World’s First ‘Space-Painted’ Art Piece

By Anthea Quay, 10 Sep 2012

UK-based freelance media technician Josh Taylor created the world’s first ‘space-painted’ artwork at 100,810 feet in the air.

Taylor sent a blank canvas and tubes of paint to earth’s atmosphere using a large helium-filled weather balloon, and allowed Mother Nature to draw up some magic.

The contraption consisted of: a helium balloon; a blank canvas; four paint pots of yellow (sun), green (land), blue (sea) and brown (desert), with dripping paint tubes; a tracking device; a parachute; and a small GoPro HD camera.

As the device floated up into space, the paint dripped down from the tubes onto the canvas—to create the artwork.

After remaining airborne for 2 hours, when the balloon reached 100,810-feet, it popped—causing Taylor’s project to fall back down to earth.

“Following on from my last project, I wanted to do something even more challenging, and so JoshingTalk Space Art was born,” Taylor wrote as part of his video’s description. “Taking a voyage to near Space of over 100,810 feet and back in around 2 hours, Mother Nature was given the ingredients to fabricate an artistic creation.”

What do you think of the art piece?

Watch the video that tells the tale of the space-painted art piece: