Instructor: Kelly Milukas
Tuesday - Thursday
June 2 - 3
10am - 4pm
2 sessions
What lies beneath the surface of a painting can profoundly influence everything that emerges above it.
Building on the success of our 2026 one-day workshop, this expanded two-day encaustic experience invites artists to explore the expressive possibilities of underpainting through experimentation, playful discovery, and intuitive composition.
Working with watercolor, inks, charcoal, and other compatible materials on Ampersand Encausticbord, we will investigate three approaches to establishing compelling foundations: earthy tonal palettes, nuanced chromatic grays, and vibrant complementary color relationships.
Discover how these underlying colors, values, textures, and spontaneous marks influence the luminosity, atmosphere, and visual complexity of subsequent encaustic layers.
Through transparent glazing, selective opacity, and expressive mark-making, we will explore how compositions emerge through an ongoing conversation between what lies beneath and what develops above. Participants will be encouraged to experiment, observe, respond, and embrace the unexpected.
All levels welcome. Some experience with encaustic helpful.
Kelly Milukas works and teaches in a variety of media, among them pastel, water-based & ink-based paints, and mixed-media-sculpture; with a particular love of creative encaustic and pastel fused together. In addition to private mentoring, retreats, and instruction in her seacoast New England studio, Kelly serves as Core Instructor for R&F Encaustics, Instructor for the International Encaustic Conference at Truro Center for the Arts in Massachusetts, and a Master Pastelist Instructor for the International Association of Pastel Societies in New Mexico, where she holds an International Pastel Masters Circle title. Kelly is an instructor, speaker, and art & science residency collaborator, an award-winning artist whose practice began as a sculptor and has expanded to multi-media painting including pastel and encaustic painting. Milukas’ solo exhibitions have been hosted at the Ronald Reagan International Forum, Washington, DC, the Museum at Palm Beach Photographic Centre, FL, and the Regenerative Medicine Forum in Berkeley, CA. Her artwork is in national museums, international private and corporate collections, and been visible at international art fairs such as Red Dot Miami, and Boston International Art Fairs. Her story and artwork have been featured in IAPS Globe 2021, ArtScope, Newport Life Magazine, Palm Beach Times, and The Pastel Journal, and in several books: “100 New England Artists”; ”Best of American Pastel Vol. 2”; “Artists Homes and Studios”, “A Woman’s Shed”; “The History of Little Compton, First Light: Sakonnet, 1660-1820”; and The Cortland Review. She’s served as a curator and juror, and her ability to communicate ideas has established her as a respected and sought-after instructor and speaker in, arts and science forums, universities, and corporate leadership programs. She is a juried artist member of the Salmagundi Club, NYC, the Connecticut Pastel Society & the RI Watercolor Society, she’s the founding President Emerita of the South Coast Artists, RI & MA, and a past President of the Providence Art Club, the 3rd oldest art club in the United States founded in 1880.