Artist: Guido de Costanzo

Title: The Bow Tie (2007)

Size: 120 x 208cm

Medium: Gold leaf , solder and pigment on canvas

Guido has used a spontaneous splash of molten solder onto five carefully constructed and assembled canvasses. This creates a tension throughout the whole piece and the space which surrounds it.

Guido de Costanzo's paintings employ traditional painting techniques to create meticulously crafted contemporary abstract canvases. The pieces achieve their distinctive appearance through an intricate process which involves applying twenty layers of priming gesso, followed by further layers of coloured pigment and metalleaf, and finally releasing a 'drop' of molten solder which burns through the metal leaf exposing the pigments below.

A great tension exists between the carefully premeditated backgrounds and the dramatic and spontaneous aspects of the 'drop' and it is this balance that gives Guido's work its purpose and meaning.