In which a late bloomer explores art …
After a lifetime of avoiding visual arts, I find retirement is a prime opportunity to explore new creative outlets. My favorite artistic endeavor so far is burning fanciful images and abstract designs onto wood scraps and then embellishing them with color. Clicking on the first image will initiate a slide show, which will advance automatically after 10 seconds. Or you can click through it at your own pace.
I love your wood burning. Do you follow patterns or is this all freehand and your own imagination? Whatever it is, they look great. I bet you could sell those. I actually like your coasters too.
Thank you so much, Linda! I do everything freehand. Sometimes I draw it in pencil first and then trace with the woodburning tool, but I don’t use patterns or at least haven’t yet. I like making the coasters, too. Those are also my designs — I draw them on the computer, print in reverse and then transfer them to the tile.
I love seeing the incremental growth in the complexity and color of your art. Do you also just paint, or is that too simplistic for you? I would imagine that the entire process of doing the tracing, wood burning and then painting is a lot more fulfilling than painting on canvas, more tactile perhaps? At any rate, I really like it. A lot.
I’m so delighted you like it! I did try one piece where I painted a pallet without burning in the designs first, and I ended up throwing it away. For some reason, this is what I enjoy the most. Wood is an imperfect surface, sometimes the burning isn’t all that smooth, but that appeals to me. Somebody said, oh, you like to color inside the lines. I guess I do.
I will especially miss your art. It’s so unique!