“Rescued II” by Olga Krimon, 15″x15″, oil on Belgian linen with 22K gold and silver leaf

The Allure of Gold Leaf

 

 

Fascinated by the radiant shimmer of gold leaf in Olga Krimon’s innovative oil paintings, we knew we had to learn more about her artistic process. Olga masterfully combines traditional oil painting techniques with bold experimentation and creates works that seamlessly blend classic craftsmanship with modern sensibilities.

One of her signature elements is the luminous brilliance of gold leaf, which she skillfully incorporates into her mixed media creations. We had the privilege of sitting down with Olga to discuss her creative process, to gain insights into using gold leaf, and to discover how artists can embrace mixed media techniques to elevate their work.

 

Get to Know Olga Krimon

For those who might not know about Olga’s background, she is a Ukranian born artist whose evocative figure paintings have received wide acclaim in exhibitions across the U.S.A.  Born in Odessa, Olga Krimon received an academic art education in Kazan, Russia where she was largely influenced by Repin, Serov, Brullov, Levitan, Kramskoy, Fechin and other Russian titans. She then discovered Sargent, Zorn, Sorolla and Cecilia Beaux and the inherent movement and bold brushstrokes in their pieces. Over time, she developed her own style grounded in fundamental principles of academic realism, sensitivity to subtle value and color transitions, and yet bold energy of movement and expressive brushstrokes.

She continued to grow and develop her skills later in America, through drawing classes with Glen Orbik and painting classes with Jeremy Lipking. Olga continues to refine her craft through independent studies and daily practice. Olga’s Figurative and Still Life Paintings have been recognized with awards by the Portrait Society of America, Oil Painters of America and Art Renewal Center International Salon Competition.

“Summer Fairytale” by Olga Krimon, oil with gold and silver leaf

The First Glimpse of Gold

WIF: Your work with gold leaf is captivating. Could you share the moment or experience that first inspired you to explore this material? Was there a particular piece or artist that sparked your interest?

 

Olga: Thank you very much.  The gold and silver leaf works are fairly recent, as it took a lot of experimentation and learning to become comfortable with this new material.  I wanted to make sure I was doing it right, and that the works would be archival and last generations. I saw many beautiful examples of leafed works such as Russian icons and Renaissance works in museums.  I worked on copper panels for many years, and that was the closest I ever came to combining metal and paint in a single piece.  But I didn’t think of incorporating the leaf into the oil paintings until I discovered the works of Brad Kunkle a decade or so ago.  He achieves such a beautiful surface, and he incorporates different karat gold and silver all in one piece.  In a way he “paints” with the leaf.  

 

We all have that urge to experiment and dig into new supplies.  Some interesting discoveries happen.  Having wondered for several years how artists like Brad Kunkle combine paint and leaf, I just found myself thinking too much about it.  It had to happen some day.  I am not planning to apply gold leaf to all of my paintings – I may only continue to experiment with a handful – but these projects lead to more ideas and more doors open as we try new materials.  You just never know where it leads you. 

WIF: Did you have any mentors or teachers who guided you in mastering the art of working with gold leaf? How did their influence shape your approach?

Olga: I then took a workshop with Brad Knuckle, and it helped a lot to see his process from start to finish and to learn the specific sizing and varnishing options that he trusted for so many years.  I also researched the techniques online and read a couple of reference books on the topic.   I experimented with the imitation leaf first, but now I work with genuine gold and silver and there is really nothing like the real thing.  I also occasionally use copper leaf.


Brad showed how to achieve the edge control and how to marry oil with leafing.  For example, he showed the way to manipulate the edges while the leaf is still fairly wet (an hour or two after it has been applied, but not quite settled yet).  The edge control is crucial to this process, as just the leaf alone without this manipulation will result in too strong of an edge.  This is important for those areas where the leaf meets the oil. 

“Seer” by Brad Kunkle, Oil, gold, and silver on linen panel. 19 x 27 inches.

WIF: For those of us curious about incorporating gold leaf into our own paintings, could you shed some light on its accessibility? Is it considered a costly material, and where would you recommend sourcing it?

Olga: There are many good resources for purchasing gold and silver leaf.  I recommend the real leaf, not the imitation leaf, as I feel that the results are dramatically different.  Maybe a small order of 18K, 22K (my most used gold leaf) and 24K, even just a couple of pieces, and a book of genuine silver leaf would be the best starting pack.  That way you can see the color difference of each gold leaf.   Gold is quite expensive, silver is less expensive, and imitation leaf is the cheapest.  To learn the techniques about sizing (special leafing glue) and applying the leaf I would start with inexpensive imitation leaf, but keep in mind that they are thicker and easier to apply.  Once you move to the genuine leaf, especially to gold, the leaf becomes so thin it can literally be affected by my breath.  It’s that thin.    

