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Fayum Portraits with Francisco Benitez

Penny Gunderson

The workshop with Francisco Benitez at the IEA Retreat was a wonderful look into the history of the four color method of ancient encaustics.

The lecture portion of the workshop detailed How the Fayum method came into use and the rediscovery of the ancient art form of encaustics in the 18th century.

He demoed his unique two handed method of blending with a variable heat gun and a natural bristle fan brush.

He also demonstrated using the heated tool, with a small horn or blending attachment, for finishing the top layers of hot wax.

When we went to start exploring the techniques he had taught, the simultaneous blasting of multiple heat guns caused a power outage. Unfortunately, we had less time to experiment then we may have wished for. Francisco compensated by doing a cold wax portrait demo until the power was restored to the tools.

Working frantically, I managed to get the basic image on the board before the workshop ended. I have recently purchased an adjustable heat gun (from Home Hardware) and will attempt to finish the Fayum portrait copy while correcting several proportion issues.

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