Contents
Page One:
Samuel K. Anderson
Michael Janson
A Second Ball Hughes Pyrograph
J. William Fosdick Bequeaths a Treasure
Page Two:
Pyros in the News
Sue Walters on Tagua Nuts and Her New Website
The Quintessential Trompe L'Oeil: Pyrography on
Money
David Wickenden: Fighting Fire with Fire
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Laughing Girl with
Jug |
Ghanaian Samuel K. Anderson's artistic talents were discovered in 1989 when he was still in school. Born in Mankessim Nkusukum in the Central Region of Ghana, Samuel graduated in Cape Coast there from St. Augustine's College in 1995.
Samuel recounts that he was greatly interested in charcoal drawing, painting, and sculpture while at school, but always wanted to come up with a new and difficult art form--one which other artists would not even think of or attempt doing. He says,
"So, by applying my charcoal drawing techniques, I started drawing with hot nails on wood (plywood)."
Samuel's style of pyrography evolved into what he came
to call "scorchism."
He defines scorchism as "a style of art that
involves parching or
slight surface burning...a style of
fire drawing."
Of his school days Samuel recounts that because of
"the uniqueness of my
paintings, collages, mosaics, charcoal drawings, and
especially my fire
drawing, I was the only one adjudged a four-time best
artist in my alma
mater since its establishment."
About his work today, he goes on to say, "I can
now draw with any
medium that produces fire on any wooden or burnable
material. I am
inspired mostly by what I witness and experience in my
immediate
environment. What I see makes an indelible mark on
me, which in turn is
reflected in my art works, especially life in and
around 'Akan' land."
|
Boats on the
Beach |
Every work Samuel does is his original design. A few
of his works are
abstract; however, almost all are a type he calls
naturalism that
depict "real life, facts with
idealization." Samuel's subject matter includes
land and
seascapes, portraits, and especially people engaging
in their day-to-day
activities. Through his art work, Samuel shares with
the viewer the
rich physical and cultural beauty that is Ghana and
Africa. His sensitive choice of subject matter,
strong compositions, skilled drawing, and artistic
sense of capturing the moment make for highly
effective pyrographic paintings.
Samuel earns his living from his pyro art. His first
outdoor exhibition
was held at the Golden Tulip Hotel, Accra, in November
1997. Other
places where he has exhibited since include the Raybow
International
Hotel, Takoradi, Novotel, Shangri-La, and Tulip Hotels
all in Accra,
plus the National Art Centre, the National Theatre,
and the Signature
and Artist Alliance Art Galleries in Accra in addition
to other art
expositions and trade fairs within Ghana. He is also
a registered
member of Artist Alliance, headed by Prof. Ablade
Oscar O. Glover based
at Nungua.
See more fine examples of work by this leading contemporary pyrographic artist of Ghana in the Samuel K. Anderson Salon in the E-Museum of Pyrographic Art.
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Spiral |
Russian pyrographic artist Michael Janson lives with his wife, 17-year-old son, 12-year-old daughter, three cats, and a newfoundland hound in St. Petersburg. He got his degree as a thermophysicist and works as a teacher of computer graphics. That last word is the keyword to the rest of this story.
Michael always liked graphics (pencil, pen, India ink). When he started experimenting with a pyro tool ten years ago, he says "everything went right." The result was so good that his works were purchased by an art shop. He started making plaques and boxes for tourists. In the summertime he taught children at camp.
Recently Michael has tried pyrography on paper (Bristol cardboard) as evidenced in the examples shown here. He says it was a gradual process without any outside influence (much like how he started pyrography in the first place). He compares pyrography on paper to etching and sees a number of opportunities for himself connected with pyrography that he is now exploring.
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Wood Abstract |
|
Uzor Pyro Tool |
Michael says that he woodburns as he would draw with a
pencil. He observes,
however, that
there are two important differences between pyrography
on paper and
traditional graphics techniques:
1) In monochrome pyrography, the colors of the lines
and shadows are
made by the paper itself so that uncolored pyrography
possesses a unique
color limitation--its color isn't the decision of the
artist but rather
the reaction of the material to the influence of the
tool.
2) Pyrography is 3-dimensional and consequently
depends on light;
therefore, achieving high quality illustrations of
pyrography on the
internet is "not an easy task."
In Michael's opinion, for both of the reasons above,
the sort of paper
he uses makes for a significant difference in the end
result. He says,
for example, that the color of the picture depends on
the paper.
Ultimately, he believes, "Really EVERYTHING
depends on it."
We, on the other hand, would like to give the artist a
little credit, too. The artistry in Michael's highly
imaginative abstract compositions draws the viewer in
to interpret the complexities and nuances to be found
there.
