03/18/2024
Cloisonné Frog $75.00, metallic pencil and gold acrylic on black paper, 8x12.
When I first started this frog, I had no idea which direction he was going to take, I just knew I wanted to do a frog. After laying him out on tracing paper and getting the image onto the black, I started laying down the yellow tone for his legs and underside and I was not happy with it, so I set him aside for a few hours and watched documentaries, took a nap and played some Monopoly Go on my phone.
Still unsure of the direction I would take on the frog itself, I started laying down the colors of the lily pad he is perched upon. Once I was satisfied with that, I moved back to the frog and stopped obsessing over making him perfect and just started working in the colors.
The following day, I finished the first layer of color and decided to deepen the tones, so I went back in and laid down a second layer. The only problem was that the lines of the original pencil outline shown through. While trying to decide how to camouflage this imperfection, inspiration struck. Cloisonné!
My older sister Jackie had gifted me a pair of Cloisonné earrings in high school and I wore them every chance I could. I loved those earrings and still mourn their loss 32 years later.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term “cloisonné”, it is an ancient technique for decorating metalwork objects with colored material held in place or separated by metal strips or wire, normally of gold. Hence, the gold outline. Not only do these lines help hide what I consider an ugly imperfection, they give the final piece a wow factor I never anticipated it having. It was tedious and time consuming and 100% worth all of the extra hours of outlining in small sections with a tiny brush.
Out of all of the pieces of artwork I have completed over the years, this is hands down the one I am most proud of. Three weeks worth of work very well spent 🐸💚