Intro to Funnscoop

So, what's a funnscoop?  Simple.  It's a painting tool I've developed over the last year or so which like so many inventions is the combination of two existing tools- in this case, a funnel and a scoop.  Thus, "Funnscoop."  Sure, it may be kind of a dumb name, but there are two parallel yet independent logics at work here.  The first I would think is fairly obvious: the name is simply the words "funnel" and "scoop" mashed together.  The second is that in my hubris I envision a future in which it's possible that there's a new school of painting based on my work in which case many of the tools involved will be those I'll have developed over the years.  One day, there might be an  obscure painting tool known as a "Burrell," and when that day comes to pass, I want it to be a more impressive innovation than the funnscoop is, as much as I love the thing.

The Funnel end, where the paint goes in.

The Scoop end, where the paint comes out.

The thing this tool does is allow me to mix many colours together simultaneously and create unique patterns when the paint begins to pool on the canvas.  This one was built using a plastic funnel from the hardware store, a scoop-shaped cardboard insert that came in one of a pair of boots I purchased last year, two wooden dowels and some plastic zip ties.  There are also some rubber bands I use to adjust the tension on the handle and some paint was used to seal the gap between the funnel and scoop components.

Below are some close-ups of a painting experiment I did some months ago.  The background texture was created by pouring a few colours of paint onto a pressboard and then gently manipulating them with a length of PVC pipe in much the same way one might use a rolling pin.  The patterns on top were then created by mixing paint in the funnscoop and then letting it drip very slowly over the surface.  This painting currently does not have a name and so I will not show the whole thing in this entry.

Hopefully it's obvious why I love this tool so much.  It's becoming a major player in my current experiments and I suspect it will remain so for quite some time.  Who knows?  Maybe one day in some bittersweet victory this tool will come to be known as a "Burrell."