“Gilding the Lilies” 24″ x 48″ oil and metal leaf on canvas – Version #1
Version #2
Version #3
I am learning something new with each oil and metal leaf painting I do, but the very effect that excites me the most about the technique also causes the most difficulty in photographing them. I love the way the painting surface changes in color as you move past the painting or change the lighting in the room. The paintings look totally different at night with the softer lighting than they do during daylight.
Recently it was necessary to photograph several of the paintings and my usual method of photographing them outside, hanging on the wall of the house with additional side photographic lights just didn’t work this time. Mostly, the problem was two weeks of Oregon rain and very little sunlight.
We decided to transform part of my studio and set up lights there in addition to the overhead studio lights. By using different combinations of colored tissue paper filters over the lights and several different exposure settings of the camera, we were able to get a fairly good number of images and I tried to select the one that represented the painting the best.
The images above illustrate just how different each type of lighting changes the appearance of the painting.
