With my father, I have started to describe my grandfather's technique. Here is what we came up with. I am sure this won't be enough to satisfy your curiosity but the more we think we know, the more mysterious it all becomes. For my part, this whole quest to try to figure out his secret just made me marvel even more at his work. The essence of these special paintings is enigmatic, both by what they represent and by their unique form: it is what makes them so interesting...and magic.
1. SET UP: The aluminum sheet is set upon a wooden frame as for regular canvas. The aluminum is plied upon the frame by hand, very tightly yet delicately. Only four small nails are used to hold it securely in place, one at each corner, showing Guillaume's great dexterity working with metal. This allows the sides of the painting to be part of the artistic work since they are also very smooth and clean with nothing of the supporting wooden frame showing. This makes any outside frame needless.
2. SIGNATURE: Notice that there is no signature on the front of the paintings. The painting are signed, dated and named on the back. This allows the owner to decide which way to put it, vertically or horizontally, depending on his preference or the available space for the piece. Nevertheless, my grandfather indicated his personal choice on the back with up and down arrows. As for his metal on paper and metal on canvas, they are signed on the front since they need a frame anyway.
3. PROCEDURE: First, I would like to point out that the back of the paintings are very smooth and show no sign of hammering, soldering , whatsoever, to get the frontal reliefs. Some of the instruments he used are a metal brush, a spatula, a metal file and cotton. He must have used other instruments which we do not have for applying the hot metal and making his charasteristic design. Unfortunately, we do not know what it looked like.
Here is how my father thinks it was done:
First, he would pass a metal brush over the surface to make it more porous. He would then spray sugared water over it. My father is positive about the sugared water but is convinced that the water contained also another substance, although he has no idea what it might be. He would apply a thin coat of metal paste all over the aluminum sheet. Some paintings are very light colored while others are very dark. We believe he used different metals to obtain the desired shade, probably coloring the paste with colors ranging from dark black to bright silver and even gray. The smooth areas of the paintings where there is no relief are colored by an even layer of that paste which is smoothed out with a cotton ball or cloth, since both were found in his instrument bag. Once the metal paste is hardened, he maybe outlined the design he wanted with charcoal. For his reliefs, he used melted zinc,aluminum, lead or nickel ( or a mixture of these) which he would bring into a paste. He would probably apply it with a spatula or one of his unknowned tools, depending on the design. One of his characteristic design looks like thick rain drops in movement with an elongated tail. These must have been applied with very hot metal and a special tool that we do not have. An intriguing chemical reaction must occur since a lighter shade usually surrounds the reliefs, like a halo.
Keep in mind that this man worked in a foundry factory since the age of sixteen and so he knew his metal very well and learned to work with metal in the same way a painter learns to play with paint to obtain his desired effects. It took him years to elaborate this unique technique before he finally satisfied his perfectionnist mind and soul. I would like to specify that this artist never painted during the day, instead he would go for a walk in the middle of the night in search of his inspiration which he would always seem to find somewhere deep in space. This particularity got him the distinction of being called "Painter of the Night". In conclusion, I know the information here is incomplete, but my father is still experimenting and if he comes up with anything new, he will make the information available.
