The Gold Touch

Gustav Klimt, Croesus and Midas had one thing in common: gold. This shiny metal was sufficiently rare and pliant to ensure that it was a desirable material for decoration. Gold denotes status. Gold gives focus, attracts the eye to it. These qualities attracted me to try my hand out at using gold in my paintings.

This triptych is a festival of colour, bursts of pigment which evoke the bursts of colour in fireworks. Fireworks light up the sky. They are not alone. Fireworks paint the sky but then there is the majesty of the Milky Way. This swathe of stars is very visible in the night summer sky as are the shooting stars. They sparkle on the velvety blackness of the cosmos.

These were the thoughts which led me to create this artwork. Unusually for a watercolour, this is painted on canvas board treated roughly with grounding. The colours moved happily across the uneven terrain and met joyfully to create a pleasing ensemble. The gold leaf, reminiscent of the Milky Way weaves its way through the three panels. Truly, summer lovin' it!