Manjiri Joshi

Encaustic Art literally means ‘burning in’. This is a very interesting form of art which is around for many centuries and was very prevalent in Greece and other countries as these works could be preserved for a long time. Here in India we are not aware of this medium of work because of the non availability of the instruments and the colours.
Patterns are created by the combination of coloured wax blocks and heated tools. Combinations of different colours heating and melting points are different causing different textures on different surfaces. All the work presented here is on A4 or less sized double sided glossy paper. Heated tools like small iron, stylus, hot air gun, pointed scrapper, tissue paper are used to bring out the depths and meaning to the patterns. Most of the work is abstract and have been done over the period of 3yrs.
The textures and the vivacity of the colours and the methods of applying the colours gives the user a freedom of no lines and no boundaries for working and exploring the possible new horizons of creativity. Limitation of the size of the work is because of the limitation of the tools that are used in this art form. I am now working out newer tools and appliances to make bigger creations.

Artistic inclination is an inheritance from my mother who herself is an artist who left the art world without dabbling in it to explore her potential to the fullest due to other responsibilities. This inheritance made me explore a lot of different mediums to express my artistic inclination in my childhood with my mother’s guidance. Interest in becoming a medical practitioner got into the way of developing this side of my nature. Studies, practice, family responsibilities played a vital part in keeping me away from trying my hand at art again. A huge gap of time and no practice at doodling took its toll on the confidence, which stopped me in my tracks to explore this dreamy side of me.
After nearly 20 yrs I retouched with this aspect of mine and discovered that with proper guidance I could explore myself. I started with attending art classes for trying out a lot of new colour mediums which I had not discovered due to my other activities. Indian inks, pencils, dry pastels, water colours were some of the mediums. Then I was introduced to this new medium which I had not seen at all.
I was attracted to this medium because of the vivid colours, and its ability to not strict me to fill up the boundaries but interpret the play of colours to my knowledge and understanding. The surreal and dreamy concepts just made me want to keep using this medium and discover the hidden aspects of this medium. When working with wax it became apparent that I was being tested to overcome my edges, respect the limitations of the medium and in due course learn more and more about this ancient art.
This ancient art of Encaustic means ‘Burning in’ was used by the Greeks to literally burn in the wax and the colours into the base to make them last for centuries. Their method of making these waxes also rendered the colours to retain its hue and bring out the permanency of the medium. Because these paints are of wax and are coated with wax the do not loose their shine and texture so appear to have frozen in time.
The present work is done with wax blocks with a heated tool to transfer the colours to the base of paper. The heated iron, the stylus, the hot air gun and the different attachments on the stylus have been used to create these pictures. The next level in encaustic art is using a hot plate to melt the wax colours and using the brush on wood as the base. This aspect of my life started as a hobby but has now taken me by a force to explore and cultivate itself into something more.
Experience and understanding of life and its meaning is depicted in this show. I present the abstract/ surreal kind of paintings from my view of life, nature and philosophy.