Anne Lee was introduced to encaustic by her artist friend and fellow Lexington resident Jennifer Goldfinger. Lee was intrigued by the process of creating rich, layered membranes by manipulating beeswax, resin, and pigment at various temperatures for applications in nearly every artistic style.

When author E. Ashley Rooney of Lexington approached her soon afterward to co-write a book on the subject, Lee eagerly accepted.

Released last month by Schiffer Publishing, “Encaustic Art in the Twenty-First Century’’ showcases contemporary examples of the art form. The 79 featured artists include Goldfinger, Tracy Spadafora of Westborough, and Sirarpi Heghinian-Walzer of Lexington.

Lee said she spent untold hours visiting galleries, museums, and artist studios to learn about the cross-disciplinary medium of encaustic, which ranges from painting to sculpture, assemblage, collage, and printmaking.

The eight chapters, which are organized by geographic region, explore the artists’ feelings about their work and the use of encaustic to express themselves and their environment.

“This medium has been around for 2,000 years, and yet artists are using it in completely new ways,’’ Lee said.

For more information, visit schifferbooks.com.

Cindy Cantrell can be reached at cindycantrell20@gmail. com.