Fred Wessel

"Modesty" (2016) By Fred Wessel, Egg Tempera Painting on Gold Leaf

2016

Fred Wessel's "Iris (Revisted)" is a stunning egg tempera painting on gold leaf. Created in 2014, this piece depicts a young woman, looking inquisitively over her shoulder. The gold ...

Fred Wessel's "The Constellation Cancer" is a stunning egg tempera painting on gold leaf. Created in 2015, this piece depicts a young woman looking forward at the viewer mysteriously...

Fred Wessel's "The Constellation Delphinus" is an egg tempera painting with gold and silver leaf created in 2019 depicting a female with a gold leaf background. About the artist: ...

Fred Wessel's "The Constellation Crater" is a stunning egg tempera painting on gold leaf. Created in 2015, this piece depicts a young woman, holding a crystal chalice and sitting upr...

Andrada Trapnell's "Truth" is a captivating original artwork created in 2023. This piece measures 7.25 x 9.25 inches and features a masterful blend of oil paint and gold leaf on boar...

FREE SHIPPING AT CHECKOUT The Secret Keeper 40" x 30" oil gold metal leaf on canvas is a new painting by artist Honora Jacob. Also included in the images are two other paintings that were recently completed. Here is an article that goes into detail about her new series of paintings. How they’re dressed...

Virtue of Knowledge reexamines portraits of individuals throughout history to illustrate the premise that history flows into the present in an ever-changing state. And, with each new context, we view people and events through a contemporary lens specific to that moment. Virtue of Knowledge appropriates and contextualizes original portrait elements to create reinvented portraits using technique and patterning that brings a contemporary context and perspective to these historically inspired portraits STATEMENT History flows into the present in an ever-changing state. And, with each new context, we view people and events through a contemporary lens specific to that moment. My current body of work, Contemporary Histories, explores this phenomena by re-interpreting historical portraiture using a contemporary visual language. It is my intent to create a modern visual lens through which to view these individuals and their legacies, as they continue to flow into the present in ever-changing states. As a keen example of how history changes and morphs over time, I have selected portraits of women who chose an alternate path from the traditional ones prescribed in their times. Some of these individuals overtly stepped outside the traditional roles prescribed for women to realize their goals. Others astutely maneuvered within the social system they lived in to obtain their aspirations. Whether altruistic or nefarious, these women and their actions altered the future cultural landscape. Through a 21st century lens, we view them as women with minds of their own, who made choices to control their own lives and futures. Often, in stark contrast to how they were viewed and how their actions were recorded in their own times. For a modern visual language, a combination of fine and decorative arts has inspired my approach to this subject. Employing several formal contemporary tenets, most notably, rather than place the figure in a 3-dimensional space, as in the originals, the figures reside in flat graphic picture planes of damask designs, repetitive patterns or botanical grounds as modern settings for their modern legacies. These graphic backgrounds symbolize what was historically considered a woman’s proper domain, in particular, gardening and needle crafts, such as; quilting, embroidery and sewing. Formally, unlike the originals, I am working alla prima, rather than with a base grisaille and delicate layers of glazing. While, the patterned and botanical environments, along with gold leaf applications, contemporary compositions and color palettes are formally influenced by a spectrum of 19th - 21st century artists and artisans; from Gustav Klimt and the Wiener Werkstatte to Henri Rousseau, Tamara de Lempicka and Will Cotton. BIO Honora Jacob...

A self-portrait by Melissa Franklin Sanchez, emerges gracefully from the brass panel she paints upon. Frame Dimensions: 21.45 x 12.82 inches Artist Bio: Melissa Franklin Sanchez ...