Watch: Creating Art Using Burning Gunpowder

Of all the delightfully wonderful things that can be done with gunpowder–and I’ve burned up my fair share of it over the years–this may be the best-looking of them all.

Artist Danny Shervin, a painter born and raised in Wyoming, has developed a knack for creating beautiful scenes by arranging grains of gun powder on wood or canvas and then setting them on fire.

Needless to say, arranging the powder is a tedious process. I wonder how many times a sudden sneeze has ruined a work in progress?

The video below shows the burn of a wildlife scene. As you can see, the powder doesn’t flash all at once, but instead burns slowly and steadily. Modern smokeless powder doesn’t go POOF. That’s what old-fashioned black powder does.

It’s beautiful, isn’t it? You can watch the process in the video below.

Visit the Paint With Gunpowder website to see more of his work.

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.