But just what equipment did he use to drip, pour and throw his paint? I previously discussed what he painted with; now below I briefly run through some of the tools he used to dispense his paint.
Jackson Pollock created his drip paintings using a combination of hardened brushes, wooden sticks, syringes and other equipment; as well as applying paint directly from the tube or pouring it straight from the can β and occasionally even using his hands. He had mastered control of his different types of paint and media and their properties β developing an intuitive feel for the tool and motion required to achieve his desired effect with each layer of splattered or poured paint.
Pollock would harden conventional paintbrushes by allowing them to dry, uncleaned, in cans of paint; the oil, enamel and other elements of the paint would solidify and produce a rigid tool with which to fling paint from a firm tip. Sometimes brushes would even be left to dry and become solidified within entire cans of paint.
Pollock would frequently vary the speed at which the brush was moved β often starting slowly and then speeding up once he found his rhythm with a painting β which determined the thickness of the lines of paint produced on the canvas.
An alternative technique would see Pollock use a wooden stick with paint from a can being poured down one side of the side onto the canvas. He would also vary the speed and angle of the pour, so that sometimes it would produce a thin dribble of paint or sometimes a puddle on the canvas. He also used syringes to squirt paint and achieve a drastically different motion to his other methods. He would also pour paint directly from a can onto the canvas, or squeeze it directly from a tube in the case of his more viscous oil paints.
