My wife went with her aunt and uncle to a place where they display wood burning projects. This little gallery is surrounded by fields where they grow these gourds. People do all kinds of fancy art with wood burning tools and paint, turning the hollow, dried gourds into some really fantastic show pieces. The gallery sells not only the gourds they grow, but wood burning sets and paints as well.
My wife thought I might like to try wood burning, so she bought me a couple of gourds and a wood burning set…
I started playing around with the different burning heads on a pice of plywood, just doing random patterns. It isn’t as easy as it looked like it might be.
I have tried to explain numerous times in this blog that I am all art-side-of-the-brain. New art ideas tend to take over my life for brief, unfocused periods. And they branch out and spread in unexpected ways. I never learn how to do them the way people who might become successful do them. I don’t learn how to do new things. I teach myself how to do them by just playing around. I add unexpected elements and get sidetracked, leaving unfinished work strewn behind me like wreckage. My art may never be really great, but I like the fact that it ends up being totally unique.
I like the simple vine and leaf pattern on my first test piece, so I expanded on it… literally… using a much bigger piece of plywood… about 6 and a half inches by two feet… and this is what I ended up with…
I had to scan this three times and then stick the parts together in Photoshop. I think if you click on the picture, it will let you look at a larger version. But all I did was sketch some leaves and flowers and vines, a stump and some mushrooms, and then burn the outlines into the wood. Then I did a green watercolor background wash, and added some indistinct green shapes to give the background a little depth. Here are a couple of the closeup scans so you can, hopefully, see the detail a little better …
I painted most of the foreground with watercolors, but I added some of the thick t-shirt paint from my old art supplies, adding more little flowers and detail touches…
You can’t really see in these pictures how I burned in the outlines and some of the detail, but I sort of liked the way the piece came out. I am still working up the nerve to try working on the gourds my wife bought me, but I guess we will see how it turns out. Scanning a gourd my prove difficult, so I may have to photograph them like I did for my tikis.
I have been talking a lot lately about the directions my blog has been veering off in. Your comments have been very helpful… sort of… because I have come to realize that everybody wants to see something different. Some people like my stories. Some people like my drawings and paintings. And some of you even enjoy my crazy Photoshop forays. And what I have come to learn is that this blog is exactly like all the other art projects I have undertaken in my life. I have no control over it. It is going to go where it wants, when it wants, in the way that it wants. We are all just along for the ride, so to speak. It is what it is and it ain’t never going to be anything else.
And I am okay with that.
I leave you with one more picture I burned and painted onto a piece of plywood. I liked the vine and leaf motif so much, I did this little 9 and a half-inch by 4 inch piece…
And I threw in a little Mollie in the middle.
Pouring My Art Out 
I don’t care where your head is going. Or how you learn. Or which way your blog is going. Just keep doing anything creative. It’s all wonderful. And, thank you for sharing it all with us!
I am BOL… (blushing out loud)…
cool……i bought a magnifying glass to burn patterns on my boxes and a set of carving chisels but ive not gotten there yet……im busy with a monster huge toybox which is almost finished…ill post it shortly……all my arty farty project things are of the top of my head too with a trail of mess and destruction left behind……no one else has to like them as long as i do………
We sort of think alike.
yip…
Is that yip as in yipee or yip as in yipes?
as in yes…as in affermative….as in agreement.
I love the wood burning and watercolor combination. There is definitely a market for this.
Thanks. I just don’t know how much time I want to take from my other art to do that.
Brings back memories…we did thius wood burning stuff in junior school art class…It makes for an interesting method!! Looks great painted and colourful!!
Thank you. You must have had better art programs in school than we did.
Very nice. You do realize you’re a savant right? I’m going to be nice today. I left out the idiot part.
I will stop messing with you now that I know about your depression issues. Obviously you are a sensitive soul… you know our country is going through something of a depression as well?
I am very well aware about our country’s depression issues. I know we’re supposed to keep anonymous, but the United States is actually in the same support group as me.
This feels like a Trojan Horse plan of yours. I can handle your gentle ribbing. Just know I’m probably at home crying under a blanket.
