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Encaustic (Greek: ehkaio - I'm firing-on)  is a painting technique, which combines color pigment with hot wax and resin. This mixture of materials is applied in its semi-liquid form to the panel (or other support) as paint. Ancient encaustic artists used surgery instrument "Cautery" (Greek: kauterion) for painting.

Greek artists were painting with encaustic as long ago as the 5th century BCE. The Roman historian Pliny, who wrote in the 1st century CE, tells us it was being used for the painting of portraits and scenes of mythology on panels, for the coloring of marble and terra cotta, including on architecture, and for work on ivory (probably the tinting of incised lines).

Perhaps the best known of all encaustic work are the Fyum funeral portraits painted in the 1st through 3rd centuries CE by Greek painters in Egypt. A portrait of the deceased, painted either in the prime of life or after death, was placed over the person's mummy as a memorial. These are the only surviving encaustic works from ancient times.

Once applied to a surface, encaustic paint doesn't need any dry. Instead, it needs to cool. Because it cools in minutes, additional coats can be added almost immidiately. Once its surface has cooled, encaustic paint presents a permanent finish, and yet the painting can be revised and reworked at any time - whether seconds later or years later. It is a particularly durable paint, because wax is waterproof and over time can retain all the freshness of a newly finished work of art.
 
Its adhesiveness makes it an exellent collage medium that can be impregnated with a wide variety of other materials. The surface quality of encaustic paint can be left roughly textured, or given a matte, semi-gloss or glossy enamel-like finish.
 
The term "encaustic" can also refer to a painting made by this method.
 
Over centures, encaustic was overtaken by many other types of paint - including tempera, oil and acrylic paints - each of which was cheaper, faster and easier to work with. Artists experimented with encaustic in the 18th and 19th centuries, but it wasn't until the 20th century that its use has really revived. Only with the availability of portable electric heating devices for the melting of the wax has the use of encaustic become sufficiently accessible. Encaustic has become so versatile indeed that many contemporary painters consider it an attractive painting medium again. Modern painters who have used encaustic include Robert Delaunay, Antoine Persner, Diego Rivera, and Jasper Johns. But we still can't call encaustic common medium in our time. An artist needs a lot of patience to use it, but it's impossible to immitate the unique appearance of encaustic paintings by any cheaper and faster technique.