The Difference between Encaustic and Cold Wax

I often get asked what is the difference between painting with encaustic wax and painting with cold wax.  Apart from the fact that both are made primarily from beeswax—we have to support and protect the bees!—they are very different media, which surprises people.

Encaustic medium is made from beeswax and damar resin, an odorless product of a specific type of pine tree in Southeastern Asia.    The damar adds just a little bit of hardness to the otherwise soft beeswax so that it will be permanent and not prone to damage.  It has been around since the days of the Egyptians and Romans, so it better be permanent.

It is solid at room temperature and has to be melted on a hot palette to spread on the substrate.  Paints come in different colors, either opaque or translucent, depending on the pigments.  You work by building up layers and each layer needs to be fused to the one beneath it.  While some may consider that tedious, I find it rhythmical.  Helps to have music.  

Encaustics have infinite possibilities.  They can be incised, scraped, or scratched into the layers or built up through added materials such as sand, ash, or simply sloppy painting.  I love to include some aspect of physical texture into my encaustic paintings so that people will want to reach out and touch them.  

Cold wax medium is made with beeswax and odorless solvent.  It imparts no color and is soft at room temperature, similar in look and feel to vegetable shortening, but definitely not edible and it definitely cannot be heated!  Even odorless solvents can be toxic when heated.  

The combination is further mixed with oil paints to create a new medium that is buttery and creamy, waiting to be spread on a painting substrate.  It has the added benefit of making the oil paint dry much more quickly than straight oils.  

Oil and cold wax tools include palette knives, squeegees, brayers, transfer papers, and an assortment of mark-making devices.  Anything that you can use to scratch into the layers is fair game!  

As with encaustics, oil and cold wax paintings are usually created via layer after layer of paint until there is enough to scrape into revealing colors applied earlier.  It is a continual process of conceal and reveal.  

Both media involved building up layers.  Both techniques can be luminous, fluid, or textured.  Both lend themselves to abstract expressionist interpretations.  My joy comes from taking a blank white canvas and turning it into an image that transports the viewer to a different time and place.