encaustic

[en-kaw-stik]

adjective

1. painted with wax colors fixed with heat, or with any process in which colors are burned in.

noun

1. a work of art produced by an encaustic process.

encaustic

/ ɪnˈkɒstɪk /

adjective

1. decorated by any process involving burning in colours, esp by inlaying coloured clays and baking or by fusing wax colours to the surface

noun

1. the process of burning in colours

2. a product of such a process

Other Word Forms

• encaustically adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of encaustic¹

1650–60; < Latin encausticus < Greek enkaustikós for burning in. See en- ², caustic

Word History and Origins

Origin of encaustic¹

C17: from Latin encausticus, from Greek enkaustikos, from enkaiein to burn in, from kaiein to burn

Example Sentences

Four of the icons - encaustic paintings on wood from Saint Catherine's Monastery in Egypt's Sinai desert - date from the 6th and early 7th centuries.

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Adopting these discarded — or, as she puts it, “orphaned” — photos became an obsession, and now she regularly uses them as collage elements in mysterious encaustic and multimedia paintings.

Read more on Seattle Times

He urged Hudson to look at Jasper Johns’ work, which used encaustics — something that Hudson began to explore more closely.

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Traditional materials used to build the homes - such as Burma teakwood and encaustic tiles - are now expensive and hard to come by, and many of the building techniques have also become obsolete.

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Warn makes layered abstractions on wooden panels, partly covering repeated geometric figures such as concentric circles with smeary, wax-based encaustic pigment.

Read more on Washington Post