Encaustic Painting - A Workshop with Helen Dannelly

Saturday & Sunday, June 13 & 14, 2026 from 10 am - 4 pm

Location: Beatrice Wood Art Center, 8585 Ojai-Santa Paula Rd. (in Upper Ojai)

Cost: $300 (Members $275) – includes all materials and a communal vegetarian lunch.

Learn encaustic (molten beeswax) painting! This is a comprehensive class with everything you need to know to start painting with this versatile, luminous medium or to return to it if you've been away from it for a while. The instructor, Helen Dannelly will provide demonstrations and hands-on experience, with additional advanced techniques for those who may want a bit more. It’s all here!

Tips & Techniques covered:

A Brief History of Encaustic Safety Basic Tools Work Surfaces Fusing Color Mixing Techniques Paint Application/Layering Techniques Smooth Surface Manipulation

Texture Techniques Basic Scraping Adding Line Stenciling/Masks Basic Collage Incising/Mark-making Techniques Clean-up Storage Q&A

Helen Dannelly is an award-winning Chicago artist educator originally from California who has exhibited her work regularly for 30 years at galleries and museums all across the country as well as in Ireland. She is the curator at the Forshey Gallery in downtown Chicago. She studied Photo Realist painting with Bay Area Photo Realists Robert Bechtle and Richard McLean at San Francisco State and then sculpture at the University

of Minnesota. Co-Founder of Catalyst Art Lab, an artists’ membership community and online art school, Helen teaches encaustic painting and sculpture, wire and gut sculpture, in-depth color theory classes, abstract painting and more both online and in-person throughout the United States and Europe.  

Register here!