Artists tending hot fires and and adding natural pigments to pots full of purified, melted beeswax to produce the wax paints they will use to paint funeral portraits, to adorn the statuary and architecture of their surroundings, and for easel painting. Archeologists in the 20th century will later marvel at the discovery of these paintings, that when dusted off, do not show the wear and tear of the centuries. Impervious to most of the elements, the paints have not yellowed nor cracked, and moisture has not penetrated the paintings. Across the Mediterranean, the process is being continued in Greece, where it originated.

Now we fast forward our time machine over 1000 years to the 6th and 7th centuries when encaustic painting flourishes throughout the Byzantine Empire, especially for religious paintings. Thousands of these icons are later destroyed; only a few remain, with the oldest painting of Christ surviving as an excellent example of the permanence of wax paintings.

As we fly along for the next several hundred years, we see very few artists painting with beeswax. During the Renaissance, a few, including Leonardo da Vinci, experiment with encaustic art.

Slow down as we approach the middle-1700’s—a full-scale revival in encaustic painting is in progress across Europe. By 1850, large numbers of artists from France, Italy, Germany, England, Sweden, and Switzerland are painting with beeswax.

Our time machine now leaps across the Atlantic Ocean to North America of the mid-1900’s. Diego Rivera paints wax murals in Mexico City, while Jasper Johns and others help revive this fine art in the United States.

It’s time to land our time machine; the year is 2004, the place is Las Cruces, New Mexico; we enter Galeria de Suenos to view the results of modern encaustic painting tools and techniques. The gallery specializes in this unique medium that has become sought after by collectors who are seeking something special and magical for their collections.

I hope you enjoyed your trip!

– Carol