Instructor
Shelley Jean
An artist and educator who studied at the Florida School of The Arts. Shelley Jean graduated from the University of South Florida with a B.S. in Art Education and has taught in the public and private sector for over 32 years. She currently teaches at the Beach Art Center, Island Art Association as well as her own Secret Place Studio in Orlando, Florida.
Shelley Jean offers in person workshops, private mentoring as well as online workshops. She hosts Encaustic Art for The Soul Retreats nationally and internationally in Asheville, North Carolina, New Mexico's Ghost Ranch, Hawthorne, Florida and Tuscany Italy. She is the founder and President of Florida Wax, a Chapter of International Encaustic Artists and an Artist Instructor for R&F Paints.
Encaustic
Beeswax with damar resin manipulated with fire.
Encaustic is a wax-based paint made of beeswax, damar resin, and pigment, kept molten on a heated palette. It’s applied to an absorbent surface and reheated to fuse the layers. The word ‘encaustic’ comes from the Greek enkaiein, meaning 'to burn in,' referencing this fusion process. Although it shares the same root, 'encaustic' should not be confused with 'caustic,' which refers to a corrosive reaction—encaustic painting has no such hazard.
Encaustic painting dates back to the 5th century B.C., practiced by Greek artists. Much of what we know about it comes from the Roman historian Pliny the Elder, whose Natural History (1st century A.D.) describes encaustic's many uses: painting portraits and mythological scenes on panels, coloring marble and terra cotta, and working on ivory, likely by tinting incised lines.
The Fayum portraits, created by Greek painters in Egypt in the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D., are the best-known examples of encaustic work. Encaustic saw a revival in the 18th and 19th centuries with the excavation of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Modern encaustic painting became more accessible with portable electric heating tools and commercial encaustic paint, popularized by prominent artists.
