The Collaborative International Dictionary
Encaustic \En*caus"tic\, a. [L. encausticus, Gr. ?, fr. ? to burn in; ? in + ? to burn: cf. F. encaustique. See Caustic, and cf. Ink.] (Fine Arts) Prepared by means of heat; burned in.
Encaustic painting (Fine Arts), painting by means of wax with which the colors are combined, and which is afterwards fused with hot irons, thus fixing the colors.
Encaustic tile (Fine Arts), an earthenware tile which has a decorative pattern and is not wholly of one color.
Wikipedia
Encaustic painting, also known as hot wax painting, involves using heated beeswax to which colored pigments are added. The liquid or paste is then applied to a surface—usually prepared wood, though canvas and other materials are often used. The simplest encaustic mixture can be made from adding pigments to beeswax, but there are several other recipes that can be used—some containing other types of waxes, damar resin, linseed oil, or other ingredients. Pure, powdered pigments can be used, though some mixtures use oil paints or other forms of pigment.
Metal tools and special brushes can be used to shape the paint before it cools, or heated metal tools can be used to manipulate the wax once it has cooled onto the surface. Today, tools such as heat lamps, heat guns, and other methods of applying heat allow artists to extend the amount of time they have to work with the material. Because wax is used as the pigment binder, encaustics can be sculpted as well as painted. Other materials can be encased or collaged into the surface, or layered, using the encaustic medium to stick them to the surface.
Usage examples of "encaustic painting".
He kept thinking of things she had said, of the intonations of her voice, of the blundering way she poured tea, and of her pale-brown eyes wide open on the world, like the eyes of a woman in an encaustic painting from a tomb in the Fayoum.
So that as he looked out of the window at the long curves of the telegraph wires that seemed to rise and fall as they glided past, he could imagine her face, with its large, pale brown eyes and its small mouth and broad smooth forehead, suddenly stilled into the encaustic painting on the mummy case of some Alexandrian girl.