Painting with light is an old time technique to light large areas,like large backyards,caves,inside house with a single flash or continuous light.Also this technique used on still life objects using a spot or penlight

All you need are:

Camera with B(bulb)mode or AV
tripod
flash or spot or penlight(depend on what you want to light)or different size and colour bulbs.
remote control (not necessary)

The basic premise of" painting with light" is just that,walk around and manually fire your flash until you have the whole subject painted with light.

Put the camera on a tripod, set at the f/stop you want for your depth of field,focus and then turn your camera on manual,then turn on the bulb mode and push the remote control to open the shutter painting with the light around,close the shutter after you have finished your painting.Look at the LCD and if you don't like the result start again,every photo would be unique and as you have the camera on the tripod,the photos you would take, you could edit them on photoshop playing with the layers for better results.

Ensure that you dont stand between the area which you are lighting and your camera ;)

Here an example of still life
http://www.megapixelworld.com/photography/showphoto.php?photo=1258&cat=500&ppuser=3