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Clare O’Neill

I'm Clare O'Neill. I’m a photographer and artist and I help artists all over the world turn their photographs into one-of-a-kind images that they love.

I was fascinated with encaustic the first time I saw an encaustic painting and immediately wanted to incorporate my photographs with this ancient wax-based medium. I knew nothing of the medium, the process, or if it would work with photographs. I just knew I had to give it a try. 

I experimented with mounting images to my substrate, printing on tissue paper and photo transfers. I found the magic of the tissue paper process gives me the most depth, texture and visual interest.     

My work is created by making slowly building up the surface with multiple layers—using bold brush strokes and playful drips to create backgrounds full of gesture, spontaneity, and motion. My work is large, so the photographs are printed on tissue paper in multiple pieces, and then carefully embedded into the layers of hot beeswax. 

I’ve spent the last 10 years teaching photo encaustic (both online and in-person), showing and selling my work. 

I believe wholeheartedly that learning artistic techniques is like learning to drive a manual transmission car. You need to master the nuance of using a clutch and shifting and this no doubt takes some practice. But once it becomes second nature, getting on the open road is what is exciting, reinvigorating, and magical. 

I’m most proud of teaching my students to go beyond the techniques, to hone their vision, make meaningful images, find their own artistic voice, and understand ‘why’ they are creating the work they create.

Website: clareoneill.com / yourartisticvoice.com / PhotoEncaustic.com

Facebook: facebook.com/ClareONeillPhotography

Instagram: @clare_oneill_artist

Classes with Clare O’Neill

Photography Best Practices for Encaustic

My mini-session will focus on best practices for photography and encaustics. There are 3 ways to incorporate photographs into encaustics; Mounting and image, embedding a non-traditional paper like tissue paper, and photo transfers. You'll get a better understanding of what images work best for photo encaustic each of these techniques, as well as what printers, inks, and papers to choose.

My longer presentation join me as I walk you through step-by-step my creative process of choosing an image from a photo shoot, manipulating the image, printing, and embedding tissue paper as I create a painting. Watch as I demonstrate my process and approach to painting a 30x30 image with multiple tissue paper prints. This is the first time I will be sharing my complete process from start to finish and will include techniques and tips to simplify creating a photo encaustic piece.