Sharon and I Love Ceracolors!

"Fayum Memory"  by Serena

Not long ago I received a call from a talented painter, Sharon, who wanted to create a series of portraits of friends and family in the style of the Greco-Roman-Egyptian painters of the first century BCE to the third century CE. These paintings were discovered centuries later in the Fayum area of Egypt.
Most of these paintings were done during the sitters' lifetimes and then after the person died, were affixed to their mummies. The paintings are done in a variety of styles, but all are haunting in their beauty and in the sense we have of seeing into the face of a real person who could be someone we know. One of the chief characteristics of Fayum paintings is the dark, large eyes of the subject.

I had done several Fayum inspired paintings in encaustic, but I wondered if Ceracolors wouldn't provide more flexibility in painting.  I used a heat tool to fuse and incise in much of the painting to replicate the look of the Fayum paintings. These ancient painters used both encaustic and some form of cold wax. Ceracolors is a water-soluble wax paint which can be used in many ways. 

Below is a still life done with Ceracolors and Ceracolors Fluid Medium. Below the apple you'll see some of my other Fayum experiments.

"Glowing Apple" by Serena

"Ethiopian Girl" by Serena

"Fayum Memory # 2" by Serena

Sharon came to my studio to experiment with Fayum portraits. Her first one was done in encaustic, see below.

Sharon's Encasutic Painting

Sharon used the same heat tool I had with her encaustic painting--you can particularly see it on the hair on this piece.

After the encaustic experiment, Sharon started a series of Ceracolor Fayum portraits.

By Sharon, after Fayum Artist

Sharon really took off with the Ceracolors. When she paints family and friends, the pieces become really alive and individual. 

By Sharon

By Sharon

By Sharon

By Sharon

I find Sharon's Fayum style paintings as hauntingly beautiful as the originals.

Ceracolors can be used for abstract painting as well. My piece below looks much like my oil/cold wax paintings.

"Smuggler's Cove" by Serena

I'll be teaching "Ceracolor Still Lifes" at Artiscape, sponsored by European Papers, in Dublin, OH later this month. 

Mummy Portraits Experiments

One of my students recommended a book to me about the Fayum mummy portraits. She shares with me a deep fascination with these lovely human portraits, painted in encaustic and cold wax in the first through third centuries AD. These portraits were done by Egyptians of Greek and Roman extraction.Scholars have noted Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and early Christian elements in the paintings.

Kelly paints icons and she pointed out to me how the mummy portraits set the scene for the look of Christian icon painting.

Flavia     Encaustic on Wood --this piece verges on the iconic

The book that has me so entranced is called The Mysterious Fayum Portraits: Faces from Ancient Egypt. The writer, an amazing painter herself, is Euphrosyne Doxiadis.

So here's the story as I understand it. When a person of means died in the Fayum and some other areas of Egypt, his/her body was embalmed and mummified. Over where the head area of the linen-wrapped mummy would be was placed a thin wood panel with a portrait of the deceased. Some of these portraits were painted just for this purpose. Others were cut down to fit from portraits the deceased had done when he/she was alive. So, researchers might find a mummy who died at 85 but whose portrait was done when he was young.( I was glad to learn this last, because most of the portraits were of younger people so that it seemed almost no one lived to old age.) One feature of most of the portraits were the expressive dark eyes.

Apparently people used to keep the mummies around the house. This may seem bizarre to us, but the loved ones of the deceased felt comforted by having them close by, and still seeing their faces. Later the mummies were dumped in graves, I'm guessing, after everyone currently living had forgotten who they were. People do this all the time now with photographs of their ancestors, as we who pick the photos up at garage sales are well aware.

Looking at the faces in Doxiadis' book is an emotional experience for me. The people gaze out across the centuries and I feel like I know them. The could be friends, relatives, and neighbors. The paintings are done in many different styles, but almost all are compelling.

I'm trying to learn how to make my own encaustic portraits that have the same lively quality. I still have a way to go, but it's a fascinating challenge. I've been experimenting with several styles used by the mummy portrait painters and I'm going to try some portraits in cold wax and pigment also.

Gaius    Encaustic on Wood

Cilla for All Time    Encaustic on Wood

Looking Away  Encaustic on Wood

This Saturday: "Who's Your Mummy?"

For those of you who are in the Portland area, here's a reminder about my class this coming Saturday:

Learn to paint encaustic portraits by painting in the style of the Greco-Roman mummy portrait painters! You'll learn how to layer colored wax, how to incise in wax, and how to add an aged look with shellac. Basic encaustic painting knowledge is helpful, but not required. The class will be small, so you'll get lots of individual coaching. 

March 31, 2012 1-5:30

Tuition: 90.
All supplies provided.
Register here

Pictures from "Who's Your Mummy" at Art and Soul

One of the striking Mummy Portraits

In this workshop, students learned about the Greco-Egyptian mummy portraits of ancient times and created their own encaustic paintings. Large expressive eyes were a feature of the ancient portraits and these lively faces created by students reflected this. Nice work!