Small Bible with Silver Clasps

These small Bibles have been with me for as long as I can remember. The same is true for the old silver watch.

One of the hands of the watch has been broken and lost. And the candle has gone out, too.To complete the melancholy picture, I therefore decided to paint all the books closed as well.

“Small Bibles, Watch and Candlestick”
Oil on canvas, 40cm x 30 cm, 2009.

The candlestick in this painting is actually the bottom part – the stand – of an oil lamp. I think I have the other parts somewhere, including the nicely shaped, elongated glass, but I never use the oil lamp. Electric light is progress, after all. Still, maybe one day I’ll assemble the lamp and paint it.

Painting silver requires thin, sharp lines,
and emphasized contrast.

For this painting I decided on a frame from the Delf workshop in Nice, France. The gold lines on it are very nicely done, and the eggshell sheen on the dark coloured frame wonderfully enhances my painting. I later used similar frames for some other paintings with books.

Below is a preliminary study. As I often do, I first painted a small panel to make sure the composition would ‘work.’

Oil on wood, 17 cm x 13 cm, 2009.