Thursday, April 30, 2009

I Hate Gold Leaf


Have I mentioned how much I hate doing gold leafing? Well, in small amounts it's not to bad, but this has a HUGE area of it and it was a real pain to do. This is a scroll blank done based on an illumination from the Aberdeen Bestiary http://www.abdn.ac.uk/bestiary/bestiary.hti . The funny thing is I found the picture someplace online and focused on the archer. It turns out, now that I found the source of the illumination, the archer isn't even mentioned, it's all about the magpies in the tree. Anyway, this is 8 1/2 x 11, Acrylic and gold leaf on velum (the animal skin not the paper). Picture 33.

3 comments:

  1. i love the birds and the tree, the archer is second best to the beauty of that tree i think.

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  2. And I love gilding. I suppose it comes down to being a Noldo for me ... they got exiled for their love of teh shiny after all. So I like playing with it too. :) Okay, enough Tolkien geekery ...

    I saw your question on the S&I list and wondered about the illumination but was at work and so try not to surf around too much and ruin my reputation as a good little bureaucrat. It was worth the wait--this piece is gorgeous! I'd love to see it in person; I'm sure the leafing is just spectacular.

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  3. That one magpie there is about to get a hell of a surprise. and the tree is wonderful. well it is all good but we know i am an acanthus fan and it looks acanthus. What area of the world is this from. it has a flair of Persian to it.

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