Going Abstract

Whilst nothing about encaustic painting is ever totally controllable - at least not for me - abstracts are more random than ever. A certain level of control over the colours is possible, and the type of marks the iron is going to leave are controllable, but otherwise it's all something of a mystery tour.

Images appear as if by magic - actually I think it's all magic - and the trick is to stop when you get a result you like. That's perhaps the hardest part. Knowing when to stop. There is always the temptation to apply the heat one more time, and end up undoing something you wish you'd kept.

Encaustic paintings are almost infinitely changeable. Keep on heating, and eventually the colours will run together and you'll end up with a muddy mess, but even this isn't permanent. It's possible to scrape the offending mud off and apply new, clear colour. Sometimes this produces even more pleasing effects than the original. See Misty Morning, above, as this is an example of a painting on top of a painting that went horribly wrong.

However, back to abstracts, and the difficulty of stopping at the right point. Very often, less is more. Just because one application of the iron produced a good result doesn't mean that a reapplication will make it even better. I often forget that the iron will undo what's already there. My mind goes back to conventional painting where it's possible to rework existing areas without completely altering the base. In encaustic this isn't possible.

Lesson: If it looks good. Stop.