For more than half a century now, the Woodstock School of Art has been the go-to place in our neck of the woods to take courses in a wide variety of visual arts media. Want to learn to draw, to work with charcoal or pastels, to paint in oils, watercolor or gouache? They’ve got you covered. More interested in multimedia, collage, paper arts? You can study those as well. Printmaking is a whole area of specialization at WSA; whether you want to try your hand at silkscreen, etching, woodcuts, linocuts, monoprints, lithography…at some point, someone with expertise in that area will be offering a class. There are even sculpture classes in clay and ceramics, though you might need to look elsewhere if you want to carve big blocks of marble or assemble piles of steel I-beams.
So, what hot new medium has been missing, and longed-for by WSA students? Encaustic painting, that’s what — and for good reason: The manufacturer at the forefront of the recent revival of the two-millennia-old medium, R&F Handmade Paints, is headquartered in Midtown Kingston. That was where you went, if you wanted to take a class with an expert in encaustic techniques. R&F had a classroom set up specifically for the logistics of melting wax mixed with vivid pigments and using it to paint. There was simply no point in trying to set up a competing program, if you were only situated a few miles away.
All that has suddenly changed. Beginning sometime in the spring of 2024, WSA is going to have an encaustics studio, with R&F’s blessing. WSA executive director Nina Doyle explains: “Our partners at R&F were offering classes for years, but in the future, they’re going to be using the classroom for additional space for production, because their products are very much in demand. In the fall, they made the announcement that they would no longer be offering the workshops. So, we contacted them right away to talk about taking them over. We’ve already met with them four or five times. They’ve provided their expertise in this… It is a new medium for us.”
WSA already had a couple of regular instructors in place who have offered classes in cold wax techniques in the past, and who have used the R&F facilities to learn and to teach encaustics, according to Doyle: Regina Quinn and Joan Ffolliott. What was missing to make the transition was the physical setup needed to keep wax at a melting temperature at each workstation, and to ensure that the fumes thus created are “properly vented.” Space wasn’t a problem, given the timing of R&F’s decision. “We’ve just added a studio addition to Studio Five, and it’s perfect for this,” Doyle enthuses.
The only thing holding WSA back from announcing a schedule of encaustics classes or workshops at this point is the time it’s taking to renovate the studio. “Each workstation needs a metal palette, about 16-by-16 inches. Underneath it is a heating source. R&F makes the blocks of wax, and you chip off a little piece of the block and melt it on the palette. We’re working with HVAC technicians to modify the ventilation system. There’s also a heating gun provided at each workstation,” explains Doyle. “This is an ongoing investment for the school, to outfit the studio.”
The director seems quite confident that this investment will pay off, since many longtime students have expressed interest in learning to work with encaustics. “This is going to be a very popular program. Our plans have gotten a lot of praise from existing students, as well as encouragement from people who are interested to take a course for the first time. Our announcement of the new program was one of our highest-engaged social media posts of the year,” she says.
What’s the lure of painting with hot wax? “The flexibility of the medium is very appealing to artists, as well as the thought of exploring a new medium,” says Doyle. “People who draw or paint or do printing or do sculpture can incorporate encaustics into their process.”
Doyle recommends that prospective students who want an alert when encaustics classes commence should sign up for the mailing list on the WSA website’s homepage at https://woodstockschoolofart.org, where they can also learn about other course offerings. Ongoing classes typically are scheduled in 12 four-week sessions per year, and workshops typically run from one to four days. You can also make inquiries by phone at (845) 679-2388 or by e-mail at info@woodstockschoolofart.org.
What’s Doyle’s best guess as to when encaustics courses at WSA will launch? “I’m hopeful that we can begin classes in March or April,” she says. “It’s an exciting way to start the New Year.”
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