Thurso art sale this Saturday includes examples of pyrography – the decorative skill of burning images into wood
The North Coast Art (NCA) group has a sale in Pentland Hotel this Saturday (May 21, 11am – 3pm) that includes an unusual form of decorative skill called pyrography.
Penny Irvine will be exhibiting examples of her pyrographic skills along with other NCA artists including Ian Pearson, Lisa Critchley, Euan Ferrier, Julie Dent (aka Mabs Andthemoon), Jan Pickering, Elizabeth Lay and Tatiana. Keith Tilley has a change of direction with his work saying: “I usually work in watercolour, and use drawings for collecting reference material. Recently, however, I have been looking at creating drawings as finished works.”
Penny Irvine will show examples of her pyrography or pyrogravure – the free handed art of decorating wood or other materials with burn marks using specialist tools.
She said: "I’ve been interested in pyrography for a long time and having a woodturner in the family has encouraged me to take the plunge and have a go.
"Our son Joshua of North Coast Woodturning agreed to collaborate with me on this project. He has come up with a design for shallow bowls in various sizes that work well for me to create art in. We use mainly sycamore and beech wood as they are light and show the burn marks well.
"Once Joshua has turned the bowl we look at the grain and consider what might look best, for example we had a beech bowl that had a very distinct grain that looked like water so I burned a fish into that one. I sketch the picture onto the bowl using a soft pencil then I use the pyrography tool to burn the complete piece."
Penny says there are various tips for the pyrography tool which allow her to do a lot of shading and detail on the picture in a very similar way to creating an ink drawing – a technique she is familiar with and utilised in her work for many years. "I think this is the reason I find it so enjoyable to create using pyrography and being able to work with our son in this way is also a pleasure."
Once she has completed the picture, Joshua then finishes the bowl using Danish oil and high gloss wax which brings out the grain and "enhances the picture beautifully".
Penny adds: "We hope to continue to collaborate and look forward to seeing what we can produce in the future." More information about this can be found on northcoastwoodturning.co.uk and pennyirvine.com
Visit the NCA show and see Penny's work along with the others at the Pentland Hotel in Thurso this Saturday from 11am – 3pm.
