Painting Mantras

You all know about the dilemma of “can’t do this until I do such and such!” This has been my mantra the last couple of weeks. I am itching to get to my Dutch project but first I must fulfill a couple of previously planned obligations. The first one was a painting/commission for a client. He specifically requested a landscape done on gold leaf on linen. Now, I have painted on canvas, wood, paper, copper, and other unusual substrates but never gold leaf. So this project entailed some research. My Mad Scientist part is happy again. After notifying the Gilders Society www.societyofgilders.org Natural Pigments www.naturalpigments.com I settled on a specific approach that calls for:

1. Hand priming the linen with rabbit skin glue and oil priming
2. Oil gilding
3. Then oil painting directly on top of the gold

This process ultimately went very smoothly without glitches. After allowing the surface to cure for some weeks, the painting was begun. I applied the medium entirely over the surface of the gold. While this was still wet the oil paint was applied directly “into the soup”. The scene is a golden red evening sky from our trip to Petrignano. Stashes of these beautiful Italian photos are waiting to be applied to canvas. This particular evening while at Fabrizio’s Castelfarneto the sun was setting over the distant hills. It was a perfect scene to paint on the gold leaf as the entire surface now has a glow unparalleled by any natural pigment. First project done!

Next, is a painting requested by a client from Texas. He found my paintings on my web site, called , and we made the arrangements for a commission piece. He asked for a floral with bright colors of primary nature. We have been in communication over the past weeks discussing color palette, composition, size, and so forth. After these decisions were made, the painting was started. This one is done on the usual primed linen.

First, a grisaille was set down using the technique shown in a previous entry on this BLOG for the painting titled “The Golden Age.” This process is done using paints in shades of gray directly atop the priming of the canvas. Essentially, the entire surface is painted using solely gray paint. This is a very old technique used for centuries, and you can understand the logic of using it. All the issues of composition, size, and placement are solved before you have to tackle the color. After letting this gray layer dry, I use the “into the soup” approach again and paint directly with the color. A few more days and this painting will be completed also.

Next! The Dutch!