Török Károlyné Miszori Marianna (szerk.): Virággal ékes. A népi bútorfestés hagyományai (Zalaegerszeg, 2012)

Az elsajátított technika és a visszatanítás mozzanatai

The acquired technique and the stages of learning

The masteiy of folk art furniture-painting cannot be compared with the learning methods of other craftsmanship. Manufacturing a single painted art work takes up much more timethan creating a straw, cane, or corn leaf based work of art, or even an everyday object. In the learning process is to be effective, it is important to set the goals, the best method of getting our aim across, is presenting the pupils with an already finished pieces of work, which is also used for demonstrating the necessarysteps in making the art work.

The participants of this course are masters, teachers and naturally interested pupils; future furniture painters. It is essential we use age sensitive methods even at the first step of the learning process. One thing will motivate the kindergarten learners and adults will evidently have different aspirations. The creative thinking, patience and the love of drawing has a major role in folk art furniturepainting.

The first step in folk furniture-painting has to be, without a shadow of a doubt, practicing drawing. Showingmotifs from premadehand drawnor copied samples is a good method. In this manner a double goal is achieved: familiarization with the world of motifs and practicing line drawing, which will later decorate the woodsurface in the shape of a flowers, tree of life or leaves.

The next step requires us to hand out wood chests (it is expedient to use a 15x15 cm for first time learners) made of spruce tree to pupils.Now for the fundamental moment; eveiy participant has to be aware that the tree, in such state, is not paintable, because the process of chiselling has to be done in order to create a perfectly smooth surface. The proper introduction of the chiselling equipment -emery paper or abrasive paper - and a demonstration of the chiselling techniques is required. A perfectly smooth surface needs to be achieved if we wish to begin coating.

The perfectly smooth surface is now ready for coating. To move on to the coating stage the pupils need to have a basic understanding of the paint, we should also mention o couple of words about the proper use of the brush. The coating can commence once we added and mixed water andadhesive with the powder paint and only after removing all clods from the mix can we apply it onto the surface of the wood using a wide brush.lt is essential that the master is not the only person mixing the paint, because everyone has to come to know the feeling of mixing andpaying attention to the density and ratio. The common coating colours for furniture-painting are; blue, green, brown, and in some circumstances black or even turulsárga, which is a darker more prominent shade of the ochre yellow colour.

During the process of coating we may show, that by placing the furniture on a higher object (e.g. glass) the painting of the wood chests' edges and sides becomes much easier. During the learning process we should focus their attention to using the appropriateamount of paint and the blend of colours. Now follows the first opportunity for pupils to display patience, as the surface which will be painted needs to becompletely dry. It is wise to use this time of waiting for practicing drawing motifs on a sheet of paper. Naturally, the furniture-painting needs to take place in a dry and worm place to reduce the time needed for drying. The drywood immediately shows any signs of inadequate application of paint, because the wood “sips” the paint in, which means that we may have to repeat the process of chiselling.

Because we require a perfectly smooth surface these steps: coating, chiselling, coating, may have to be done three times. Most likely this is the point where we are amazed at the time need for furniturepainting. It is possible that after many hours of hard work we will still be miles away from the finished product.

The next step involves the application of the pre-set motif onto the perfectly smooth wood chest covered with a gorgeous coating.The basic principle and the unwritten rule of folk furniture-painting is that the craft has to be loyal to the extant world of motifs.The motif, if on apainted fúrnitureor independently designed and drawn by a more competent creator, needs to exhibit some kind of an order.

It is the master's role to correct the hand drawn motifs, or in some cases re-draw or re-create the motif, as this is the only way the artform will be loyal to the motifs designed by our ancestors. The more gifted pupils will later be able to abandon the process of sketching, because after a lot of practice, they will be able to create the motifs using only the brush.

The next step is the coating of the motif. First the pupils need to be taught how to mix the yellow coating paint. The yellow colour is used because it is bodacious, the monochrome motif will be visible and it creates much nicer and bulgier surface. Once the pupils have completed coating the motif, the great majority abandons the further step as the painted furniture or block they are seeing is soeyeappealing to them.

The precise, clear-cut use of the brush has a major role at this stage.

Again, the object in question has to be left to dry, because a new layer of paint will soon be applied.

48