Paintings of Italy
Venice is one of my favourite Italian cities because it’s full of interesting scenes, buildings and people to paint. The Gold House Venice has been developed form my studies of Venice and artists who have painted Venice. Every time I visit Venice, I come away with a sketchbook containing pages of inspiration to develop into studio paintings. So, over the last few years I’ve been exploring ways of bringing Gold Leaf into my watercolours and oils. My aim is to produce artwork that will change in different lighting conditions. My oil painting of Buckingham Palace from Green Park is a typical example.
Watercolour with Gold Leaf applied
This painting of Venice is a recent watercolour painting with 22 carat Gold Leaf. It combines my appreciation and love of the work of the artists John Singer Sargent and Edward Seago with my own sketchbook studies of Venice.
Initially, I wasn’t going to apply Gold Leaf to this simple watercolour painting. It started off as a watercolour demonstration for a painting class I was taking. In the lesson I was showing my students how to tackle an Edward Seago painting, however, after discussions and questions on how do you add Gold Leaf to a watercolour, I decided to show them!
How to apply Gold Leaf
The result is a rather unusual, almost decorative painting. I’ve aimed to capture some of the unique elements and distinctive characteristics of Venetian architecture. Beneath the Gold Leaf lies a terracotta base of acrylic paint that I had to apply for the Mixtion Size to stick to. Once it goes off after a couple of hours, you can lay the Gold Leaf into position. You can see from the two photographs, above and below, how the painting changes in different lighting conditions.
I hope to have the opportunity to develop this combination of watercolour and gold leaf by further experimentation.
Christmas Exhibition
The Gold House, Venice forms part of my Christmas Exhibition at my Studio and Gallery in Ponteland. So it comes already framed with non reflective glass. To find out more about the work I do in Italy and our Painting Holidays in Umbria, visit reedartholidays.com