Encaustic landscape4.

Encaustic painting, painting technique in which pigments are mixed with hot liquid wax.

Artists can change the paint’s consistency by adding resin or oil (the latter for use on canvas) to the wax. After the paint has been applied to the support, which is usually made of wood, plaster, or canvas, a heating element is passed over the surface until the individual brush or spatula marks fuse into a uniform film.

This “burning in” of the colours is an essential element of the true encaustic technique.