30 years holding the torch.

'Pyro-technique' or pyro-technical drawing is what I called this method

which seemed a suitably eloquent and qualified title for drawing with a

blow-torch on a timber panel.

      

In the early years that followed I would often scratch, score and cut into

the blank timber surface with a sharp pointed instrument in quick and 

random arm gestures. Thoughtless, assertive scoring across the board

surface, often changing hands frequently or turning the panel direction

in order to boost the dynamic.

I did this to momentarily shock myself away from rational thinking; to

break through the surface and evoke perceptive senses. Then I would 

light the hand held cylinder blow-torch and start drawing in a randomly

selected area of the panel. Before to long the scratch marks began to make

sense in the landscape of my mind. My actions completely absorbed and

guided by the will of this new work to see it's expression realised, as if it

had a mind of it's own. I would to try finish a work in one session.

At some point I began using kitchen utensils as templates to forge shapes

and effects. This developed into fashioning shapes from wire and cutting

stencils from thin metal sheet.

In 1986 I became a 'Supervisor' of students at the Wellington Arts Centre.

That's another story.