Encaustic (wax), on Japanese mulberry paper. This is an encaustic monoprint - made by drawing on a hot metal plate with encaustic wax crayons. After I finished I realised it reminded me of Kathe Kollwitz's haunting image of a woman. As a monotype I can make a number of similar prints.
I'm interested in man's impact on nature so my themes range from the sublime - nuclear explosions - to polar bears and ice. My work explores the beauty and the fragility of our planet and how we are now pushing the species that share our world to extinction.
I like to work with wax - Encaustic - coloured with oil or dry pigments. This allows me to use the unpredictability of heat which becomes part of the image. Wax is both translucent and luminous and one of the oldest surviving media.
I have also been making encaustic monotypes: these can be created either using a stencil or working freehand.
See more work by Tina at http://www.espaciogallery.com/tina-viljoen.html