In 2017 I received a commission to do a very large oil painting of the Angel of the North which you can read about in an earlier blog post. The Angel’s wings were coated with 22 carat gold leaf.
My client loves his painting of the Gateshead Angel. Once I’d hung it for him we discussed a second commission to go alongside, this time a Tyne Bridge Painting.
After bringing the Tyne Bridge Painting close to completion I decided to add a little extra gold leaf. A I also made a short video of the process which you can see on YouTube. First I applied some liquid size for the gold leaf to adhere to. The next stage is to place the gold leaf over the size once it’s gone off. It sticks straight away. As you can see in the video it also sticks where you don’t want it! I just have to carefully lift it off and put it where I want it to go.
Then with the backing paper over the gold leaf I can rub it down so that the bond becomes more secure.
As you will see, the video of the Tyne Bridge Painting is showing some of the smaller details of the painting process.
This is not the actual finished painting commission, it’s actually a much smaller preparation oil painting on canvas board 30″ x 20″.
The reason for doing a smaller preparation painting first is to make sure that everything is going to work out. You have to consider colour, composition and of course where on the painting to apply the gold leaf.
The Tyne Bridge Painting can be seen at my Studio & Gallery in Ponteland and online at www.alanreed.com.