Small Paintings on Gold Leaf
01.20.2018 9:00 am
-12:30 pm
School of Visual Concepts
2300 7th Ave B, Seattle, WA 98121, USA
School of Visual Concepts
Event Details
In this workshop we will be exploring the subject of rain in the city through the beautiful combination of acrylic paint on gold leaf. It is a multi-step process that is both ancient and contemporary.
Gold leaf is gold that has been hammered into thin sheets by goldbeating. Since pure gold is an element, it can be compressed to nearly the atomic level without destroying its structure. This means it can literally be pounded in a layer so thin sunlight could pass through it.
Artists have been inspired by the light that gold can bring to their paintings. "Gold-ground" paintings was introduced in mosaics in Early Christian art, while Japanese screen paintings and kinpaku are some of the worlds most beautiful uses of gold leaf on a large scale. Gustav Klimt created some of the most famous paintings employing the use of gold leaf in the beginning of the 20th Century. But perhaps the most interesting and mysterious uses of gold leaf in painting was done by Rembrandt. He would apply gold leaf to the surface of a sheet of copper and paint on top of the entire surface only allowing glittering dots in areas that were thinly covered with paint to show through.
Our artist for this workshop, Fred Lisaius, paints works that represent his exploration of man’s relationship to each other, the natural world, and the universe. He loves the misty Pacific Northwest, where he feels “The mystery of existence is all around you. It’s a place where you can dream out loud”. Fred Lisaius received a B.F.A. with honors from the Rhode Island School of Design (Providence, R.I.) in 1981 and also studied at the Pratt Institute in New York. He has been a Northwest artist for over 20 years and his work can be found in numerous corporate and private collections throughout the United States.