One of the things that I enjoy most about encaustic painting is the variety of surfaces I can make with just one medium. Here I used an iron to create a smooth surface. My husband who hails from the East Coast says “It’s like butta!”

When the encaustic is smooth, almost like the surface of hot-press paper, I can draw on it with pigment powder. I can paint on it with a contrasting color, in this case black, like I would use sumi ink.

I can also paint on thick layers of encaustic building up a textured terrain.

Once enough layers of wax have been built up, I carve into the warm surface revealing the strata of my process.

I might leave the grooves open as contrast to other areas in the painting.

Or, I might fill in the grooves with a contrasting color and scrape away until smooth.