Hiding, Revealing

Black Stream, encaustic on pine, 5.5 x 5.25 inches, 2006 Encaustic painting by Steve Hunter

These paintings are created by layering and scraping back the encaustic medium and paints. I often start with gestural mark making. These marks get hidden, modified, revealed – sometimes because they seem too revealing, more often because they spark  other … Continue reading

Encaustic & Pastel Together

Burning Woods, encaustic on poplar, 5.75 x 5.75 inches, 2009 Encaustic and pastel painting by Steve Hunter

The luscious wax surface doesn’t really want the dusty and dry pastel to sully it. But with the encouragement of just a little heat and the softest of pastels it can be convinced. An extension of the intimacy of my … Continue reading

Imaginary Places

Earth and Sea, detail Encaustic painting No.113, Detail

This work has taken a turn toward landscape, or is it sea or space, still in a mythic time and place. I’ve started shaping the canvas to emphasize an artificial perspective. This is a case of a circular development, with … Continue reading

The Fortunes

Fortune No.60 (pilgramage), digital image, 2009 Detritus assemblage images by Steve Hunter

Point-of-view is everything. Three views of an assemblage (now destroyed) created from the detritus of my painting process. The photos reveal what was not planned or seen as I fitted it all together. Like reading tea leaves, figures and animals … Continue reading

Creation Stories

Creation Story No. 51, encaustic on board, 14 x 11.25 inches, 2009 Encaustic painting by Steve Hunter

What defines this series for me is that the viewer is given an open ended image rich with possible interpretations, and more than a few bits of stuff that might look like emerging creatures or some cosmological event. This creates … Continue reading

Pastel Drawings

Untitled No. 29, pastel on paper, 5 x 7 inches, 2009 Pastel drawing by Steve Hunter

This collection of pastel drawings are among the most intimate works I’ve done. Done in a very introspective way, channeling my emotional state in the moment I did them.

Early Encaustic Work

Three in a Chair, mixed media, 10 x 8inches, 1999 Collage using a photo by my father, of me, my sister, and Checkers

Here are a few my early encaustics experimenting with different techniques and subjects. The photo in the collage was taken by my father – it’s me, my sister, and the cat Checkers.

What are encaustics?

Encaustic (hot wax) paints in my studio. © 2011 . All rights reserved.

Encaustic painting (hot wax painting) is one of the oldest known painting techniques. The simplest hot wax painting is a combination of beeswax and pigment, melted and applied with a pallet knife or brush. There are often additions of Damar … Continue reading