The Hive Encaustic Studio

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If you’ve never heard of encaustic before, it’s an ancient art form made with molten beeswax, resin, and pigment. The wax is heated until it becomes liquid, then brushed onto a surface in layers and fused with heat. What draws me to it—beyond its history and luminous beauty—is the way the wax responds to heat, touch, and time. Each layer can be fused, carved, polished, or scraped back, allowing the artwork to evolve organically. The surface becomes both a record of what’s been added and a glimpse of what lies beneath, creating a depth that’s difficult to achieve with any other medium.

In my own practice, I often begin with photography or watercolours, grounding the work in image, colour, or mood. These elements are layered beneath translucent wax, where they soften, shift, and sometimes transform entirely. From there, I build the piece slowly—adding pigment, carving lines, embedding marks, and fusing each stage with heat. The process is as much about intuition as technique, letting the wax guide me as much as I guide it.

What I love most about encaustic is its tactile presence. The medium encourages experimentation: it can be smooth or textured, opaque or transparent, controlled or wild. Every pass of the torch or brush reveals something new. My work is an ongoing exploration of how memory, imagery, and material interact—how stories surface through layers of wax, colour, and light.

May 1 2025. The new Hive location in studio 216 .mill