Developmental - Dan Dietterich

How This Started

I got started on encaustics when I bought a painting by Dietlind Vander Schaff. I met Dietlind in a yoga teacher training at Kripalu. I followed her on Facebook, so became familiar with her style. In Spring of 2024, Catherine and I spent a few days in Portland, ME on a mini-vacation. We were wandering around waiting for our dinner reservation when we happened into the Portland Art Gallery. We walked in and I said, “Dietlind!” Catherine was thinking “WTF is a dietlind?” One of Dietlind’s distinctive pieces was the first thing I saw on entry. More than recognition, I responded in that emotional, intuitive, connecting way. I tried to purchase the painting, but it was already sold to someone else. 🙁

Once home, I got in touch with Dietlind and she invited us up to see her studio and look at some other paintings. It was a fun visit. What a cool studio! Nothing there grabbed me the way that painting in the gallery had. We left it that if she did more in that series, she would contact me to see if I was interested. That came to pass. Now it was my turn to reserve a painting! Catherine and I drove up to the gallery opening and decided to buy the piece. It hangs in our living room.

Several months later, I saw a Facebook post from Dietlind that a spot in her Maine Coast Encaustic Retreat had opened up. I made some comment like, “I should do that someday.” Catherine replied, “You should do that now.” I signed up. Let the record show that she bears some responsibility for all of this 🙂

The retreat was amazing! Dietlind is an excellent teacher. I took every free open studio slot I could. Playing with the wax, the torch, the colors – I was in a flow state. Hours felt like minutes. I was entranced.

After the retreat, I started setting up a studio in our attic. It took months to get going. The palette and venting took awhile. I was still working, so did not have much time to devote to encaustics. I retired in Spring of 2025 and am spending a lot more time in my little attic studio. I still have a lot to learn and refine in my technique. I have produced no masterpieces. Regardless, I now call myself an artist.

Developmental Works

I am put these images on the site as an archive of steps along the way. They are pretty much in time order.

Maine Coast Encaustic Retreat – 2024

Untitled – 6″ x 6″

MCER 2024

My first panel

Untitled – 8″ x 8″

MCER 2024

India ink on the gesso. Wax layers with embedded paper with India ink drawings. This was my introduction to collaging. You can put almost anything into the layers. My world exploded.

Untitled – 12″ x 12″

MCER 2024

Ink on joint compound. Someone else did the joint compound shaping. I did the wax on top of it.

Untitled – 12″ x 12″

MCER 2024

On this one, I made the joint compound base. It was my first time playing with metallic colors.

Untitled – 12″ x 12″

MCER 2024

Playing with making circles with drips. The big red arc is my first try etching and filling.

Untitled – 12″ x 12″

MCER 2024

This was a scratch panel that used for practicing several techniques: pan pastel, transfers from tracing paper, templates, and charcoal. It was my offering to the pendulum ceremony at the end of the retreat. Dietlind melts the waste wax from the studio (and adds some color so it isn’t just muck). The wax is in a metal cone that is attached to wires held on a frame. The stopper is removed and the cone set in motion. Everyone’s panel gets a section of the overall pattern.

2024 Pieces

Untitled – 12″ x 12″

2024

Improving my etching and filling technique.

Accidental Landscape – 6″ x 6″

2024

I was playing with thinned out red, trying to make a more transparent layer. I held the torch in the corner too long and it made a circular dent. Clearly a sun: I filled it with yellow. Then a desert landscape of sorts.

Untitled – 6″ x 6″

2024

Continuing my enchantment with collaging, I embedded layers of colored thread in a linear pattern. For the last layer, I let the thread fall more randomly. There are seven layers. The bottom one is no longer visible. I am still working on adding a thin layer of medium.

Lance – 6″ x 6″

2024

I made this as a present for my daughter. I worked from several photos of her horse. I used thread to lay in the bridle, reins, and mane.

Stained Glass 1 – 12″ x 12″

2024

My idea was to create some sense of depth by putting a lattice on top of layers of semi-transparent colors. I’m pretty competent now at the etching and filling.

Untitled – 8″ x 10″

2024

Playing with creating texture and design with embedded thread.

2025 Pieces

Yay! – about 4″ x 6″

2025

Playing with monoprint techniques I learned watching Elizabeth Schowachert’s workshop that kicked off the 2025 Painting with Fire.

Untitled 6″ x 6″

2025

Pan pastel background. Wax shapes. Then I used my needle tools to outline the shapes and make some other grooves. Filled the grooves with India ink. I had no intention to make art – just to practice the techniques. Still, it is kind of a fun piece.

California Coast – 12″ x 12″

2025

We saw some beautiful coastal scenes on our trip through Oregon and into California. I was trying to make a landscape. I used pan pastel for the sky and water background. I tried dry brush technique to give the rocks texture. I put one last layer of light pan pastel to give that foggy feel. And then I over-fused it, ruining the texture of the rocks. Afterwards, I bought myself a Blazer mini-torch. I have finer control with it, I think.