Cold Wax Art Technique

Techniques used with the cold wax painting medium.

Cold wax art technique.

The term cold in cold wax medium and cold wax painting refers to the fact that heat is not required for working with this wax medium as it dries by solvent evaporation rather than the cooling of the wax as in encaustic painting. The medium is liberating for artists as new and innovative approaches are discovered pretty much every time you work in the studio. I used a palette knife to add about a finger nail size amount of oil paint to the wax. The term cold in cold wax medium and cold wax painting refers to the fact that heat is not required for working with this wax medium as it dries by solvent evaporation gamsol rather than the cooling of the wax as in encaustic painting.

The wax has modified the oil not only by volume but it is more translucent with plenty of body. Cold wax medium is used in every style of painting from realism to pure abstraction. Gamblin cold wax medium a mixture of natural beeswax wax pastilles gamsol and a small amount of alkyd resin. I took about one teaspoon to one tablespoon of dorland s wax from jacquard and put it on a paper palette.

For cold wax painting cold wax is mixed with oil paint at room temperature. Then only add a small pea sized blob of oil with the tip of a palette knife. To create this cold wax painting here is what i did. If any of the above strike a chord you can suss out a new path for your creativity with cold wax.

In addition cold wax and oil paint remain workable for quite some time and can be layered with other media. As the solvent evaporates the soft wax hardens to the density of a beeswax candle. It s a good practice to move some wax from the initial pile. A closer look at the cold wax painting medium with a small amount of oil paint added.

The texture of both wax and oil is clear to see.