This week we looked at shades of three of our encaustic colors: Azure Blue, Turkey Red, and Cadmium Yellow Deep to observe their range from full saturation to near-black. We used Ivory Black to darken these colors. An all-purpose black and solid choice for creating colored shades.

Stephanie Roberts-Camello is a Massachusetts based artist working primarily with encaustic and mixed-media. Stephanie graduated with a BFA in Painting from Rhode Island School of Design in 1985. She has attended multiple residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, where she continued to develop her encaustic relief technique. Stephanie is currently President of New England Wax and exhibits throughout the country Her work was recently featured in a two person show at the Duxbury Art Complex Museum, as well as a three person show at the Grimshaw Gudewicz Gallery in Fall River. She was also invited to show at an exhibition by Jane Cornish Smith at the University Gallery at Texas A&M Commerce.

R&F Mars colors are a group of synthetic iron oxides which include Mars Yellow Light, Mars Yellow Deep, Mars Orange, Mars Red, Mars Violet, and Mars Black. Our Mars colors are produced in both our encaustic and R&F Pigment Stick® lines.

Trace Monotype an experimental form of printmaking combining all the expressive qualities of drawing and painting with the unique qualities of working and composing from a plate. R&F Pigment Sticks® are uniquely suited to this process. They have more tack than tube oil but also offer a more open working time than many standard printmaking inks, with a wider range of colors. You'll only need a few items to try this process: a brayer, a barren (optional) , a plate, newsprint, tissue paper, tape, a mark-making tool, and mineral oil for clean-up.

It may look incredibly easy to paint a smooth surface when you observe a seasoned encaustic painter for the first time. We want to let you know it may take time in your own studio. Time well spent.

Amy Weil is a painter working with encaustic and mixed media. She studied painting at Tyler School of Art and attended the Yale Norfolk Summer School of Art. Weil lives and works in Brooklyn, New York and is affiliated with 440 Gallery in Brooklyn. Her recent solo show, Burnt Offerings was an installation of over 600 drawings and collages hanging from the gallery ceiling, creating an ethereal grid. Weil creates paintings that are intuitive and emotional and has developed a voice that is uniquely her own. Her work is in numerous collections in the United States and Europe.

Sometimes it's good to be complex. This is especially true for our "complex earth" colors - an R&F Handmade Paints term to describe our color mixes which blend natural earth pigments (which often have strong undertones) such as Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna, and Burnt Umber with transparent pigments (that tend to have strong top tones).

What papers should you choose for working with our two different paint lines? It's very easy to get lost in the wonderful world of paper types, brands, weights, textures, etc. And there certainly isn't just one paper to solve all of your aesthetic and project needs, but we hope to bring attention to on some of the factors worth considering when selecting papers for working our materials.

This week we tinted three of our Pigment Sticks®: Turkey Umber Pale, Indanthrone, and Nickel Yellow with Titanium-Zinc White to observe their range from full saturation to practically white. Turkey Umber Pale, already a subtler version of Turkey Umber Greenish, contains Phthalo Green in its makeup. As we tinted this color the cooler undertones of the Pthalo emerged. Indanthrone, in full saturation has a likeness to the inks found in pens. Tinting this color showed just how dynamic this blue truly is as its lightened and made more opaque. Nickel Yellow, which doesn't have quite the acidity of our Cadmium Lemon but still vibrant, enjoys a milder, but slightly cooler resemblance to our Brilliant Yellow Extra Pale as its lightened.

Givan Lötz is a South African artist whose work references places of emotional resonance as a search for enchantment in natural terrain. His work manipulates the capacity for paint to render organic forms and natural cycles of growth and decay. Givan has recently exhibited at the Association For Visual Arts in Cape town, South Africa, and Hazard Contemporary in Johannesburg, South Africa. Givan attended the 2018 spring session at RESIDENCY 108 in Germantown, New York and soon discovered R&F Handmade Paints.

We'd like to share a few resourceful tricks & tips from teaching artist Wayne Montecalvo for unique mark-making with R&F Pigment Sticks®. Wayne is known for employing a wide range of inventive techniques in his practice. Below, we take a look at block printing with carved foam using R&F Pigment Sticks®, and Wayne's experimental reverse painting with paper and glass.

To follow up our recent post on selecting a black from the R&F color line, it only makes sense to take a closer look at our whites. We produce many options in white. Our chromatic whites are pale tints with subtlety. They include Brilliant Yellow Extra Pale, Scarlet Extra Pale, and Sienna Yellow Extra Pale. You’ll find them in both of our paint lines. We, of course, make several other whites. In encaustic, there is Titanium White, Neutral White, and Unbleached Titanium, and in Pigment Stick® Neutral White, Titanium-Zinc White, and Unbleached Titanium.

Kelly Austin Rolo is a Denver-based artist working in the historic Art District on Santa Fe. Kelly studied design at Syracuse University and worked in the design and architectural field in NYC for many years. She moved to Denver from the east coast in 2016 and started her own journey of being a full-time artist. Rolo is an intuitive process-based creator. The first time Kelly worked with encaustic she was hooked.