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!