An Afternoon's Work

I’ve been lugging around a panel with encaustic on it for literally 3 or 4 years that I simply can’t stand. So I’ve finally decided to draw my line in the sand and deal with it.

We’ve been having an obnoxiously hot summer, but how nice to take advantage of the heat. I left this panel out in the sun for maybe ½ hour which heated the wax to the point it was beginning to liquefy. The board was almost too hot to handle as I rushed it inside.

Then how gratifying to take my handy putty knife (and other scrapper thingys) and spend the rest of my afternoon removing layers of wax, getting back down to the original wood. This was a piece I tried to do when I was first learning about encaustic and it was almost like an archeological dig. There were top layers of green, orange, red, with a photocopy of a tree embedded, then underneath, blues and reds.

On the underside of this panel I had applied medium so the wood would be totally encased and not warp (but it did anyway). In removing the excess wax medium, I scrapped off enough to prime another half-dozen boards of the same size. What was I thinking?

Success finally, and a relief from this minor irritation. Now I can pursue something that will hopefully come out a masterpiece.