Dora Stork

The beginnings of encaustic in my life

I saw a wax picture once. It was non-figurative and abstract. This style is not really my own, but enthralled its silky glow, brilliant colours and transparency. Full with enthusiasm, I looked up everything that could be known about it on the internet and in its literature. Well, I didn't find much about this ancient technique but it was a good start. Mostly I found information about fayum portraits and sarcophagus. Today, iron techniques are the most popular, therefore most of the modern resources are about it.

It was more than 15 years ago. Since then I've been studying the wax material, its mixing with pigments and so on. Finally, I created my own medium according to my precisely composed recipe what I’ve used to developed my wax painting technique. Because there was nobody who could teach me, I had to experiment the knowhow by my own.

I can already express what I want with wax as I wish. I really like this material because it’s very versatile. Sometimes it's hard and heavy like an oil picture. My pictures are often mistaken oil paintings. Other times it's easy and unrepeatable like a watercolour. The colours are full and radiant.

I like wax. I like that it dries quickly, doesn’t lose its colour, doesn’t crack. It’s not as vulnerable as we would expect. It’s almost immediatly solidified, so I have to work fast.

In addition to wax, I sometimes paint with acrylic, but wax is my eternal love.