back to blogGold is the colour of desire according to St Clair’s The Secret Lives of Colour.
Unusually this painting was deliberately created with the intention of turning it into cards. I started out in October with the aim of creating Christmas cards for friends and family. Life had a different idea though and time passed by and I missed that opportunity. So with a week or so off work at Christmas and needing to get back into the swing of painting I revisited this piece.
I had completely forgotten what colours formed the base layers only got a hint of what lay beneath when I poured some Gamsol (an odourless mineral spirit) on to try and reactivate the painting. It had been too long and not much paint was lifting but I could see a splattering of gold pigments.
I decided to take that further and started to experiment with more pigments. The pigments I used in this work include C Roberson Orange gold; L Cornelissen & Son Pearl Lustre Base Bronze powder Orange Gold and Rich pale gold.
Pigments create wonderful effects but they can be difficult to embed in your paintings without losing that wonderful splatter effect. I decided to pour Gamsol onto the painting to see a) what effects I could create and b) to see if it would help embed the pigment. It definitely created an almighty mess but also some wonderful effects which I then worked into with more oil and cold wax.
I really loved watching the metallic pigments gain a life of their own when they were picked up by the Gamsol. The gold used with dark tones reminded me of one of my favourite artists, Klimt.
Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907)
Once the painting was dry I did spray it with fixative to make sure the pigments stayed put but that wasn't enough so I also had to use Gamar varnish to fix it all in place.
Each card is mounted on some gorgeous Italian Fabriano watercolour paper (260gsm) and come with a matching Fabriano envelope (120gsm). They are 4.5" x 6.75" (114mm x 171mm).
Each one is an original oil and cold wax painting which you can send to someone special or why not have them framed for your wall. These are unique pieces so when they are gone... well they are gone!
Cards are blank inside for your own message.
All that glitters cards are £6 each plus postage and packaging.
