As we wound down a final year in Reggie‘s Primitive to Modern
calligraphy class in San Diego California, I wanted to do a project
with lots of gilding.
I had been doodling an idea for a
painting, originally planned for a large canvas, that featured our
two dogs in kind of a formal setting between two topiaries. This
became the inspiration for this piece. While searching for my
original sketches, I was listening to Pandora when the song Lemon
Tree by Peter Paul and Mary came on. It was a familiar tune from my
childhood, and I knew that it was with this piece needed.
Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet
But the
fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat.
I would do the
lyrics in calligraphy and feature the dogs and the lemon tree. After
some doodling, I settled on the two tree format. Next came the
calligraphy. We had just spent the weekend studying the Codex Aureus
(and watching Donald Jackson in the Illuminator again!), so I
decided to do two trees and two dogs on a base in the style of the
codex. |
Posing the dogs for a reference photo proved to be the
work’s biggest hurdle. One was up, the other was down. Both dogs
were down, no dogs were up. One was looking to the left, one was
licking herself. Finally, with the promise of cold cuts, both dogs
sat at attention and the picture was snapped.
Working on
Pergamenata paper given to me by Maria Helena, the dogs and trees
were rendered in Windsor and Newton watercolors and gouache, the
gilding was done using loose leaf gold, Moongold, and Palladium. I
ran into trouble getting the Palladium to stick to the gesso base;
it took a couple of tries. I definitely need to practice using this
material. I had great fun working on this piece. Reggie asked me to
do a write up on it, so I have had nearly a year to think about my
study with him. I look back on that years experience as one of the
most joyful in my life. I love our Gilded Girls and Reggie, and I
learned more than I ever thought possible!
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