Smoke-Particle Photogram Drawing 008

Each piece begins as a watercolour drawing, then is exposed to rising smoke from a kerosene flame. The soot, or 300 year old particles, reaches the paper through a second, sacrificial drawing that has been cut out. This intermediary sheet is slowly destroyed in the process, leaving only its traces and shadows. Soot and combustion particles settle directly onto the watercolour and grow a smoky drawing over the colour beneath, a kind of particle photogram made not with light but with ancient fossil carbon. Some pieces carry small scorch or burn marks where the smoke briefly ignited the paper, a visible memory of the heat that formed them.

Materials and details

• Watercolour and smoke on Fabriano Acquarello, 200 g/m², 25% cotton, cold press (grana fina)

• Paper size 40 x 30 cm, vertical format

• Acid free, FSC certified, made in Italy

• Original work on paper, signed and dated