ONLY buy transfer leaf.  Each leaf in the book will have a thin white paper that makes it so easy to pick up and apply.  Non-transfer leaf will not have this option, which is fine for thicker imitation leaf when you are learning, but it is almost impossible for me to use it with a thin genuine leaf.

I purchase my leaf through LA Gold Leaf Company.   I purchase the sizing from Natural Pigments, and they also have a nice collection of leaf available.  If you plan to add leaf to drawings/watercolors, then there are other water-based sizes available (it is a type of a glue that the leaf is then applied to), but I only use leaf for oil paintings so I use the oil-based size.  This particular size dries faster so the process time is shortened.

“The difference between the matte quality of the metal and the soft beauty of oil strokes is mesmerizing, and I will continue to experiment with these techniques.”

 

-Olga Krimon

 

Emiliano Marini

“Tondo Peonies in Silver and Gold” By Olga Krimon, oil with 22K gold and silver leaf on Belgian linen, 30×30 inches

WIF: Could you walk us through the process of applying gold leaf to your work? At what stage do you incorporate it—do you wait for the painting to be completely dry, or does it depend on the piece? Do you plan its placement in advance, or is it a more intuitive decision as the work evolves?

Olga: I want to preface that there are only several works that I wanted to use the leaf for.  I don’t ever want to use leafing for its own sake.  It has to go with the idea of the painting.  It has to be a piece where the matte shine of the leaf is needed to contrast beautifully with the texture of the oil.  

You have to have a flat solid surface – a stretched canvas would not do as it will eventually affect the leaf.  A smooth panel or a very smooth linen glued to a panel is required.  I start a painting as I would usually start, with a thinned paint or a light charcoal drawing (if the latter, I usually spray a VERY small amount of fixative to prevent smearing).  The painting needs to be planned out well, because I need to know exactly where the leafed areas would be.  I am also prepared to leaf those areas more than once.  I may go with the silver leaf for larger areas early in the process.  But then as I paint with oils I may accidentally touch those areas and affect the shine.  

“Dream” by Olga Krimon, oil with gold, silver and copper leaf on panel

Olga: The process is hard to explain in writing, but in summary it requires an application of the size, waiting for it to settle to a point when it’s slightly tacky but NOT wet, then applying the leaf.  Then attending to the edges, cleaning the lines and scraping or moving the areas where I want the softer edge (this is done within the first several hours).  The piece has to rest at least overnight.  I gently clean up the leaf with a very soft brush to make sure there are no air bubbles.  If silver leaf was applied then it needs to be sealed very quickly.  I can’t wait for the painting to be varnished to seal it as silver will start to change too quickly.  So I use a mixture of shellac and alcohol to softly sponge a thin layer of it onto silver (per Brad’s instruction).  This is not needed if you are using gold as it doesn’t oxidize as rapidly as silver and can wait until you varnish.   

WIF: Is it advisable to paint of the gold leaf after it is applied? 

Olga: Avoid painting on leaf.  I’ve done bits of that occasionally, but I am more comfortable separating the leafed and the painted areas.  That’s the hardest thing for me to do and this is why these paintings take so much planning and precision.  It can be quite frustrating, as I am used to working on the whole painting at once and want to be free with my strokes.  Sometimes I apply thin gold lines over the oil, as I don’t know of any other way to achieve these lines (I first use a very thin brush to apply the size).  Usually the oil passages near those lines have to be repainted as I can’t control the edges of the leaf as well in those areas.  But I am still experimenting with it.

“The Bond” Olga Krimon

The Delicate Finesse Required 

WIF: Any warnings about what could go wrong?

Olga: If you reapply the leaf or apply the leaf when you already have some painted areas, you have to make sure the whole piece is completely dry.  That’s my other frustration, as this work requires so much patience.  Otherwise, the leaf will get stuck to anything wet and it will become a mess.  Not only do you want to have the whole painting completely dry, but you also want to cover those areas with some chalk to secure them.  It’s sometimes a tedious process and there were so many frustrating episodes as I was learning this.  I have had pieces of leaf stuck to unwanted areas.  I have made the sizing too wet – which made the leaf application a disaster. One time I applied a large section of silver probably four times, if not more, until I achieved the surface I wanted.  Waiting for a painting to dry before I can even touch a certain area with leaf again is so frustrating to me.

 

But the difference between the matte quality of the metal and the soft beauty of oil strokes is mesmerizing, and I will continue to experiment with these techniques.  

Another beautiful thing is to try is to gently rub some paint over leaf.  I personally don’t like the full shine of silver.  I learned from Brad how to apply a very thin layer of Ivory Black or Raw Umber to the silver to “dull” it down and create a beautiful antique look.  I feel I am at the very beginning of the experimenting here.  There is so much more to do and learn.  Other artists also paint underneath the leaf first, let it fully dry, and then apply the metal leaf on top of it, purposefully cutting through some areas to expose the underpainting.  So I literally feel I am not even scratching the surface with my experiments.  There is a lot more to try.  

