Fuse

Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A few weeks after Pliers, I painted a similar subject — a fuse, because it gave me metal and glass in one image. I wanted to practice different metal effects, so I gave the two end caps different finishes: one duller and matte, the other brighter and more reflective.

What I loved was how easily oil let me try out things. It is so much more forgiving than watercolor, where a misjudged stroke is often a misjudged stroke for good — with oil you can rework a passage, change your mind, and try a different technique right next to the last one, and the paint just goes along with it.

Pliers

Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This was my very first oil painting. I just wanted to learn the technique, so I went looking for an easy subject — a pair of pliers. I have no interest in tools; I chose this one purely because it looked easy to paint.

What did interest me was the contrast between subject and medium. Oil paint is soft and forgiving — you can blend it, push it around, take your time with it — and I wanted to see whether that same softness could still produce something as hard-edged and precise as a metal tool. Figuring out how to make paint look sharp turned out to be a much better lesson than I expected from such a modest subject. I had no idea at the time that I was about to get hooked.

Tools on Sascha Brawer

Fuse

Pliers