A Dedicated Australian Artist
Is Burning A New Image For An Age Old Art form!

Legend has it, that man has stolen fire from the gods and has
subsequently paid the high price for that transgression. But fire
has been gradually tamed and put to good use right through
human civilisations. Many human activities, have benefited
greatly from such applications, art was no exception.

Early societies’ of Egypt, South America, Africa and Australian
Aborigines as a far back as 4000 years, have used fire and
fire-heated tools to burn visible marks into wood or other
materials to create a distinctive decorative look and add
prominent features to various objects, this is quite evident from
the many artefacts on hand.

Today we know this as the art of pyrography.
 
During the 17th century, pyrography, was used principally for
decorating small items of wooden wares, using similar techniques
to that used in engraving silver and the like and to create similar
designs. The term “pokerwork” was later used to describe the same
process, which gained prominence in the 19th century as an artistic
craft as much as a practical way to decorate home-wares and
similar objects. The popularity of the craft in Australia during early
20th century continued to grow until the start of the World War II,
then it just waned as rapidly as it rose to prominence. 

Today, pyrography is gradually making a come back, thanks to
few dedicated Australian artists who are helping it regain its
former place as a craft and a fine art. One of these is the
Australian artist subject to our review this issue…

Sue Walters.

Sue is a self-taught artist living in Upwey, east of Melbourne,
Victoria. Although being involved in pyrography some seven
years only, her artwork displays great precision combined with
certain softness and delicacy that would normally takes much
longer to master. This can be readily seen, right through all
the wonderful works posted on her website, and the untrained
eye could be forgiven in thinking these were normal paintings,
for one wonders how a burning iron could produce such high
detail and realism. 

Starting from the traditional method of burning images on wood,
Sue has progressed to develop her own ground breaking
techniques, producing original fine art pyrography on artist
paper and incorporating watercolours, gouache or coloured
graphite pencil to enhance the medium further and create
depth and subtle unusual effects.

The website is peppered with her many works depicting wildlife,
landscape, native flora and fauna all echoing the love for the
Australian bush and environment, something that comes natural to
an artist like her that is blessed by living at the beautiful location
of the Dandenong Ranges in Victoria. You will also find lots of
quality information regarding the many aspects and techniques
of this craft in addition to various links to other pyrography
resources on the web.

On a technical note, the website is quite functional and easy to
navigate. It is logically laid out without any apparent problems that
could impede the visitors. One feature that I liked a lot was the
”visual diary” page, in which we can trace the progress of an artwork
from beginning to end; there we watch the picture taking form from
simple starting lines to quite a realistic image.

Sue asserts her continued commitment to raising the profile of the
medium, and I quote to you her own words;

“I am dedicated to the promotion and recognition of pyrography as
an art and master craft. To this end I extensively experiment in
creating new techniques to enhance realism and tonal monochrome
pyrography, along with fully investigating the use of colour”.

Such spirit of dedication can only be highly commended!

Please visit Sue Walter’s website at:

http://home.iprimus.com.au/suewalters/index.html

You will enjoy it, of that I am certain!