Painting with a wooden match

A few weeks ago I received an email from an artist friend who was setting up a one day workshop with watercolorist Paul Allen Taylor. My friend included a description of a technique I had never heard of...painting with a matchstick and ink. There were examples of the artist's work. I was hooked.

It looked similar to my watercolor and ink sketches - and it looked like fun. Several of the artists I regularly paint with also signed up. It would be great to spend the day with them.

We began the workshop with introductions and a little of Paul's personal history with art. Then the technique... He 'whittles' the wooden match head (after breaking off the tip that you would normally light) into a point. The match is inserted into a special holder or a wooden dowel(a hole has been drilled to accommodate the match). You dip the whittled tip into a bottle of permanent ink and basically draw with it. Unlike an ink pen or marker, the ink line is less defined and more irregular. It's an interesting effect.

After demonstrating the matchstick technique, he showed us some of his earliest work. Yeah, like his high school paintings - really early work. The message here...we are all learning all the time. We were encouraged to be free and loose. There was no pressure to paint the 'perfect' painting, just learn a new skill.

Instead of trying to figure out what to paint, he offered us a barn scene. We were, after all, not trying to paint the perfect picture, we were just trying out the technique.

I did feel free...

It was fun to try something new. As I painted the barn scene, I really was just experimenting. The ink and the watercolor washes flowed.

It was one of the first times I have been to a workshop and ended up really liking what I painted! The style seemed to fit me and my mood that day. My painting could probably use a tweak here or there, but for now, it's enough!

Melting Crayons - another way...

Since I posted about the melting crayon experience with a couple of my grandchildren (a few weeks ago - see "A grand(children) time" 8/9/16), I have had a lot of comments from friends who want to do it, too. So I thought I would also post this - it's another way of looking at this technique.

We just returned from a visit to Vermont (ahhh, it's wonderfully cool there...), and a granddaughter there had her own ideas about trying this method.

Maizie is really interested in fish and wanted to to do an underwater scene. She picked out all the blues and purples and decided to take the paper off all the crayons. She also had the idea of making fish shapes out of painters' tape (it's the kind that is easily removed) - she taped the shapes onto her board. (She just used foam core for her project)

Then she used the hot glue gun and stuck all the crayons to the board. She put the board in the dirt driveway and leaned it against an old milk crate.

She started up the hairdryer...

...and the crayons began to melt. It wasn't long before the fish were completely covered with crayon, but if you look closely, you can still see a vague outline.

Once the crayons hardened, she carefully peeled off the taped fish. She needed a knife in a couple of places.

Voila! Fish revealed! We were both struck by the wonderful texture of the 'ocean' and the very interesting bottom edge that had been in the dirt. It wrapped itself forward and hardened that way.

As we used to say, "Try it, you'll like it!"