Course Summary

This online workshop is suitable for new or experienced encaustic artists.

Breathe new life into your photographs using the luminous, tactile beauty of encaustic wax. Whether it’s a quick cell phone capture or a carefully composed camera image, this workshop will show you how to enhance, layer, and transform your photos with translucent wax, colour, and rich 3D texture.

You’ll be guided through the core techniques of photo encaustic painting and photo transfer —covering tools, surface preparation, photo printing, safety, and archival considerations. Learn how to properly adhere your image to a wooden panel and begin building up transparent wax layers to create depth and light.

We’ll explore how to use both clear and pigmented wax to enhance mood, develop atmosphere, and reimagine your original photo. You’ll work with a variety of additive and subtractive techniques—such as scraping, carving, incising, and mark-making—to create visual interest and emotional resonance.

These methods help reveal, obscure, and reinterpret parts of your image to draw out new meaning. This class invites personal storytelling and experimentation, developing artwork that’s both visually compelling and deeply meaningful.

Ideal for artists of all levels, this workshop is a great introduction to combining photography with encaustic. Whether you're drawn to personal imagery or visual abstraction, you'll finish with a one-of-a-kind encaustic photo painting that blends narrative, memory, and artistry into a powerful visual statement.