Encaustic Workshop from Stephanie Hargrave

Awesome workshop from

Stephanie Hargrave



Rosarii (left) gets some instruction from Stephanie



I was so lucky to get in on the last (at least for a while) encaustic workshop taught by Stephanie Hargrave.

It was a couple of weeks ago at her studio in West Seattle. 

I've been a fan of Stephanie's work for a while, so this was a real treat for me... Just to be there and soak in all the creative vibe going on in that place.  There were 5 of us in total and we were a grand diverse group.  Rosarii (in the photo above)is an amazing photographer.  You can visit her website HERE

It may be some of the same stuff I learned in an earlier workshop, but to actually see and learn HOW Stephanie uses those techniques was really cool.  Of course, each artist/instructor has her own style and techniques for using the same stuff.  I learned all kinds of new twists and ways to think about things.  New embedding paper ideas... and OMG! I learned about shelac which I have never used.  And, how easy it is to tint shelac with powdered pigments (yeah, gotta be careful with those.. need good ventilation).  There is something about the shelac when coated with wax that really gives an awesome look.  Can't explain it - just need to experiment more with it. 

One of my other learnings is to melt and make up 1 pound of medium at a time in an electric wok, strain and use that to have the working medium.  Holy cow, beats the heck out of muffin tins and little containers like that.  Of course need a big space for it.  And... Stephanie tends to work on big paintings which = the need for a lot of wax. 

We even had a bonus lesson from Rickie Wolfe, who is a talented artist who teaches at Pratt in Seattle.  She gave us a lesson on print making using ink on a glass palette using a brayer to spread the ink.  She used tissue paper and drew great designs that could then be embedded into the encaustic paintings.

Give Rickie's website a visit and see all her great stuff HERE 

More to think about::: Tons of layers (like 100!) and lots of deep interest.  I realized that I'm not even scratching the surface of the layering thing. 

  There is so much that can be done with encaustic that it truly is an amazing thing - this wax. 

Other learnings:  Be more intuitive and don't be afraid to experiment

Here are some of Stephanie's paintings.  You can see more on her website Stephanie Hargrave