Cowslip Carpet, Maidenhead Thicket

Description

Cowslip Carpet, Maidenhead Thicket Original Silk Painting and Limited Edition Prints

Maidenhead thicket is a large area of partly wooded common near Maidenhead in Berkshire. It’s a lovely area to walk you certainly would not believe that in the 17th and 18th centuries it was renowned as one of the most dangerous places in England. Highwaymen were known to hide in the dense undergrowth waiting to prey on unsuspecting travellers in coaches on the Bath Road (now the A4). Once a year areas on the common become a literal carpet of cowslips – such a beautiful sight.

My paintings are mainly painted on pure Chinese habotai 8 silk with specialist silk paints. I start each work with a drawing on paper and then trace the image onto a piece of white silk stretched onto a wooden frame. I then apply a special paint called gutta, which contains natural latex called gutta-percha, over my traced lines. This creates a resistive barrier through which the coloured ink will not flow. I apply the coloured ink with a brush and use salt dropped into the ink whilst wet to created textured effects.

The finished painting is removed from the wooden frame, ironed to fix the colour in the fabric and stretched onto acid-free mountboard ready for framing.

Visit my?YouTube Channel?to see how my paintings are created and click?here?to read a bit more about me.

A limited edition giclee print is printed on fine art 308gsm paper using archival inks and is signed by the artist. Only a limited number of reproductions will be made and each print is numbered on the front. Each print comes unmounted rolled in a tube. The following sizes are available: