Adolf Bernd Influence

I have been completely immersed in putting together a group of pieces for an upcoming exhibit. All other things have been neglected and put on hold. But until I can come up for air, here is a piece of a set in progress. 

Happy Creating!

dry embossing (con't)

The previous blog entry chronicled the first step in a new piece called 'I AM'.  I was unsure how to add the complete phrase. I debated between writing the full quote underneath the embossed letters, or writing the remaining quote in ink incorporating the embossed letters, or repeating the entire quote in the full field of the background. The latter option was chosen. Then for added effect, one of the repeated phrases was highlighted using palladium gilding. 

Watercolor and a Mitchell nib was used for the main portion of the text. Gum ammoniac was used for the gilding. (Note: using ammoniac on paper is tricky and requires many layers because it gets absorbed into the paper.)

Life - gilding

This piece is on a 8"x24" canvas with a base of molding paste to create texture; then layers of acrylic to create depth of color. The text is gilded with 23kt patent gold over one layer of painter's gesso and one layer of instacol. I was inspired by the teaching of my pastor one Sunday on the Narrow Door that leads to life.

But small is the gate

and narrow the road that leads to LIFE, 

and only a few find it.

Matthew 7:14

I have come that they may have LIFE,

 and that they may have it more abundantly.

John 10:10

I pray you know the joy and peace that comes from the one and only Jesus Christ!

Happy Sunday!!!!!!!

Gilded Vellum

This work is 23k patent gold and palladium on vellum. Part of the lettering is raised gilding using painters gesso and instacol and part of the lettering is flat gilding using gum ammoniac. I am new to gilding and am experimenting as I go. The draft for this was created on arches textwove paper. (You can view it here and here.) The paper was okay to gild on but the vellum was a dream; plus I feel so official when working with vellum.

I have created this piece for the year long Reggie Ezell's Primitive to Modern Course. Reggie's class has been great to boost my creativity and to put new tools in my tool box. I have learned so much! In fact, next class is this weekend. So I am off to pack.

How do you know? Unless you try.

In the last post, I was debating whether I should try to cover up a mistake in the gilding by adding black to the piece of work. It had been suggested to me to make a high quality print of the piece and try the black on that first. I tried to do just that, but I found it very difficult to print out the gold to my liking. So, whereas, making a print is usually the best way to try something you are unsure of, in the case of gilding I found it did not work for me. Since this piece was started as a final 'draft', I decided to just go for it. Below is the result. It is definitely different from the previous version. And even though it is not bad, it is not the look I want for this piece. So my final will be as in the previous post, just gilding on vellum.

That's the great thing about art. Some things work, some don't, but you can always try again. Sometimes I get bogged down in the fear of messing up. Then I freeze and cannot create anything, instead of just trying.

Artistic decisions

I am in a dilema. The attached piece is completed as I had it in my mind. But there are a couple of mistakes with the gilding that I would really like to cover up. So I am debating adding a black border around the areas where the 'letters' are gilded. To tie that in so it doesn't look like I am just trying to hide something, I am thinking of filling in the 'letters' with black. There is a beautiful piece of work on Georgia Angelopoulos' website that has gilding with black and I love the look. (The work is at the bottom of the page.)

It has been suggested to me to make a copy of my piece on good matte paper and fill in to see if I like it. This I am going to do. But I wanted to get your opinion and see how you determine these things. What is your method for choosing the next step or deciding if the piece is complete?

Gilding on vellum

I can not believe how time flies. It has been over two weeks since the last post. March has been a most busy, productive and superb month. I love the spring!

This year I have the tremendous opportunity to participate in the year long Reggie Ezell class "Primitive to Modern". We had our second class of the year just this last weekend. Our goal was to work with and on vellum with different inks and also to learn to apply gilding. This is the first time for me to work with vellum and gold. We sanded our vellum to different degrees of doneness, we tested each area with sumi ink, gouache, and stick ink. My favorite on the vellum is the stick ink. Our homework from the previous class was to design and practice a small piece of text with a simple icon for gilding. After lots of practicing and testing on the vellum in class, we were ready to pen our quotes and apply the instacol for the gilding process. The process was enlightening and transforming.

I will refrain from getting too wordy now but will try to continue this topic in the future. Below is my piece from class.