How to: Syringe Painting

The tip of an art syringe is designed for extruding paint.

Painting with a syringe was a technique used frequently by Jackson Pollock and his Abstract Expressionist contemporaries. Artists have been using syringes to mix paint for decades, but the technique of actually painting with a syringe only emerged in the mid-1940s. The technique squeezes paint through the tip of the syringe, building up layers of thin strings of paint. Paintings made using this technique are three-dimensional. Large paintings should be done on artboard or wood instead of canvas to support the weight of the paint.

Things You'll Need

• Art syringes
• Impasto acrylic or oil paints

Instructions

1. Push the plunger into the syringe. Insert the tip into a thick, pasty impasto-consistency paint. Pull the plunger back to fill the syringe with paint.

2. Fill syringes with any colors of paint you plan to use.

3. Carefully press the plunger down on one of the syringes, extruding paint over your canvas, wood or artboard.

4. Select another color and apply paint in the same manner. Continue until the painting is complete. It is not necessary to allow the paint to dry between colors or layers.

Tips & Warnings

• Syringes can be discarded or can be cleaned and reused in the same way you would clean your paintbrushes.

References

• Francisco Quintanilla: Syringe Technique