✦ Supplies List

Supports & Grounds

Paints & Mediums

Acrylic paint / house paint (muted greens, smoky blues, umbers, blacks, soft pinks, ochres) → for base atmosphere layers
Oil paints (optional for depth in later stages)
Oil sticks (R&F or Sennelier recommended) → for gestural marks, forms, scratches
Powdered pigments (optional, if you want to tint your encaustic medium)

Wax & Tools

Encaustic medium (beeswax + damar resin premixed, e.g. R&F encaustic medium)
Hot plate / encaustic griddle (to melt wax safely)
Metal tins or encaustic cups (for melting/tinting wax)
Natural bristle brushes (cheap — wax ruins brushes quickly)
Heat gun or encaustic torch (to fuse wax layers)

Texture & Application Tools

Safety

✦ Step-by-Step Process

Stage 1 – Foundation Atmosphere

Prime your panel with 2–3 coats of gesso.
Lay down broad acrylic washes (think Ash Roberts’ atmospheric grounds). Use muted tones — greens, browns, smoky blues.
While still wet, spray water to let pigments drip, pool, and run. Tilt panel. Let it dry.
→ This is your “pond” ground.

Stage 2 – Weathering & Patina

Apply a transparent umber glaze (thin acrylic + water).
Wipe most of it back with a sponge or rag — let it sit in textures, grooves, edges.
→ Gives the aged, sedimented base like Hannah’s mid-layers.

Stage 3 – Abstraction of Objects

With oil sticks, sketch your forms inspired by your aerial photos → flocks, herds, swimmers, lily-like shapes.
- Keep them gestural, not literal.
- Layer multiple passes to suggest motion (like Manet/Ash).
Smudge some, scratch through others with a palette knife.
→ This is where Ash’s abstracted lilies meet your Cosmos forms.

Stage 4 – Encaustic Veil

Melt encaustic medium on your hot plate.
Brush on thin coats over the entire painting.
After each coat, fuse lightly with a heat gun so layers bond, not just sit on top.
→ This creates that Hannah-like dreamy haze — your objects now feel submerged.

Stage 5 – Suspended Depth

Add more oil stick marks or pigments on top of wax, fuse again.
Scratch into wax with a tool, then rub pigment into the incisions for ghostly shapes.
Alternate between wax coats + marks until you feel depth building.

Stage 6 – Finishing

✦ The Rhythm

Loose → weathered → abstracted → submerged → scratched → glowing.
That’s your arc.

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