This is a two-day encaustic workshop designed to take students beyond the basics involved in working with encaustic. A hands-on studio course, this workshop will offer participants a deeper understanding of how to create paintings that suggest depth and dimension.  An emphasis will be placed on composition and expressing meaning through an exploration of accumulating marks, drawings, and image transfers at varying levels.  Students will have plenty of time to explore and develop their own personal ideas and visual vocabulary on larger or multiple panels.

Learning outcomes:

+ Prepare white panel using paper, paint, or gesso

+ Different types of brushes and how to hold brushes to create smooth, even layers

+ Ways to fuse lightly

+ Image transfers using water or tracing paper

+ Creating translucent colored layers

+ Building depth in layers

+ Working with pigment stick

+ Collage + embedding

+ Composition

Dietlind Vander Schaaf holds an MFA from the University of San Francisco and an MA from the University of Southern Maine.  Her work has been described as the transformation of “disparate objects into elegantly simple compositions of pattern and grace” (Artscope).  She has exhibited nationally and was featured in Maine Home + Design magazine’s 2016 profile “One to Watch” on standout artists in Maine.  Vander Schaaf has received grants from the Maine Arts Commission, a Tending Space Artist Fellowship from the Hemera Foundation, and the Juror’s Award in association with the 10th International Encaustic Conference.  She currently serves as the president of New England Wax.