Fantastic Fire Place Mantle

Recently, a residential client of ours requested that we faux paint a cast resin fireplace mantle to resemble a lapis lazuli marble with an antiqued gilding.  I thought it was an interesting project to take a step by step look at. 

The first step was to provide a prime coat over the resin cast.  Typically, we like to use all purpose primers such as "B-I-N".

B-I-N is a good all purpose primer; fast drying, good "covering" of substrate, and you can paint oils or latex paints over it.

With decorative finishes, the priming and prep is often a critical step.  It's an opportunity for close examination of the substrate, and it's an opportunity to correct any defects that may mar the decorative finish work to come.

This is the piece of lapis lazuli marble that our client provided us to match to.

It's a beautiful stone.

The rich blues of lapis lazuli were a key element in the pigments that make Renaissance paintings such stunningly brilliant and glowing treasures, even hundreds of years after they were originally painted.

Using the lapis as a guide, we then provided a base coat of blue on the casting in areas that would end up being painted to match the lapis.

The areas left white are the areas that will be eventually gilded.

As the marbelizing is fairly loose, and will cross into the white areas, it is not critical that the blue prime coat be perfect.  Also, the gilding will cover areas where the blue strays.

In general, the plan for this piece was to gild all raised ornamentaion, and marbelize the inset areas.

All the artists at Silver Hill are multidisciplinary; they can paint photorealist paintings, renaissance oils, modern abstracts, and decorative finishes.

That said, Tom has a particular knack for decorative finishes that match natural materials such as marbles, stones, and woods.

Creating an imitative finish such as a marble is not a process of trying to laboriously paint each vein of stone.  It's very far from that, in fact.

What must be done is to capture the overall movement and rhythm of the stone in a loose

technique that allows for errors, and allows for unexpected results.

Both the brush and the rag push the paint around in a dynamic fashion that approximates the forces that pushed stone like liquid over thousands of years.

The artist must not get lost in the details of the process, but always hold the big picture in mind.

One of the particular complexities of marbelizing a piece such as this is that the marble isn't applied to just simple flat areas.
  The stone follows moldings and insets.

Being able to accurately visualize and apply the finish over 3 dimensional surfaces is a true art form that separates the dilletante from the master craftsmen.

Once the marbelizing is complete, and has had a day or so to fully cure, it's time for the next step; gilding.

Gilding is a two step process.  The first step is to apply "size" or glue, and the second step is to carefully apply the individual gold leaf sheets.

As the sizing can mar the marble finish, at this point it is important to tape off the finished areas.  We use 3M "safe release" artist masking tape almost exclusively.  It's specifically designed to insure that underlying finishes are not pulled off, or suffer from adhesive bonding on delicate surfaces.

The gilding is a natural complement to the lapis coloration. 

The warm colors of the gilding on the raised ornamentation come forward, emphasizing the relief, and also, their clarity and brilliance helps to make the marbelizing behind more convincing.

It's a lovely effect that almost makes the putti appear to be floating on a soft and gentle sea.

The completed fireplace is a successful work of art.  At this point, we shipped the piece to the client's residence where it was installed over a matching piece that was painted in the field.