A Focus on Education

"Daybreak", Encaustic, oil, 23 karat gold leaf on panel, 36 x 36 in

Dietlind Vander Schaaf

I met Darin Seim, R&F President, the first time I attended the International Encaustic Conference in Provincetown in 2012. I distinctly remember swooning over the array of encaustic paints and Pigment Sticks® at the R&F booth.

In 2017, when I took over the Maine Coast Encaustic Retreat from founder Kim Bernard, I reached out to R&F to see if they would donate some encaustic gesso or a few Pigment Sticks® that I could share with my students. I was connected to Heather Roberts who oversaw donations, and she asked me to put together a much bigger wish list of materials. When the box from R&F arrived, it reminded me of Christmas mornings as a child. It was so exciting to open it and see all that fresh beautiful paint.

As my teaching took off, Heather invited me to become one of eight Core Artist Instructors at R&F. This program came with a high level of materials support and enabled me to begin doing live encaustic and Pigment Sticks® demos for retailers. In 2018, Heather stepped down from her position, and I left my full-time job in development at Maine College of Art to begin working for R&F remotely from my home office in Portland.

100 ml Pigment Sticks R&F Handmade Paints

My role at R&F involves overseeing store demos, donations, and special projects, as well as managing R&F’s two working artists’ programs - Core and Tier. I truly love my job and feel that it is uniquely suited to me.

At R&F, I am part of a team of 17 employees, the majority of whom are artists. For example, Education and Studio Coordinator Sean Noonan and Production Manager Sean Sullivan are accomplished painters who work primarily with our Pigment Sticks® line. Others, such as myself and Sales Associate Allison Carroll work with our encaustic paint. Vincent Pidone in Post Production works with both.

100 ml Pigment Sticks R&F Handmade Paints

When I worked in fundraising, I often wished that I was on the other side of the equation, in a position to determine whom to support, and now I am. Each day I am in touch with teachers from all over the world, who are offering workshops to local artists.

R&F, founded in 1988 by Richard Frumess, is incredibly generous in terms of materials support for teaching artists. Indeed, under Richard and Darin’s leadership, the majority of our advertising budget is reallocated to put paint into the hands of instructors and their students.

Encaustic 104 ml R&F Handmade Paints

"Fleur V", Encaustic, oil, 23 karat gold leaf on panel 24 x 24 in

In addition to overseeing our donation program, I connect retailers who carry our materials with teaching artists in their region to build reciprocal relationships. I train artists to offer product demos at stores, which provide helpful information to customers and store employees, as well as expand the artists’ teaching network and enable students eager to learn techniques to discover upcoming workshops.

Beyond donations and demos, I take on special projects as needed. One of the very first projects I worked on with R&F was the development of a new website. Another favorite role I have at R&F is writing for our blog Unique Color. Currently, I am helping to build a more streamlined version of our website in German.

Ancient Gold encaustic R&F Handmade Paints

Malachite Green and Cadmium Red Light encaustic paint R&F Handmade Paints

With our workshop program on hold for the past year and a half, I partnered with my colleagues at R&F to expand our newsletter and blog with a focus on educational content and spotlighting artists who work and teach with our products. I created new demo videos for R&F’s YouTube channel and put together a free Virtual Summer Demo Series featuring our Core Artist Instructors. Darin and I have co-hosted three sessions of a livestream on YouTube called “Office Hours” that aims to tackle frequently asked questions related to our products in a more nuanced fashion.

All of these roles draw upon my years of teaching, my educational background, and my experience as a professional artist. It is a privilege to work for a company that makes such high-quality products by hand and is so deeply committed to supporting artists.

Alizarin Orange pigment stick on the mill R&F Handmade Paints

"Lucht II", Encaustic, graphite, oil, 23 karat gold leaf on panel 36 x 36 in

You can view Dietlind’s work at www.dietlindvanderschaaf.com www.instagram.com/ dietlindvanderschaaf

Dietlind Vander Schaaf

All rights reserved by the artist for the art work used in this article.

To learn more about R&F Handmade Paints and encaustic painting go to www.rfpaints.com www.youtube.com/user/rfpaints/videos