Now I feel horrible. I have hurt your feelings. I didn’t even know you had feelings. You do such a good job covering them up. If I had feelings, I bet I would feel even worse.
Don’t feel bad, I use the same blanket I cry into to smother unsuspecting female joggers. I kind of deserve to be insulted.
You are creeping me out big time.
These are so creative–just the type of artwork that I love.
Thank you so much.
Love it all, but that flower under the mushrooms is the best. Looks like a butterfly. It’s all good, genius. Keep it up, whatever ‘IT’ is.
You must have looked at the picture very closely. I just figured out that you can zoom in on the picture after you click on it and make it bigger. I am such a computer moron.
iPad makes that easy. Take a picture of your nose and I can look clear up to your brain. Sorry. Forgot who I was talking to. Forget I said that!
I could get the electron microscope attachment… sigh…
Beautiful! It sounds like following your heart and your mind is the best way to pour your art out. No matter what, it is always interesting.
I can’t tell you what that means to me.
It doesn’t mean enough for you to pay me though, right? Sigh…
If I had any money I would have a computer that works.
Lol. You should set up a website and sell some of your art. People would buy the gourds and the tikis, and other things. You should make garden/patio decor stuff.
You know I don’t have the selling gene.
Me neither, but it isn’t right that our “art” will only be cool when we are dead. We are gifted damn it! I need a xanax…
That is why I am scanning and taking pictures of my art… so people can see what a gifted freak of nature I am.
Okay, good point. I’ll leave you alone now.
I don’t want you to leave me alone. Just respect the fact that I am never going to make anything of myself. I have accepted it. You can too.
You already have made something of yourself. You have documented your art, poured it into the world, created an awesome blog that your great grandkids will one day read through (in order of course). You have inspired PMAO. Encouraged me to do the right thing. Annoyed millions with your constant commenting. You have made a difference. You may not think you have made something of yourself, but you’ve made something of the people around you. You’ve made a legacy you can be proud of.
That is the sweetest thing anyone ever said to me. Thanks.
Do you have a dremel?
I have a dremel for the tikis…
GET THE ETCHING/ENGRAVING TOOL KIT! Sorry, I didn’t mean to shout…
So my crazy brain can branch off into 500 new directions and take more time from the few things I am actually making progress at?
Damn it PMAO answer me! Just teasing. Seriously, you take pics and write descriptions well of your art. I bet pouringmyartout domain is available. You could buy the domain, Put your blog on it, get art supply paid ads linked to it. Have a seperate products page. Get a dremel, etch glass, engrave metal stuff, paint/burn wood, carve wood, etc. pour your art into the world.
Ahhhh… are you actualy suggesting more art projects I could learn how to do? Did you even read the words?
You alreay know how. It is the same thing, just different materials. Engraving and etching are the same as wood burning. It would be fun and easy. I think you should make a wind chime too. I just was thinking of that yesterday. I don’t know what materials, I just kept thinking you and windchime. I am about to start a whole new thing and I think I am in making money mode.
I wouldn’t mid making money from my art. It has happened occasionaly. I am just not geared towards marketing.
Make a little cash, still write your blog, make your art, play with photoshop, etc.
And rule the world… don’t forget rule the world.
No, that’s my job. You can assist me with the ad campaign.
I have already been appointed ruler of the many univderses on both my blog and facebook… due to a groundswell of support coupled with very low voter turnout.
Dear pmao,
wOw.
I love them.
I REALLY love them.
Love Dotty xxx
Oh, you are just saying that.
Dear pmao,
No, I’m not.
Love Dotty xxx
I believe you.
I love both pieces. Your wife is WONDERFUL, thoughtful and sweet. You are so lucky. Will you put the big piece in your house? Really, what is the definition of great art? Great art moves people, your art makes people happy, thus it is great. HA!
I have the Mollie piece on top of the cabinet that holds our TV in the living room. I have the bigger flower one perched on my tread mill machine when it is folded up. This is also in the living room. It sort of softens the exercise machine into a giant frame.