Tag Archives: gilding

I have a singing tree in my front yard.  Actually, right next to the house.

Oh, it’s not belting out O Sole Mio or anything like the latest rap.  It’s more of a gentle, low key humming, singing really.  The first time I heard it was when I was walking around the yard on a windy day.  I kept looking around to see if anyone was there.  It took me a while to realize that the sound was coming from a tree.  The twisted branches were rubbing against each other, creating a sound. 

Our house, like so many older homes in this part of the midwest, is surrounded by yard trees.  These were planted decades ago to provide shade to houses in the heat of the summer, long before air conditioning.  The trees nearest the house are all maples, mostly black or sugar maples.  (Lovely colors in autumn.) Although we’ve lost some of the trees over the years, there are still enough to provide some shade.

Last spring I took a photography course.  I was mostly interested in learning how to use the features of my cameras.  Didn’t need much help with composition.  One of our weekly assignments was to get out and film nature.  The Singing Tree was one of my entries.  After some computer manipulation, I did a very striking black and white, almost abstract.  I was going to paint is as such, but then reverted to a muted impressionistic painting with added sterling silver gilding. I even added a maple leaf motif to the edges of the painting, in sterling silver, of course.

The whole painting has been sprayed with clear acrylic which prevents the sterling silver from tarnishing.  Adding the gilding adds several more steps to the actual painting which slows the whole process.