by K.J. Wolf - fresco artist
Director, The Fresco School of Los Angeles (East Coast)
Once upon a time about four years ago, when the heat was stifling and I was in a small studio in Los Angeles, sifting sand to make a Fresco, I wondered what I had been dreaming about all the long years in search for just such an experience. Two chimney smoking and energetic guys, one from Russia and the other from the United Kingdom, were speaking and demonstrating at a wizard speed the deft and rich art of preparing a surface (like a skin) that would hold a glimmering and shimmering painting in lime plaster, called Fresco.
I had always wanted to paint as the masters of the Renaissance had, and here was my opportunity. I had traveled 3000 miles within the United States to find this experience, as no other was available, not even in the home of Fresco, Italy. The irony that it was, if not in my own backyard, was that it was just on the other side of the country from me.
Every step of the experience was detailed and thought out by Ilia and Ian. Each day would begin a long inner city drive to the studio. Masses of coffee and fabulous discussions about technique of the master Michelangelo.
The preparation of the boards that would later become Fresco was arduous. We, the student, had to do all the labor to make each layer of the Fresco from the rough coat to the intonaco. This was over a number of days. Never in my imagination or training as an artist had I worked in such a laborious fashion to prepare for a painting. In retrospect, I appreciate all the sweat that went into it.
This is an art that requires a group effort, strength, courage to follow the image through it's many steps. I found it daunting. What encouraged me was the evidence littered throughout the studio of the beautiful luminous Fresco of fruit, women, and angels. Everyone of the surfaces glowed from within and radiated a light that was mesmerizing. Every Fresco stood against the wall with a clarity and richness of color I found surprising, considering that the pigments that were before us on the mixing table numbered only 11 jars. My mind giggled with joy to understand the mystery that waited before me.
When it came time to work up our images, to be pounced and transferred to the slick fine sand now called intonaco (the fifth layer and the surface on which one paints) I was in an accelerated state of creativity. The image is transferred from a piece of tracing paper that has been pinpricked so that charcoal could be lightly dusted on to the surface. Just barely seeing the image rest on the surface I couldn't wait to get the color on.
When we were instructed in mixing pigments I couldn't understand many of the principles as they countered all that I had for so many years been practicing, and what I had been taught in classes. Each pigment had to be ground on a glass and they were true color, not mixed colors, like trying to make yellow and blue become green. Ilia would implore us to mix only a few and realize that through the hours of painting the colors would mix themselves. What???????
So, I began and I mixed up countless colors just as he, Ilia, had advised. He had not even once come by to remark that I was greedy for color, which is true. I just could not understand how I could have more by mixing less. This is an art and craft of great genius and pure mystery which requires a depth of partnership and patience that was at that time unknown to me. The beginning of the painting is not throwing on lots of color either but a long enhanced building of shadow, like in water color, and reminding oneself that what a task it is to paint the light. Easier said than done!
No matter the strenuous nature of thinking and painting in an arena until that time undiscovered. I loved it and knew I would want to paint more. Everyday I would see the color change before my eyes and so began taking photos of it to prove to myself that it was true and it was a living art. The color doesn't reach a full saturation until two weeks after painting and doesn't reach it's apogee until 3000 years. This was an art form to the future. I knew I would join this league!
(To be continued)
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