? ?
- Jessie Fritsch: Encaustic art is beeswax paintings.
[Laughs]
I always hear,
"Beeswax paintings?"
They just can't believe it.
It's considered one of the first forms of easel painting.
It's ancient, 2,000 years ago.
It's incredible.
My name is Jessie Fritsch.
I am an encaustic artist
and I have been painting with beeswax for 14 years.
I live in Stevens Point, Wisconsin.
? ?
Encaustic is one of the most durable forms of painting.
Beeswax is a natural preservative.
It's a natural adhesive,
resistant to moisture, resistant to insects.
So, these paintings will last
for thousands and thousands of years.
I found that truly fascinating.
I was fascinated by the ancient history.
And then once I actually used the medium
and saw how vibrant the colors were,
I was completely hooked.
The thing is with encaustic,
you don't have time to really ponder
and think about where the wax is going to go
once it leaves the heat source.
So a lot of times I like to have
somewhat of a detailed drawing in place,
so I know exactly where the wax is going to go.
So I don't have to think about it.
Then, I can start the fun part of applying the wax.
Beeswax just needs something rigid and porous to adhere to.
So, I primarily paint on wood.
[Tap, tap]
Beeswax paint is simply beeswax,
powdered pigments,
the same powder pigment that are in oils or watercolor,
and then damar resin, which is a tree sap.
With encaustic, there is no drying time.
You have about five to eight seconds to put the paint down
before it just begins to clump up
and won't flow off your brush anymore,
and you have to reheat it.
So, I'm constantly reheating my brush and my paint,
applying the paint,
then immediately going back, reheating my brush and my paint,
applying it again.
The big issue with encaustic is the fumes,
is the ventilation.
So, beeswax is actually toxic if you heat it over 250 degrees.
I heat it at around 180° to 200°.
And after 250°, it starts smoking
and creates formaldehyde and another carcinogenic.
No respirator will save you from those fumes,
so you can see in my art studio
I have a very strong ventilation system.
[Soft scraping]
Wax is very forgiving in the sense that
if you put it down and you didn't like it,
you can just scrape it off and start over.
It's not like watercolor, like, you can't make a mistake.
However, the part that it's not forgiving in is the fusing part,
which is absolutely essential to encaustic.
All right, I'm ready to fuse.
The word "encaustic" comes from the Greek work enkaustikos,
which means to burn in.
So each layer of beeswax must be fused or burned in
to the layer of wax beneath it.
The overall goal with fusing
is you're trying to make one cohesive sheet of wax.
I basically need to heat the paint up to 180 degrees
on my surface.
So, it will adhere to the layer beneath.
The minute the wax cools,
it is finished, and you can paint another layer of wax.
I'm not a patient person in life.
But somehow with encaustic, I'm able to be patient
because as you can see, there's all these different steps
to this process.
A piece will take me, like, a week or two weeks,
depending on how big it is.
To really finally, like, sit back and look at it,
you just see it differently.
You invest all this time in something.
It's really just satisfying.
You know, when you talk to so many kids, right?
"What do you want to be when you grow up?"
Probably like a handful will be like,
"Oh, I want to be an artist!" you know?
Of course, I always said that
'cause I always was passionate about it;
I always liked art. And I was good at it.
But did I think that
that would really end up being my career?
Well, it can, if you work at it.
And it is thrilling to just sit
and watch people be like, "Oh, my God, that's beeswax?
"Are you serious? Like, what?"
And you just tell them the ancient history.
Then they're, like, completely blown away.
I just really enjoy teaching people
about something that is a lost art.
? ?