Caring for your Encaustic painting is easy.
Encaustic painting created properly will mostly take care of itself.
Things to know..
Never have any painting in or around extreme heat or cold for that fact. Obviously extreme heat, anything over 200 degrees Fahrenheit or 90 degrees Celsius may melt encaustic wax medium. Encaustic painting do perfectly fine in your home or office. You don't have to worry in Egypt the temperature is 50 degrees so you need much higher temps to melt encaustic medium.
Keep encaustic paintings out of a hot parked car with the windows up.
If created properly the medium has a mixture of natural Damar resin added to raise the melting temperature.
Be sure to ask if Damar Resin is mixed into the wax some some artists don't. I don't know why not.
I would not hang any painting if direct sun shines on it. All paintings will fade if direct sun is shinning on it for an extended.
Naturally, the room should have good natural light if possible.
Don't drop any painting, all paintings may get damaged if dropped.
What is Bloom
Sometimes, the only thing that may affect an encaustic painting is something called "Bloom". This is a natural occurrence with some painting materials like bees wax and is perfectly harmless. It is actually part of the curing process. Bloom is a light haze that may appear
on the surface of the painting in the first year the wax is curing.
There is a very simple solution... all you have to do is wipe it off lightly with a soft lint free cloth. Depending on the painting surface some soft buffing can also be done and is recommended. After buffing a few time the painting will develop a beautiful high gloss finish that will last. You can wipe your painting about four times a year, this is also important for all exposed paintings to help keep dust off the surface.
This all helps to bring out the radiant shine and vibrancy of the colours that encaustic surfaces are known for.
Bloom is the same light haze that appears on a chocolate bar when there is a cold temperature change.
It is the natural unsaturated hydrocarbons that have migrated to the surface and forms a very fine haze. Adding damar resin to beeswax helps prevent blooming, Again this is perfectly natural and is actually good for the painting.
No glass is needed on the painting, if used you will not be able to see how light reacts on the surface of the painting and the beauty of the luminous layered wax that is unique to encaustic paintings.
Beeswax Encaustic is extremely archival, but take care not to scratch any painting.
Some encaustic paintings are thousands of years old.
