2025 Conference Schedule
FRIDAY, May 30
8:30
Registration Opens
9:30 - 10:30
DEMO: Edith Beatty
Embedding (and Pouring) “Stuff” in Encaustic Painting!
When do you embed actual objects – such as string, shells, glass, flowers, or a random shoe - into your encaustic paintings? When do you represent, abstract, or suggest images through mark making? Who has practiced these techniques over time? Do you pour wax to create a welcoming surface, or adhere them while painting? Together, we will explore these and other questions, issues, concerns, and fun in our practice.
TALK: Patti Russotti
Hunting, Gathering, and Collecting: Expanding and Strengthening Your Creative Vision
This approach is deeply connected to a daily practice and the expansion of your thought processes. It caters to individuals from all genres and disciplines who are eager to explore techniques that will enhance their studio practice. We will explore a variety of options and unveil a new realm of possibilities for merging the analog and digital worlds.
TALK: Bettina Egli Sennhauser
The Renaissance of Antiquity: Ancient Painting Techniques Reinterpreted
Why and how to combine fresco and encaustic.
10:45 - 11:15
Welcome and Orientation for Newcomers
11:30 - 12:30
DEMO: Tracy Spadafora
Getting Images Onto / Into the Surface
This demonstration will show you how to add drawings, text, photo images, organic matter, gilding foils, and much more to your encaustic creations through the processes of collage and transfer. Learn how to apply and prepare a wax surface for transfer & collage and how to layer and protect images after they are adhered. The archival characteristics of these mixed media techniques will be covered.
TALK: Kelly Milukas
Learning to See ∙ Developing Your Voice ∙ Participatory Lecture
Many are very interested in learning how to paint but sometimes may or may not be as interested in learning how to draw... But what if I told you that learning to draw would improve your painting skills significantly?! So, if you are a painter – I encourage you attend this participatory talk! No rulers, and no words like perspective or ellipses will be included! Kelly will guide you through a brief set of creative skill building exercises to bring back to your studio practice. The prompts and supporting discussion will strengthen your individual voice with new ways to experience seeing, and making lines translated to drawings with a fully engaged body and heart centered practice. Paper and Drawing Media will be Provided.
DEMO : David A. Clark
Boxes for Storing and Shipping Encaustic
This demonstration will give Conferees the skills to construct simple storage and shipping containers for their encaustic work. They will learn how to construct a basic cardboard box and then adapt that “basic box” to protect and cushion the work. Conferees will also learn how to adapt the “basic box” in order for it to function as a reusable container for shipping work to galleries and museums. I will also cover simple solutions to protect work when it is stored in the studio or in a gallery rack including constructing padded sleeves and removable “bumpers” to protect the edges and surfaces of work. Conferees will leave this demonstration with all of the basic skills needed to construct their own customized boxes, storage protection solutions and shipping containers. A handout with patterns will be provided.
12:30 - 1:30
Lunch
1:30 - 2:30
DEMO: Extreme Texture
Jodi Reeb
Are you ready to push your work to new heights? I will show you how to create deeply textured and layered paintings, embedding objects and carving the surface. You will learn many accretion techniques using recycled materials as collage as well as excavating paint layers with clay tools.
TALK: Susan Lasch Krevett
2025 Conference Presenters and Workshop Instructors
This slide presentation features the work of the Conference Presenters and Workshop Instructors at The 18th International Encaustic Conference in 2025. No one gets to see ALL the demos or take all the workshops! So much Encaustic, so many ways to use it!
TALK: Debra Claffey
Encaustic Collage: A Survey Who’s Doing What? What’s Been Done and What’s New?
What’s new in encaustic collage? Who has taken it to someplace new? This talk will inspire you to revisit tried and true techniques for new ideas and direction for your work.
2:30 - 3:00
Break
3:00 - 4:30
ROUND TABLE: David A. Clark, Milisa Galazzi, Lisa Pressman
Ask Anything: A Deep Dive into Being a Working Artist
"I have no more room - How do I find and set up a studio? I want to sell my art - How do I get my work into a gallery? This art thing is expensive - How do I make ends meet? I have so much going on with my family and my life - How do I juggle being an artist with everything else going on? I am not even sure what my art career can be - How do I define success and carve a career out of my passion?" These and many more questions will be discussed in this new roundtable format. David, Milisa and Lisa will lead and engage participants in a lively conversation. These three veteran artists have over 100 collective years of art making experience! They will create a brave space where they will pull back the veil of artists' secrets and discuss the joys, the challenges, and everything in between, of being an artist at any career stage. This newly created roundtable discussion is designed for veteran as well as first-time conference attendees. A robust conversation full of myriad take-aways is guaranteed!
