ENCAUSTIC PAINTING WORKSHOPS
An introduction to the ancient art of painting with pigmented wax
Encaustic is composed of beeswax, tree resin, and pigment, applied in a melted liquid state to a support, and fused to create a beautiful, lustrous and translucent enamel like surface. Its technical potential is vast, limited only by the artist's imagination.
Rodney Thompson has been working with encaustic for 8 years and has shown his work nationally. He has taught encaustic at Cabrillo College in Santa Cruz, Novato Arts Center in Novato, and Hidden valley Art Institute in Carmel Valley, as well as presenting workshops at the Annual National Encaustic Conference at Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, MA. He will be teaching at the R&F master encaustic workshop ("Ahead of the Buzz") in 2009.
Workshops are held in Rodney's spacious studio in Redding, CA, offering generous individual workspace. Workshops will be 1 or 2 days long. Two days are recommended for beginners to allow enough time to cover all the basic information as well as time to try out techniques. Hours are 9:00am to 3:00pm. Classes are limited to 5 artists to allow lots of personal attention as well as plenty of time for hands on work (and play).
The total cost for a one day individual or two person workshop is $150, plus $26.81 for materials= $176.81/day. A two day workshop (for 1-2 persons) is $353.62. For 3 or more people it is $125 +$26.81/ day. This includes all necessary paints, supports, brushes and use of basic tools and equipment. A list of optional materials and tools will be provided to registrants.
Workshop subjects (not all subjects covered in every workshop, depending on participant's interests and skill levels):
---- materials, equipment and tools, including resource lists
----safety considerations
----making your own medium
----melting paint and mixing colors
----choosing and preparing supports
----basic painting and fusing
----creating smooth vs textured surfaces
----pouring, casting, accretion, dripping, scraping, scumbling
----collage, assemblage, stencils, image transfers
----drawing techniques
----3-D applications
Beginning workshops will cover basic techniques in depth and introduce more advanced techniques which can be explored more fully in subsequent workshops. Class size remains small enough to accomodate artists with experience in encaustic that want to learn new techniques as well as beginnners to the medium.
"Experienced" workshops will explore advanced techniques in more depth and will focus on the interests of the participants. Little or no time will be spent on introductory material such as history and basic techniques and materials.
All workshops are scheduled by special arrangement.
Individuals or small groups of 2-5 artists may contact me to schedule
workshops to meet their interests and schedules.
Possible intermediate-advanced workshops might include:
-Collage and assemblage: imbedding objects and marks in encaustic
-Layering with encaustic medium to enhance visual depth
-Moving beyond the beginnings: taking your work to the next level by
exploring new possibilities, problem solving and advancing your encaustic skills
Montserrat 2009 Encaustic Conference Presentations