Montserrat conference takes art back to the future

 heat supply systems All pigment, the actual color in paint, is suspended in an agent.For oil paint, the agent is linseed oil. For acrylic it’s apolymer medium. For watercolor, it’s, yes, water. Forencaustic paint the pigment is suspended in beeswax. Unlike other painting media, the agent doesn’t evaporate,leaving only pigment. The wax stays behind. This gives the paintinga density and three-dimensional quality other media can’tduplicate. The paint is applied hot with a variety of tools, then cools andhardens within seconds, so artists must work quickly. Painters reapply layers by reheating the applied wax with a torchor iron and the fusing the layers as they harden together. Multiple layers of paint and clear wax create overlapping color anddepth: The medium can be textured, scraped, incised, etched,combed, embossed, sculpted into three dimensions or smoothed to anenamel-like finish. The ancient technique dates back to Greco-Roman Egypt, circa 100B.C. to 200 A.D., have survived through the centuries. Encausticwas virtually a lost art until pioneer Jasper Johns begancontemporary encaustic painting in 1954.