A two-part workshop with Francisco Benitez & Hazló
Details coming soon!
Join two contemporary masters of ancient techniques — Francisco Benitez (encaustic) and Hazló (fresco) — for an immersive workshop bridging art, history, and contemporary practice.
Participants will explore the origins of both mediums, from cave and temple walls to the luminous Fayum portraits, and learn traditional materials and processes that have endured for millennia. The workshop culminates in the creation of a personal work that fuses both fresco and encaustic — an encounter of fire, water, earth, and wax.
Rediscover painting at its origins — and bring ancient light into your own art.
FRESCO AND ENCAUSTIC : TWO OF THE WORLD’ OLDEST MEDIUMS
Francisco Benitez and Hazló are masters of two of the most ancient painting mediums the world has known. This two-part workshop will introduce students to these ancient mediums, culminating in a work which will fuse both. Fresco was developed in cave paintings which date to our earliest humanity, and encaustic was invented in Ancient Greece and Egypt millenia ago, culminating in the evocative Fayum portraits dating to the time of Christ.
Students will be immersed in these grand traditions of the past, to develop their own sensibilities and apply this knowledge to their contemporary artmaking practice. They will be shown the materials, techniques, and philosophies of each medium, and at the end, as ancient artists would do, create a work which integrates both encaustic and fresco.
Francisco Benitez is considered a leading master of the ancient encaustic technique, most notably that of the Fayum portraits. He has exhibited internationally, principally in the United States, the U.K., France, Sweden, Italy, and Spain. He has given master workshops at R&F Paints in New York, Patris Studios in Sacramento, in various venues in Santa Fe (where he lives part of the year), and most recently at the Harvard Art Museums during a recent exhibition of the Fayum portraits.
Hazló is a leading French master of fresco painting, who has been practicing for more than 20 years in Provence. Upon the founding of his company, Les Marbres Bleus, Hazló has completed many interior fresco projects in numerous chateaux and historic buildings, and also is a practicing contemporary artist who primarily focuses on abstraction, but also fuses figurative sensibilities into his work. He has shown for many years throughout France, and has a broad collector base in the region and in Europe.
Two artists, two ancient mediums, one conversation across millennia.
Francisco Benitez and Hazló bring together the timeless practices of encaustic and fresco, in a two-part workshop that invites participants to rediscover painting at its origins.
From the mineral pigments that once adorned cave walls to the luminous waxes of the Fayum portraits, these techniques trace humanity’s first encounters with color, light, and permanence. Students will journey through this lineage — learning not only the materials and methods of the ancients, but also the philosophy that animated their craft.
Under the guidance of these two masters, each participant will explore the living essence of both mediums, culminating in a final work that fuses fire and water, earth and lime, wax and pigment — as artists did thousands of years ago.
Francisco Benitez is internationally recognized as a foremost master of the encaustic technique, particularly that of the ancient Fayum portraits. His work has been shown across the United States, the U.K., France, Sweden, Italy, and Spain. He has taught masterclasses at R&F Paints in New York, Patris Studios in Sacramento, various venues in Santa Fe (where he resides part of the year), and most recently at the Harvard Art Museums, during their celebrated exhibition of the Fayum portraits.
Hazló, based in Provence, is one of France’s leading fresco artists, with more than two decades devoted to the medium. Through his atelier Les Marbres Bleus, he has created monumental frescoes in châteaux and historic buildings throughout France, while pursuing a contemporary practice that bridges abstraction and figuration. His work, collected widely in Europe, continues the lineage of fresco as a living art — ancient yet perpetually renewed.
Together, Benitez and Hazló open a dialogue between past and present — where history breathes, and ancient light finds new surfaces.