SIENESE ICON (3 TROPICAL FLOWERS) (THE TRINITY)
egg tempera, gold leaf, tiger eye, malachite and pearls on panel
Katie
tempera with gold leaf
+ 3 & artist's statement
Molleye
Egg tempera with oil glazes

Melancholia
tempera with gold leaf

Venezia
Egg tempera with oil glazes

"...after seeing the beauty, sensitivity, harmony—the ‘preciousness’—of Italian Renaissance painting—especially the early Renaissance work of artists such as Fra Angelico, Duccio and Simone Martini—I realize that, as artists, we may have abandoned too much. The ever–changing inner light that radiates from gold leaf used judiciously on the surface of a painting, and the use of pockets of rich, intense colors that illuminate the picture's surface impressed me deeply. It was ‘preciousness’ elevated to grand heights: semi–precious gems such as lapis lazuli, malachite, azurite, etc., were ground up, mixed with egg yolk and applied as paint pigments, producing dazzling, breathtaking colors! The surface of these colors forms a texture that sparkles and reflects light much like gold does, but in ways that are much more subtle than gold."(с)