ALCHEMY

I’ve always loved the effect of gold/brass/silver/copper leaf and the slow and steady process of applying it – gilding – either to my art, to furniture, picture frames, or, for my latest project, a life sized ram.

The Eye Sheep Art Trail, organised by The Blossom Charity, based in Eye, Suffolk, had asked 24 artists and creatives to paint a ram each in preparation for an auction to sell them off in aid of their charity and I was lucky to be one of those asked. I had two ideas in mind and put both to Coes Ipswich who sponsored my ram, and we settled on my Plan B sketch which was inspired by the images of Tutankhamun’s golden mask.

After two coats of Jackson’s black acrylic paint I then started the slow process of painting on the size (old English name for glue) with brush and waiting for it to cure before laying on the leaf.

I had decided to follow the contours of the body of the ram, which was made from fibre glass, and to lay sections of wool-shaped leaf over his body.

  All the Rams were then placed around Eye and more details can be found here about the Eye Sheep Art Trail along with drone footage and photos of all the sheep and the artists involved. Each of the artists got to chose a name for their ram and early on in the project I chose the name Alchemy. Here he is below before he was delivered for his final coat of lacquer.

Find out more about Alchemy here

The Blossom Charity will host an auction of art, to sell each of the sheep from the art trail to raise money for the charity.  The event, sponsored by Imaginative Traveller