Civilizations throughout history have used charcoal for a variety of reasons, including artistic expression. Charcoal is a medium that dates as far back as the stone age, in cave paintings.

Merriam-Webster defines CHARCOAL as a “dark or black porous carbon prepared from vegetable or animal substances (as from wood) by charring in a kiln from which air is excluded”. I can’t imagine that cave people used kilns but what do I know.

A few years ago, a wicked windstorm toppled over a string of willow trees at my parents’ place, allowing me the opportunity to test out this age old pigment making process.

The thumb sized branches were stripped of their bark, placed in a tightly fitted tin with one hole at the top, and thrown in the fire to sizzle for 45 minutes. I doodled with the charred sticks for a bit. The remaining charcoal was ground to a fine powder and mulled together with gum Arabic to make watercolour paint.