I’ve found a perfect way to get into the winter vibe and stay happy – gold leaf!
Here are my first paintings using some sheets of gold leaf gifted to me by the talented fibre artist Brenda Raspin.
I’m so enjoying the texture and glow and love, love, love the way that the gold changes in the light, so you effectively get a different painting as the day progresses.
I painted ‘In the Magical Garden’ to suit this beautiful very heavy antique oak frame. A horse and crow communicate over some dandelion clocks. In a way the frame inspired this series of paintings that followed…
Acrylic, pencil and gold leaf on board – 18 x 18 cm
‘An Unorthodox Icon’ is a small painting, that I thoroughly enjoyed painting. I love the rough textures contrasting with the gold leaf. Credit to artist and mathematician Neil Ghani for inspiring the title.
Painting the crow made me want to paint more with gold leaf so I decided on robins as a robin kept popping into my house last week. I found him inside five days in a row. So I have made 5 robin paintings to celebrate his explorations of my home. Robins are such tenacious and fearless birds and a wonderful symbol of winter and hope!
It is extremely cold here, with every branch and blade of grass white. Painting robins feels like a way to welcome and accept winter. I totally understand why artists return to old favourite Christmasy themes at this time of year. We need the symbolism! I’ve called these three robin paintings ‘Faith’, ‘Hope’and ‘Charity’! We all need faith, hope and charity, to be kind and fearless and to be brave and bring cheer, like the friendly little robin. The gold, a reminder of light and summers return.
Zen Robin Series –
Framed in a black frame, 30 x 25 cm £55 each
I will be exhibiting my Zen robin and other Unorthodox Icons at Biggar Museum Late Night Shopping Event on Thursday 28th November.
If you would like to purchase before then, please do get in touch.
Thanks for reading and remember to feed the birds.
Stay warm, it’s freezing here!
Love Kirsten x
