Monday, February 8, 2010

"The 'Mary' in Terry #2" with gold leaf

"The 'Mary' in Terry #2," 25 1/2" x 19 1/2", pastel and 24 kt. gold leaf on La Carte pastelboard


I have minor details to fill in at the bottom of the image, but here is another detail view

13 comments:

Debra Keirce said...

She's beautiful Mona...And welcome back online! Good luck with the snowstorm tomorrow! We got 3 feet on Sat., and we are supposed to get up to 20" tomorrow night. (We typically get 15" in a whole winter.) It's Snowmageddon here!

Karen Bruson said...

Mona,
Wow. This is gorgeous. You have such a gift.

Mona Diane Conner said...

Deb, Karen, thank you so much!

Edward Burton said...

Absolutely beautiful, Mona. Well done.

Tatiana said...

Gold leaf on La Carte?... Looks terrific, but I never would guess it is possible. May I ask "how" ?...

Mona Diane Conner said...

Thanks Ed and Tatiana. In answer to your question Tatiana, it wasn't a simple process, but I thought it worked out well:

Because La Carte pastel board has a grit surface of vegetable flake and cork painted on it, I needed to remove it from the background to have a smooth surface for gold-leafing. I made a vellum trace frisket of the portrait's silhouette which I loosely taped over the pastel portion to protect it. I used a brush, water, and paper towel to remove the water-soluble grit on the board, which left a smooth, hot-press surface underneath. After two coats of dark red acrylic gouache, I applied an oil-gilding size to position gold leaf on the background.

Tatiana said...

I can only say "WOW"! Idea about removing of "sanding surface" around already painted portrait!... You are one very brave woman, Mona! But if such a thing could be done for the future you can do it, probably immediately after you transferred your drawing, but didn't work your pastels in yet... Anyhow - very complicated process, I'm glad to see it worked out for you, I'm a big fan of this your work. It would be awful to see something happened to it. (Now I have an itch to try scratch some La Carte off and paint it with something "flat"!)
Thank You for all explanations. BTW, what kind of gold leaf you are using? I never had a chance to try a real thing, just a paints.

Mona Diane Conner said...

I did this after most of the pastel work partly because I didn't realize I wanted a gold background until that point in the painting. Pastel is a messy medium, so I'm not sure it would felt easier the other way around, and doing it this way kept a spontaneous quality in the pastel portion.

I was using Russian 24 kt. gold leaf.

artbyakiko said...

Absolutely beautiful, Mona!! Gold behind her head looks like a halo. I love it!

Mona Diane Conner said...

thanks Akiko!

Dean Grey said...

Ohhhhh!

This is stunning, Mona!

The colors are so rich yet still natural looking. And the gold leaf, well, that just steals the show!

I love it!

-Dean

L.Holm said...

In awe. I'm so glad Tatiana asked the question, because it's the first one that sprang to my mind: How on earth did you do this!! thanks for the explanation. It's an amazing result. She really pops off in relief. I also agree with Tatiana - you are a very brave woman with a very steady hand. Gorgeous, gorgeous portrait, Mona.

Mona Diane Conner said...

Dean and Liz, thank you!