Encaustics, My Next Adventure...
Last weekend I attended the 4th Annual Encaustics Conference at the Monserrat College of Art in Beverly, MA. I have been experimenting lately with encaustics because I have been drawn to the simple process of painting with the natural medium of beeswax and tree sap/resin.
Beeswax smells and feels heavenly delicious to me. When I touch the warm wax, I have the same warm and cozy feeling as I do when I drink a warm cup of hot tea on a cold night. It soothes me like no other medium I have ever used before. Even though I am new to encaustics, somehow I feel like I have been using it my whole life.
(Judy Klich, Robin Van Hoozer and Ruth Ann Muirhead-Stephens)
I am not alone with my passion for beeswax. At the conference, I experienced something I never had happen to me before with a group of artists. Every artist that I met was warm, open and willing to share every secret, every gained experience with grace and generosity.
When I returned to Miami, I realized that not only did I learn a lot about encaustics, but I also learned what it feels like when a whole group of artists share, support, encourage and inspire each other openly and honestly.
A few days after the conference I happen to ask an artist in Miami about their technique. The artist said he couldn't tell me because he said it was his secret and couldn't share that information. I smiled and thought about what I had learned and about the best kept secret of all: helping others is the first step toward success.