5:30
Last call at the Vendor Room
SATURDAY, May 31
9:00
Late Registration, Vendor Room Open
9:30 - 11:30
Keynote Lecture: Esperanza Cortés
11:30 - 1:00
Break / Lunch
1:00 - 2:00
DEMO: Isabelle Gaborit
Encaustic Painting – Layers of Time and Process
This demonstration will delve into additive and subtractive techniques used in encaustic painting, focusing on how the layering of pigmented encaustic medium can create richly textured and tactile surfaces. Attendees will be guided through each step of the process, from applying heated encaustic medium and pigments to manipulating the surface through scraping, carving, and scoring. The demonstration will draw connections between the artistic process and geological transformations, showing how layers are constructed, eroded, and reshaped over time. Participants will experience how the physicality of encaustic painting mimics natural forces like erosion and decay, while also revealing textures and patterns inspired by the landscape. The goal of this demonstration is for attendees to gain a deeper understanding of encaustic painting’s unique characteristics, learning how to use its layering potential to create dynamic, multidimensional works. This session will appeal to artists seeking to explore encaustic's tactile qualities and its ability to evoke a sense of time, place, and transformation.
TALK: Joanne Mattera
Ask Me Anything
In a structured conference with slide talks and demos, sometimes you just want a nice easy session when you can talk about whatever interests you without committing to an entire hour of one topic. This will be an informal 90 minutes of questions, answers, and conversation—whether it’s about encaustic specifically or art in general, or whether you’re curious about changes in the gallery world over the past few years, how much to promote yourself, how to find a mentor, or you just want to sit back and listen in. No charts, graphs, slides. Just talk. I’ve done a lot in the past 50 years of making, showing, curating, and writing about art, and I’m happy to share what I’ve learned. But your questions will drive the hour.
TALK: Milisa Galazzi and Lauren Pearlman
VISUAL Q&A: Why Paper and Encaustic
Fine Art Paper Expert, Educator & Founder at Paper Connection International and the Art Annex, Lauren Pearlman teams up with nationally known artist, Milisa Galazzi to create this new conference format - a Visual Q&A. Lauren will physically show participants the basics of how paper is made IRL (in real life!). She will show how plant fibers are added to water and share the magic of pulling a sheet of paper from natural materials. Milisa will share how she uses Lauren's Japanese papers in some of her artwork. Together these inspiring teachers will answer the question, Why Paper and Encaustic by showing and telling conferees some of the behind-the-scenes joys and challenges of combining paper and wax. This format is different from a traditional demonstration because Milisa and Lauren will be sharing information about the materials and answering conferees' questions - they will not be making art in a how-to format. After attending this session early in the conference line-up, attendees can then visit Lauren's Japanese paper booth in the Vendor Room and possess a basic understanding of paper and how it supports working with encaustic.
2:00 - 2:30
Break
2:30 - 3:30
DEMO: Karen Bright
Beyond the Cradle! (Alternative substrates)
There are many ways to apply encaustic materials beyond the conventional cradled birch panel. This demo will include layering hot to cold applications on paper, creating alternative surfaces on wood with prepared boards (plaster, fresco, encaustic), and also demonstrate techniques in applying paint to three-dimensional surfaces.
TALK: Gabriela Sánchez
Bridging Art and Technology: Mastering Social Media and Digital Content for Artists
In this session, I will focus on how artists can effectively use tools like artificial intelligence, design software, video and music editing apps, as well as social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook to enhance their online presence. These are tools I use in my own practice, and I’ll share practical tips on how to integrate them into a successful digital strategy.
TALK: Patricia Miranda
The Ecstatic Possibility of the Studio
What does it mean to make art in a time of turmoil? Can objects resonate beyond an artist’s private experience? Where and how can notions of the ecstatic be located in the studio and the work? In light of social, political, and ecological change, tools are needed to envision art that can meet this moment, from intimate to global. If art is the expression of an individual experience of being in a body- and an act of empathy, can the studio become a space of transformation for artists and for the world? This talk/discussion will explore examples and strategies to strip away the unessential, and find ways to make work that is as urgent, honest, and close to the heart as possible.