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Fred Wessel
"Striped Tulip" (2024) By Fred Wessel, Egg Tempera on Gold Leaf Painting

2024

$6,000
£4,609.58
€5,296.35
CA$8,439.74
A$9,481.67
CHF 4,954.19
MX$115,728.26
NOK 62,903.73
SEK 59,210.61
DKK 39,523.35

About the Item

Fred Wessel's "Striped Tulip" is a stunning egg tempera painting on gold leaf with garnet cabochons. Created in 2024, this piece features a freshly bloomed red and white striped tulip, resting alone in between the tulip grass. Juxtaposed over an ornate gold leaf design, earth-toned points adorn the shapes etched into the gold. This piece rests in a large dark wood decorative frame. About the artist: A two week trip that I took to Italy in 1984, had a profound and prolonged influence on my work. At that time I was involved in making a series of aquarium images. I went to Italy to view the art of the Renaissance, for it is my belief that all visual artists, especially realists, should experience and study this work firsthand. I could not have predicted the dramatic impact, both direct and indirect, that this journey of discovery would have on my ensuing work. I believe that in our search for novelty in post-modernist art making, we often lose touch with certain basics: beauty, grace, harmony and visual poetry are nowadays rarely considered important criteria in evaluating contemporary works of art. Since the Bauhaus, the term ‘precious’ has had a negative connotation in art schools. It was a term used derisively in the 1960’s to describe work that did not adhere to the fashionably pared down kernels of conceptualism or minimalism. But 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. I look to the early Renaissance as a source of inspiration that I can use along with contemporary content and image making. I look to the Renaissance as the artists of that time looked back to early Greek and Roman art—not as a reactionary but as one who rediscovers and reapplies important but forgotten visual stimuli.

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"Fritillaria Imperialis" (2023) By Fred Wessel, Egg Tempera/Gold Leaf Painting
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Fred Wessel's "Fritillaria Imperialis" is a stunning egg tempera painting on gold leaf. Created in 2023, this piece features a stem of Fritillaria Imperialis, resting in an ornate go...
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"Little Iris Icon" (2022) By Fred Wessel, Egg Tempera on Gold Leaf Painting
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Located in Denver, CO
Fred Wessel's "White Orchid" is a stunning egg tempera painting on gold leaf. Created in 2023, this piece features a blooming branch of white orchids, resting over a deep red backgro...
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2010s Realist Figurative Paintings

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"Jenni's Lily" (2021) By Fred Wessel, Egg Tempera on Gold Leaf Painting
By Fred Wessel
Located in Denver, CO
Fred Wessel's "Dahlia Icon" is a stunning egg tempera painting on gold leaf with coral cabochons. Created in 2021, this piece features a freshly bloomed stem of a white lily flower, ...
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"White Orchid" (2022) By Fred Wessel, Egg Tempera on Gold Leaf Painting
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Located in Denver, CO
Fred Wessel's "White Orchid" is a stunning egg tempera painting on gold leaf. Created in 2023, this piece features a blooming branch of white orchids, resting over a deep red backgro...
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"Pink Rose Icon" (2020) By Fred Wessel, Egg Tempera Painting on Gold Leaf
By Fred Wessel
Located in Denver, CO
Fred Wessel's "Pink Rose Icon" is a stunning egg tempera painting on gold leaf. Created in 2020, this piece features a beautiful single pink rose with a blooming bud, among its leave...
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2010s Realist Figurative Paintings

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"West Hartford Canna" (2022) By Fred Wessel, Egg Tempera Painting on Gold Leaf
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Located in Denver, CO
Fred Wessel's "West Hartford Canna" is a stunning egg tempera painting on gold leaf. Created in 2022, this piece features a beautiful single stem of an orange Canna Hybrida lily, among its large leaves and stem. Painted underneath is a Victorian stone...
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