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 AngÃ©le Leunen, who brought these works to us. Victor is the son of Guillaume and AngÃ©le 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 AngÃ©le. 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.