Available Art: Traditional Gold Leaf Paintings of Maine

The following pieces are done in  Japanese traditional Gold Leaf called kinpakku. In Japan, I lived in a small  fishing village and now live in one here in Downeast Maine. These pieces are a wedding of these two cultures that have shaped my life and my art.

Let me know if you would like to see a video – Because of the ground rocks its very hard to  photograph to show the sparkle. 

For a detailed explanation of how these are done and the materials used, click here.

The Process

First a fiber paper is stretch onto panels with seaweed or wheat paste glue. This makes the paper taught. 

After the paper is waterproofed, I gold leaf it. An under painting of sumi – pine pitch ink- is next. Then the palette is selected. The colors are ground rocks called i wa e no gu which have been ground to 16 different sizes. Some are quite large which causes facets that reflect light. The first rocks used by the Chinese in the 12th century were Lapis and Malachite and used on treated silk. When the Japanese discoverd gold mines in the 16th century, they adapted this method to gold surfaces. The these rocks are mixed with a binder called nikawa then water is added. This mixture is then floated onto the gold. The opaque whites are ground sea shells called gofhun. Originally ground pearls were used.  

Photographing gold leaf pictures to capture their full effect is impossible! Normally, to photograph art one needs to hold the camera parallel to the picture plane so there is no image distortion. However, with gold this means one is only recording the light bouncing off the gold washing out all color. Notice the color in this picture when the camera is help obliquely to the picture plane.

Longwood Gardens