Playing with fire

Canadian artist Steven Spazuk has used flames in his unconventional art —painting with fire — for 14 years. The fire artist uses flames to create art employing his technique called ‘fumage’. Steven says that the idea to paint using flames came to him in a dream, “I had a dream — I was in a gallery, looking at a black and white landscape, which had been done by fire and completely understood the technique, so the next morning I started to experiment. Over the last 15 years I have been developing and perfecting my soot painting technique. The creation process always has an element of random spontaneity and improvisation,” Steven shares.

After his first attempt, which resulted in a page burnt to a crisp, he became obsessed with perfecting the technique. From thereon, he started using candles, torches, knives, brushes and feathers to add a touch to his work, “The biggest challenge of painting with fire is guiding the flame and trying to make it leave the trace you want it to do. The second biggest challenge of painting with fire is preservation of the work. The soot is very fragile and sensitive to touch; I’m always holding my breath when working with a piece because anything that touches the surface will leave a trace,” he says.

The artist who has recently tied-up with Zippo lighters says that the work done for the brand is one of his best works so far, “I’m also really proud of the recent work I’ve done in with Zippo. For a fire artist it was a really natural fit to work with the brand! I’ve had the opportunity to try out some of the newer products. I like working with the candle lighter as I can control the intensity of the flame; it’s now a part of my toolbox,” he adds.

The trickiest part of the fumage technique is preserving the work once it is done, “To keep my work protected I have to spray varnish on it, which has to be extremely fine and applied at the perfect distance, angle and quantity. I use a super fine spray varnish, acid free, that I shoot at the right distance and at the right quantity. Always a clean new can to prevent spitting and varnishing with acid free varnish on archival paper, my work should live for a long amount time,” he signs off.