It begins with Monfredo, who produces custom wooden frames and panels, using woods typical for the purpose, such as basswood and poplar. The joint process is a strategic combination of their talents. The results, which are reminiscent of medieval panel paintings, meld McCormick’s studies of ornamental design with Monfredo’s talent for hand-crafting museum-quality frames and panels. Ever since, the two have created dozens of gorgeous mirrors and frames that combine gold leaf and translucent paint. “One of my clients wanted a mirror with some images on it, and I thought it would be a prime opportunity to have Nancy introduce some paint to the gilding process.” “Then, at some point, our skills converged,” said Monfredo. The two, who have been married for about three decades, worked separately for years-McCormick painting original works and Monfredo building gilt frames. Images courtesy Nancy McCormick and Paul Monfredo Common themes include delicately etched gold fish and coral, cosmology symbols, and flowery vines reminiscent of Renaissance art. Once it is burnished, the clay’s hue emerges behind the gold-the finished effect harks back to decorative styles of old.īoth of these gilded and painted frames were made for mirrors. This ancient process, called “water gilding,” uses the same materials today as were used hundreds of years ago. Monfredo was cutting pieces with his bandsaw for a custom frame that he will afterward treat with special clay and meticulously gild with two-inch-square, tissue-thin pieces of 22-karat gold. McCormick, who also paints abstract canvases, was drawing with colored pencils on heavy paper-blues and purples in horizontal strips that seemed to ripple like a light breeze upon a pond’s surface. On a recent afternoon, Nancy McCormick and Paul Monfredo were busy in their respective upstairs studio and downstairs workshop in a building next to their home. Paul Monfredo first learned gilding from a friend, Gene Witten, a painter who lived in upstate New York, and subsequently spent years exploring techniques and materials used in traditional framing. Nancy McCormick works in watercolor and egg tempera, and brings a depth of knowledge about the history of European and American art to her intimate abstract landscapes. Down the coast in Lincolnville, another team of craftsmen, Chris Polson and Joe Calderwood, has become the go-to point for many well-known artists looking for stretched canvases. The people who make the art often get our attention, but who stretches their canvases? Who makes their frames? The husband-and-wife team of Paul Monfredo and Nancy McCormick in Seal Harbor has made a name for themselves producing gorgeous gilded and painted frames-shimmering works of art in gold and translucent tempera.
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