In its liquid form, encaustic paint moves like a living thing: It flows, swirls, splashes, oozes, pools and drips. That’s because it’s made from beeswax, pigment, and damar resin or carnuba wax. Applied sparingly with a dry brush, the paint forms natural patterns (see “Moon I,” left). I’m holding the brush, but the patterns form themselves.

These patterns, known as fractals, are also found in shorelines, sand dunes, snowflakes, tree branches, cactus —even broccoli.

My goal is to encourage, not to limit, the natural inclinations of the wax. And I don’t have much time: wax cools within minutes.

“Encaustic” means “to burn in,” from the Greek enkaustikós. After I’ve painted the wax onto a wood surface, I let it cool, then pass quickly over it with a blow torch, “burning in” each wax layer into the previous layer. Slowly, I build many thin layers of clear and pigmented wax. Buffed to a high shine, a finished encaustic painting takes on a three-dimensional depth, like light shining through water.

My paintings are mostly abstracts, based loosely on natural or manmade scenes (landscapes, seascapes, cityscapes) and forms (the human body, flowers, etc.). I’m inspired by color, pattern, movement and form, often reflected in photographs I’ve taken. While this is primarily an online painting gallery, the photographs that inspired the paintings are also for sale here.

I’m essentially self-taught, though I have taken private drawing and painting classes from age 10 on; I studied photojournalism in college. Feel free to message me from this site; I’d love to hear your reactions to the work.

Photo: Sharon Brody