This painting machine responds to light levels -- creating red splatters when the light is brighter, and yellow when the light is not so bright. The mechanism is designed to "whap" the screen to knock the paint onto the paper. If it is bright, the motor will hit one side of the screen, and when the light dims (the sun goes behind a cloud) it will reverse direction, go a bit further, then continue "whapping" the screen on the other side.

This machine responds to the level of the sunlight on our (very bright) porch. The machine is made with a 2-sided screen (shaped like a roof), with a motor that hits the screen with some weights attached to a dowel. If it is really really really bright, it hits the side of the "roof" coated with blue paint; if it is not too bright, it hits the yellow side. Here's the machine: The mechanism of the summer sun painter.

Drawing made with a simple spinner. During the workshop this spring, I worked with a spin art machine. This first drawing is made with watercolor, a very fine brush, and a spinner that spinned in one direction. I experimented with the speed of the motor a bit -- too slow, and it just didn't have enough power to turn the paper. Made with a spinner that goes forward and backward.