Cold Wax for Beginners: Leveraging Color Workshop

Name: Cold Wax for Beginners: Leveraging Color Workshop
Start: 2026-02-27T13:00:00-05:00
End: 2026-02-27T16:00:00-05:00
Location: Purple Crayon

Schedule

Fri Feb 27 2026 at 01:00 pm to 04:00 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

Purple Crayon | Asheville, NC

Do you love the depth and luminosity of encaustic painting but don’t want to deal with the setup hot wax requires? If so, cold wax—which is related to, but also very different from, encaustic—may be your answer! In this exploratory, two-day workshop, mixed media artist Denby Dale will teach you how to build a layered, color-driven cold wax composition that emphasizes the opacity and transparency of this versatile medium, as well as how purposeful layering of colors affects and influences your work.
Day One will be all about hands-on learning! First, Denby will show you how to make colored wax by adding small amounts of oil paint to clear cold wax medium. Then, you’ll play with creating levels of opacity and transparency by applying clear and colored wax to different surfaces. Finally, you’ll experiment with using additive and subtractive techniques to add line, pattern, and mark making to your pieces.
On Day Two, after your initial wax layers have had time to dry, you’ll leverage your learnings from Day One and continue to build and refine your compositions. You’ll create your own piece using special masking tapes, stencils, and other tools to add hard lines and color shifts to your work, creating several dynamic abstract pieces.
You’ll leave the class with an assortment of small cold wax painting studies on various art papers and a finished 8”x10” cold wax painting on a 3/4" cradled panel.
If you've never worked with cold wax, this class will introduce you to one of the many ways the medium can be used. If you’ve had some experience with cold wax, this workshop is a great way to add to your knowledge base and explore new techniques.
No drawing or painting experience necessary!
For more information, visit the Purple Crayon website: www.purplecrayonavl.com/workshops.