Large Gold Oil Paintings, I think I have found the love of my life!
These really are such beautiful oil paintings embellished by real Gold leaf. I have used a mixture of Golds from 12ct up to 24ct to add tone and colour to the light in the large paintings. In places copper and silver have been used to add to the colour spread.
I always love to add light to the paintings and that is why I paint for the light and the love of light and colour. For years I added white and used a dark background to increase the effect of light on the canvas, to convey a sense of brightness.
Then two years ago I was in Courchevel 1850 and Megeve and I visited some of the very expensive art galleries in the french alps frequented by the flamboyant Russian clients. I fell in love in those galleries. They had a hue of gold and monied opulence which just seemed to hang in the air, so thick you could breathe it. It was tacky and it wasn’t over the top, it just glowed in a beautiful and reassuring way. It made you know it was there but it didn’t over power. Subtle beauty, but powerful.
I returned to my studio and invested in some gold leaf which I have looked at for over a year, and it was recently that I began to see how it would work in my paintings and i was inspired to use it to embellish my works.
The Gold leaf adds many new dimensions to the work. Its a metal instead of soft oil and canvas. It shines and reflects light and it forms different shapes to the brushes and knives I use. It can have soft edges, hard edges or just glistening speckles. There are different colours from white gold to pure 24ct gold.
What I love about it above the light is how it draws you in and reflects the light back. When you look at the painting from different angles and at different times of day it changes depending on how the light catches the gold. When the gold is bright the colours sit back a little and when the gold is reflecting less from another angle the colours come to the front more.
These are really special paintings and they do take a lot of time and thought to get them to work right so they are going to be a little more expensive. But compared to my trips around some of the more exclusive galleries of London Paris, South France and the Alps they are tremendously good value.
These new large oil paintings with gold leaf will officially go on sale on the web site towards December this year.
