Category Archives: Patina

Soda Wash & Pink Dust

Creating a Unique French Period Patina

As promised in my last article, “Spanish Wash,” this piece will cover creating a French soda wash finish with a special pink dust. The story goes way back to 1967, when I first moved from Long Island into Manhattan. The late Fifties and the early Sixties were a time of great change in the art world. Like most art students at the School of Visual Arts, I was blown away by the Abstract Impressionists of this period. Pollock, Rauschenberg, Motherwell, and many more were turning the art world around. Being an art student in Manhattan allowed me to see the work of this school first hand. Going to the Castelli Gallery or Marlboro Gallery for openings or to the Whitney, Guggenheim, and Museum of Modern Art was all that any art student could hope for. But I was also a framemaker. So my eye was always torn between the welded aluminum frames of the day and the world of antique originals and replications out there.

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