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Spiral of Crete |
Michael is just now beginning to gather images of his works for the internet. He does not yet have a website nor has he published his works prior to this article; however, he and his son are working together to make a bilingual (Russian-English) pyrography website, so I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot more of his very original and creative works in the near future.
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The Blind Beggar of
Gretna Green |
A year ago, I featured the first Ball Hughes' 1859 piece "Sleeping Knitting Girl" belonging to Lois Herna in a Woodcarvers Online Magazine article here. Recently, Michael Gildengorin sent me images of another piece by this artist, "The Blind Beggar of Gretna Green", shown above, and exhibited in greater detail in the E-Museum.
If you remember from that previous article, just as
with this one, we
knew the work was by Ball Hughes, since he had signed
and dated it. We
just weren't sure who Ball Hughes was. My research at
that time turned
up two possibilities--one Ball Hughes in England and
another in America,
a famous sculptor and engraver. The American one
seemed likelier; at
the same time I wondered if they could be one and the
same.
IAPA European Director Richard Withers conjectured
that the artist was
perhaps a copyist who used famous paintings as models
for his
pyrographs. He thought he had seen the "Sleeping
Knitting
Girl" as a painting somewhere but wasn't sure.
His observation
seemed well taken then and even more so when this
second example
appeared and seemed equally well done yet totally
different in look,
suggesting a different design source.
The answers to these questions and more were revealed
with the happy
discovery of the J. William Fosdick article that is
the subject of the
following segment.
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Decorative
Portrait of Louis XIV |
It was with enormous excitement that the Research
Department of the
E-Museum of Pyrographic Art unearthed a wonderful
treasure--an antique
book containing an illustrated article entitled "Burnt
Wood in Decoration: With Ancient and Modern
Examples," written
in 1896 by the famous pyrographer J. William Fosdick.
This article has
been published on the internet by Cornell
University in their
Making
of
America series.
As the title indicates, in his article Fosdick wrote
about and
illustrated not only 'modern' pyrography from his era
including his own
(all now, of course, more than 100 years old), but he
also wrote about and illustrated
then 'antique' works thereby adding significantly to
our documentation on much older works.
|
The Witches from
"MacBeth" |
Fosdick's article proved once more to be invaluable. As it turns out, Fosdick set the record straight on various questions raised with the discovery of the first two Ball Hughes works plus gave us another clue in the history of the medium itself when he wrote:
"The art first made its appearance in this country nearly fifty years ago, when Ball Hughes, the English sculptor, residing in Dorchester, Massachusetts, became well known as a burner of 'poker pictures.' As copies of old English and Italian masters, they possessed merit, being executed with marvelous deftness. They were not decorative, nor were they intended to be such."
It is surprising that Fosdick, being the recognized
and talented artist
that he was, would end the above paragraph with the
following personal
opinion: "Only recently has this medium been
used in decoration,
which is its only legitimate field."
It is
hard to imagine
that he wouldn't find a lively discussion among
artists today--or even
then--about that topic. At the very least, it seems
Ball Hughes more
than 35 years before most certainly disagreed.
It also seems an odd pronouncement considering
Fosdick's article itself
illustrated two 16th century pieces--both decorative:
"Panel
from Italian side-board. Owned by H. G. Watson."
and "Medieval
chest in burnt wood. English workmanship... Owned by
Henry Cabot Lodge."
|
The Witches from
"MacBeth," Detail |
Besides the two 16th century pieces just mentioned
above, there were four
pieces illustrated in Fosdick's article that are by
him (including the
one shown at the beginning of this segment), the piece
by Ball Hughes
(shown twice above), plus a work by A. F. S. Kirby and
another by
Aldam Heaton. These last two artists are presumably
Fosdick's contemporaries.
Keep in mind that since the article is over a hundred
years old, the
illustrations you are seeing are (unfortunately) NOT
from photographs of
the pyrographs but rather drawings of the pyrographs
for the purpose of
illustrating the article.
To view not a drawing but an actual image of a work by
Fosdick, you can
see his "Joan of Arc" at the Smithsonian's
website in their special
Treasures
To Go series. Some of Fosdick's works are in the
Smithsonian's
National Portrait Gallery collection in Washington
D.C.; however, that
institution's entire collection is either in storage
or touring at
present while the museum is under renovation.
Here again is the link to the J. William Fosdick
article "Burnt
Wood in Decoration: With Ancient and Modern
Examples," (pages
495 to 500) on the Cornell University website. Don't
miss it!
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Click
here for page two |
2001, all rights reserved, Kathleen M. Garvey Menéndez, all rights reserved.
