Leunens Discovery File
Following is a listing of items of relevance to the discovery of Leunens
secret techniques. The list headings show dates at which time these facts
were discovered.
Date: Thu, 7 Mar 1996 20:04:12 -0500
From: leunens@multi-medias.ca (Famille Leunens)
-
Aluminum sheets are tacked onto wood frame with four nails at corners of
frame
-
Pass metal brush over the surface to make it more porous
-
Some sort of white paste which includes sugar, water, and some other substance
is sprayed on the aluminum prior to painting with metal
-
Back of the paintings are very smooth and show no sign of hammering, soldering
, whatsoever
-
Some instruments used are a metal brush, a spatula, a metal file and cotton
-
Once metal paste is hardened, the design is outlined with charcoal
-
Sources of possible heat: pot belly coal burning stove, ceramic oven
Date: Fri, 5 Apr 1996 17:00:22 -0500
From: CROCUSDES@aol.com (Chris Ray)
Subject:Test of brown sugar coating
-
Test revealed water and sugar to not work as flux but makes a fantastic patina
coating
-
When heating the coated metal, the sugar breaks down into it's carbon components
and bakes itself right into the metal
-
Colors can range from a wonderful van dyke brown to a deep cool black depending
on the amount of liquid and how the heat is applied.
-
coating is permanent and very hard, scratch resistant in fact
-
soaked sample in water and it is impervious to water
-
It is almost like a parkerized finish on both aluminum and steel
Date: Fri, 5 Apr 1996 22:57:34 -0500
From: leunens@multi-medias.ca (Famille Leunens)
-
1957 "grattage" (scratching) of paper for Chinese ind drawings
-
Monotypes realised with smoke on "isorel" plaques
-
Use of paper soaked in sugared water
-
canvas prepared with "blac de Meudon" (Meudon white) and coated with layered
oil paint is worked with Fire to create reliefs
-
Fire is produced by a cloth impregnated with turpentine
-
Metal on paper and metal on canvas artwork are dated AFTER the metal on metal
paintings
At 5:48 PM 4/12/96, Frost, Jerry wrote:
-
It occured to me today what was bothering me about the sugar water + ? I'm
willing to bet that "sugar water" is a foundry term for something used to
"sweeten" metal(s) before alloying, a flux. In this context "sweeten" means
to enrich or prepare, fluxes could be said to "sweeten" the join.
At 7:20 AM 4/13/96, Mark Parmenter wrote:
-
...I like the new thoughts on the sugar water/"sweetening" thing. Sometimes
anecdotal evidence is misleading. Keep in mind though that sugar water was
used in the old foundries as a binding agent.
At 8:58 AM 6/14/96, Chris Ray wrote:
-
I had a chance, by the way, to see a small sample of the Leunens metal painting.
I put it under an inspection scope and my guess is that the base material
was magnesium. I don't know if Peter Goering has had a chance to have his
portion of the sample analyzed yet, but it will be interesting to know the
other folk's reaction to the work when they see it at the SNAG meeting. The
sample was interesting, it seemed to be granular but I couldn't determine
if there was a binder in the material or not. It did seem to have a binder
though. It fractured in a peculiar way for metal, it looked like a fiberous
fracture, though it wasn't at all like wrought iron the way it exhibits the
break. Rather more like a cold shut but with a linear texture on the small
exposed surface. The underside of the large droplet had random scratch marks
embedded in the surface and maybe it was an imprint of the wirebrushed surface
of the aluminum ground (?). I'm not certain if this sample was the one that
the original lab had screwed up or not. Well anyway, those are my observations
for those who might be interested.
At 12:36 PM 7/4/96, Keith Farley wrote:
-
Among the things going on surrounding the SNAG conference, several works
by Guillaume Leunen were transported from Canada to DC to be exhibited at
the conference. I feel fortunate in having had the opportunity to meet and
talk with Victor and Angéle Leunen, who brought these works to us.
Victor is the son of Guillaume and Angéle is Victor's wife. We were
able to exhibit the works in a "secured" area where the conference was being
held. It was wonderful to finally have the opportunity to actually see some
of these works in person. Thinking about them and any possible methods by
which they might have been made, based solely on digitized impressions via
the WWW, has been next to impossible. Finally being able to see the real
texture, the coloration of the base aluminum, the nearly intangible and difficult
to define qualities of the metal used as a "paint," brought it all a lot
closer to home. There was, for me, finally something that I could point at,
examine from any perspective (other than from within,) re-examine, hash through
possible processes in a half educated manner, and just generally ponder,
which I am still doing. I was most pleased to see the works and very much
enjoyed the company of Victor and Angéle. I extend to them many thanks
for taking the time and expense of transporting the work from Canada and
back and for offering us the opportunity to see the work, first hand. I hope
that all involved in ArtMetal will acknowledge the efforts that the Leunens
have made in making this available for us to experience.
ArtMetal Editor/Curator:
enrique
Last Updated: Sat, Aug 3, 1996