Wood has long been a medium for artistic expression - inspiring beautiful carvings, inlay work and woodburnt designs. Woodburning has added beauty to many ordinary objects such as plates, bowls and boxes, but usually these designs did not incorporate the natural characteristics of the wood. Here there is potential for unlimited creativity.
Wood as a Medium for Artistic Expression
As an artist, I have worked in various media, including charcoal, ink and watercolour. Then one day I was in a hobby shop, searching for a gift, when I noticed a woodburning kit, complete with a soldering iron, pieces of wood and patterns to burn onto the pieces provided. I didn't need someone else's patterns, but the concept immediately caught my interest. I had always loved wood but was a painter, not a carver. Why not try using wood as the "canvas" for my sketches and paintings?
Wood Color and Tone
I started to experiment with different types of wood. I was looking for a pale wood to provide the contrast between light and dark and all the degrees of shading in between. Like Rembrandt's famous paintings, I wanted the contrast between light and shadow to bring life to the work.
Many types of wood were simply too dark. Poplar, fir, maple and ash were readily available and fit the criterion. My first efforts, using fir, showed how much a strong woodgrain affects the final design. If the grain is too pronounced, as it is with fir, it overwhelms the subject.
Oak has a beautiful grain that lends itself well to landscapes but it is rather dark and doesn't provide enough contrast. I tried poplar - a nice light coloured wood with almost no visible grain. This worked well for contrast and was suitable for any subject since the grain did not contribute but I felt that one of the beautiful things about working with wood was to use the grain.
Working with the Grain
I started working with ash - a wood with a swirling, muted grain like oak but much lighter in color. I went to the lumberyard to select pieces of ash plywood that had a grain that suggested the elements in the wilderness landscapes that are my favourite subject.
The whorls of the woodgrain became the rapids in 3' x 5' piece that featured the Cracking Stone rapids by Uranium City and another large work on Otter Rapids, both in northern Saskatchewan, Canada. More open woodgrain at the top of the piece became the sky - suggesting clouds and a hint of sunrise.
Adding Color
The clouds and sunrise needed something more to truly evoke the mood of this amazing Canadian wilderness scene. Hints of color blended with the woodgrain added depth to the scene and enhanced the contrast between light and dark. I tried using pastels and watercolors for this, but finally settled on conte pencils which added a strong full color that could be blended into other elements of the picture.
Bringing together your imagination, the natural characteristics of the wood and the ambience of color makes woodburning a new and exciting medium for the artist.
Angelika Ortlepp - Angelika is a professional engineer specializing in renewable energy, passive solar design and technical writing.
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