Station Archive

Adele Louise Shaw is an encaustic artist and teacher in Davis. Her work is known world-wide, and her art classes have been drawing enthusiastic students for years. Listen to hear about this fascinating art form -- newly revived in the west, it's origins are over 2000 years old!

What is encaustic? -- the substance, the process, and the finished work all share the same word. Should a piece of encaustic art be flat and painterly or 3-D and sculptural? Should it have bold splashes of color or subtle transparent layers? Since one can include other materials into encaustic, should the art piece then be called "encaustic", "mixed media", or "collage"? Adele will tell us YES! Encaustic art allows freedom of expression on many levels; we are not limited to the 'shoulds' that abound elsewhere.