Mary's Garden (gilding)

Another step forward in the work on the icon for Mary's Garden - gold leafing the haloes of the figures of Mary and Jesus. Its not easy to see from the photo -- taken a few minutes ago in the pouring rain -- its Juneau after all, but the haloes are now gilded.

The next step in gilding is to brush on the fine gold rays that highlight the garment of Christ as well as the edges of Mary's overgarment and the stars on her shoulders and the front of her veil.

Of course, while hurrying back to the studio to retrieve my iPad to snap the picture, the icon pitched into the daffodils (probably the wind caught a corner and knocked it off its makeshift plinth.). I cleaned off the mud and put it back up, none the worse for wear.