The Encaustic Photo Artistry of Jill Skupin Burkholder

Plant in corner. New Orleans, LA. 2006. © Jill Skupin Burkholder

By Arthur H. Bleich

On the last day of January, 2014, a small, brown package arrived at the home of Jill Skupin Burkholder, a photo artist who lives in Palenville, NY, a tiny hamlet nestled at the base of the Catskill Mountains.

Inside the package rested a highly sophisticated HCO ScoutGuard trail camera, capable of capturing night photographs of wildlife and transmitting them to a remote iPhone for instant viewing. The images were also saved to a memory card in the camera at a higher resolution—about five megapixels.

Jill and her husband Dan unwrapped the camera and began testing it with their family pets. It worked perfectly. Soon after, they ventured into the woods and set the camera at its first site. It was the beginning of a project called Hidden Worlds.

AHB: You’ve been a renowned photographer and artist for more than 30 years. Your work sells for thousands, has been exhibited internationally, and is in the permanent collections of prominent museums. How did you come up with this idea? Photographing wildlife seems like an unexpected direction.

JSB: It’s good for artists to get out of their comfort zone now and then. The initial inspiration came when I discovered an app being used in England to track endangered species. Trail cameras were placed in different locations and fed images to the app, creating instant awareness and connection. I immediately wanted to observe my own surroundings.

Fox. Palenville, NY. 2014 © Jill Skupin Burkhold

AHB: So you applied for a grant to do this?

JSB: Yes. Once it was approved, I began working with hunters, hikers, and outdoor enthusiasts who knew where animals were active in the Catskills. The trail camera images were shared on a Facebook page called Hidden Catskills, documenting everything from setting up the camera to the final encaustic panels displayed in the exhibition.

AHB: The encaustic process coats artwork with wax. How do you use it?

JSB: After editing the image on the computer, it’s printed on Red River’s Polar Matte paper and mounted to a birch panel. I then enhance the image with charcoal and other materials such as pastels or graphite. Hot encaustic medium - beeswax - is layered on and fused with a heat gun. Additional layers are added until the piece reaches its finished state.

Tree. Killarney, Ireland. 2006. © Jill Skupin Burkholder

AHB: What materials do you use for this process?

JSB: You need an electric skillet and a heat gun. A darkroom isn’t required, but good ventilation is important. Encaustic work is essentially an image interpretation process that can be done on any tabletop.

AHB: Why have you chosen to use Red River paper for your work?

JSB: Most inkjet fine art papers don’t accept hot wax properly. If the wax doesn’t bond correctly, the final piece becomes unstable. Red River Paper was the first I found that consistently delivered reliable results.

AHB: How did you first get involved with photography?

JSB: My family always had a camera available. It was kept in a drawer in the kitchen, and all of us kids were encouraged to use it. That led to some very creative childhood photos—like dressing up my youngest brother as a giant.

The Stationmaster.  Dallas, TX. 2002. © Jill Skupin Burkholder

AHB: And then?

JSB: I didn’t originally see photography as a career. It wasn’t until my thirties that I encountered work that truly influenced me. Photographer Holly Roberts showed me that photography could move beyond realism and include layers of meaning.

Snowman. Tabor, Czech Republic. 1995 © Jill Skupin Burkholder

AHB: And after that epiphany?

JSB: I began attending classes through the community college system in Dallas, Texas. After taking all the basic photo classes, I took a course in Alternative Photography Techniques that excited me.

AHB: In what way?

JSB: I became aware of Dan Burkholder's early techniques to make digital negatives that could combine digital shooting with classic techniques. I began working with digital negatives and printing with the bromoil process, an early process that begins with a silver gelatin print, bleaches it, and takes it through a series of inkings using brushes and lithographic ink.

AHB: Which led, I assume to an interest in the encaustic process?

JSB: Yes. I took my first encaustic class in 2008 and quickly discovered there was a lack of information about how to combine wax and photography. The process offered endless possibilities from a painter's perspective but no one seemed to exalt the photographic image. The materials were so inviting and offered such seductive image enhancement possibilities that I began to explore the process on my own.

Ivy at Farmer’s Market Dallas, TX. 2001. © Jill Skupin Burkholder

AHB: We can't show what the end result looks on a two-dimensional computer screen so can you try to describe it?

JSB: Well, the surface of an encaustic piece has an almost skin-like quality that is captivating. As more layers are added, the details become subtle, and the translucent nature gives a dreamlike quality to the image. Encaustic methods are excellent for building mixed media pieces and layering images.

AHB: What kinds of imaging manipulations do you do prior to applying the wax?

JSB: On the trail camera work, often the image is inverted to a negative version of itself, and the composition might be altered by removing distractions or cropping. Then each image is hand-worked and interpreted to evoke the form of an apparition to give it an other-worldly look.

AHB: As if it were occurring in a parallel universe?

JSB: Well, scientists speak of parallel universes that exist in other dimensions but I see a closer, more accessible secret world. These “photo texts” from the animals are triggered by chance, creating random, intimate compositions, uniting the world of the seen with the unseen. We become joined for an instant through the mystical window of technology.

Deer. Palenville, NY. 2014. © Jill Skupin Burkholder

AHB: Speaking of technology, how do you feel about the combination of photography and traditional art?

JSB: Photography is the perfect expression of capturing reality, but seeing it in an artistic way. I think of my work as visual poetry, taking building blocks from normal life and reworking them to form ideas and new ways of thinking about the subjects.

AHB: We usually end with some advice to aspiring photographers or artists. Yours?

JSB: Be willing to play with your images and let your own message come through. After many hours of creatively entertaining yourself, you'll notice what you want to communicate with your personal work.

Resources

Visit Jill’s website to see more of her work.

Learn more about Red River Polar Matte paper.

Google: Encaustic Photo Process for tutorials and articles.

Find out about trail cameras.

Original Publication Date: June 30, 2019

Article Last updated: December 26, 2025

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