  

WIF: What would you say is the most challenging aspect of working with gold leaf? Are there any common pitfalls or lessons you’ve learned through experience?

Olga: As I mention above – patience, patience, patience.  There is a lot of planning, a lot of waiting, a lot of redoing (in my case anyway).  It’s all part of this process.  This is not a process where I can cut corners, that’s for sure.   

Keep your leaf booklets safe in tightly sealed Ziploc bags, away from the light.  You want to preserve them for as long as possible.  I only open these bags when I take a booklet out, and I seal them right away.  Ah and one more thing – get a small vacuum cleaner and have it handy at all times, especially when you gently clean the loose leaf pieces after the application.  Otherwise those tiny pieces of metal will literally fly everywhere. 

 

WIF: Among all your pieces that feature gold leaf, is there one that stands out as your favorite or feels especially meaningful to you? What makes it so special?

Olga: “Morning Coffee” was the first 30×30 inch painting that had quite a bit of leafing in it.  It was also the first painting, I think, that dictated to me that the lines needed to be gold-leafed.  That was not planned ahead of time, but my hand started to move in that direction and I let it have it.  And I loved the effect.  

“Morning Coffee” by Olga Krimon


“Patience, patience, patience.  There is a lot of planning, a lot of waiting, a lot of redoing (in my case anyway).  It’s all part of this process.  This is not a process where I can cut corners, that’s for sure.”


-Olga Krimon

 

WIF: Looking ahead, are there other mixed media materials you’re eager to experiment with? Or perhaps you’ve already explored intriguing combinations—copper, for instance? I’d love to hear about your past and future ventures in mixed media art?

 

Olga: I love painting on copper panels.  Other than Belgian linen this is my second favorite surface to work on.  As far as I know copper is the only metal that creates a strong bond with the oil paint, so I will not paint on any other metal as those works wouldn’t be archival.  I may be wrong but that’s what I heard and I don’t want to risk it.  I mentioned also that I used copper leaf on oil paintings too.  I don’t like the shine of the copper leaf, but I love the look of it when a bit of oil is rubbed over it, as I mentioned above.  It becomes tarnished and certain imperfections and crevices are more visible, akin to wrinkles.  And that’s the look I like a lot.  So I may continue to experiment with that a bit more.  I am curious about incorporating some leafing in drawings using water-based sizing.  I am yet to try that.  

 

But ultimately these are the experiments that get my craving for new materials and new methods satisfied.  I may work with leafing on one painting and then not return to it for weeks while working on other paintings.  I have to jump in a way – if I am on figurative works for a long time I have to take a break and move to florals or landscapes.  If I am working on linen for a long time I find myself craving copper panels, and I trust that internal voice pushing me in that direction.  And once in a while I have an idea that for one reason or another needs a more decorative touch with some metal shining against the oil – and if that’s what I envision then I let myself do that.  Then I may get frustrated with how long the process takes.  I am joking but there is quite a bit of truth in this.  I just think that we should have all the materials at our disposal.  Ultimately, it’s not about what we use.  Sometimes the best ideas are the simplest, and if overcomplicated they lose the freedom and emotion that was the whole reason we pursued them.  And if that happens, I tell myself to go back to the basics and rethink them altogether.  It’s not about applying the gold (or silver).  I want to have a reason to do it, it just has to fit. Something inside me needs to long for it.  It has to be right for that specific idea.  And if it’s not, I am prepared to scrape it all off. 

 

 

“Looking Down” Oil on Copper by Olga Krimon

“A Man with a Cello” Oil on Copper by Olga Krimon

Poetry in Motion” Olga Krimon Oil on Copper

We look forward to learning from Olga at her workshop this May in Normandy. Take a look at more of Olga’s work below.

More of Olga’s Artwork

Lauren Carlo

Blogger: Lauren Carlo

Lauren Carlo is an artist and also the Marketing Director of Workshops In France. We she is not helping at a workshop, she lives in Baltimore, MD, and enjoys traveling, dancing, and runing her weekly portrait group the 100 Heads Society.  You can learn more about her painting on her website or follow her on Instagram: @lauren.carloart.

If you are curious about the other activities we offer non-painters and artists alike you should read Non-Painters at Workshops and Art Retreats.  We also explore the region and go to places like Les Baux where Vincent van Gogh’s works were projected up to 30ft tall in Tech, Art and a Starry Night, and the spectacular  Quarry of Light featuring Sorolla, Picasso and the Spanish Masters. 

Check out more blogs about art workshops, tips and hacks for artists traveling in France and Scotland.

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