Artist Bio

A two week trip that I took to Italy in 1984, had a profound and prolonged influence on my work. At that time I was involved in making a series of aquarium images. I went to Italy to view the art of the Renaissance, for it is my belief that all visual artists, especially realists, should experience and study this work firsthand. I could not have predicted the dramatic impact, both direct and indirect, that this journey of discovery would have on my ensuing work. I believe that in our search for novelty in post-modernist art making, we often lose touch with certain basics: beauty, grace, harmony and visual poetry are nowadays rarely considered important criteria in evaluating contemporary works of art.
Since the Bauhaus, the term ‘precious’ has had a negative connotation in art schools. It was a term used derisively in the 1960’s to describe work that did not adhere to the fashionably pared down kernels of conceptualism or minimalism.
But after seeing the beauty, sensitivity, harmony—the ‘preciousness’—of Italian Renaissance painting—especially the early Renaissance work of artists such as Fra Angelico, Duccio and Simone Martini—I realize that, as artists, we may have abandoned too much. The ever–changing inner light that radiates from gold leaf used judiciously on the surface of a painting, and the use of pockets of rich, intense colors that illuminate the picture’s surface impressed me deeply. It was ‘preciousness’ elevated to grand heights: semi–precious gems such as lapis lazuli, malachite, azurite, etc., were ground up, mixed with egg yolk and applied as paint pigments, producing dazzling, breathtaking colors! The surface of these colors forms a texture that sparkles and reflects light much like gold does, but in ways that are much more subtle than gold.
I look to the early Renaissance as a source of inspiration that I can use along with contemporary content and image making. I look to the Renaissance as the artists of that time looked back to early Greek and Roman art—not as a reactionary but as one who rediscovers and reapplies important but forgotten visual stimuli.
Related Works

Fred Wessel
Brugmansia Datura (Big Pink), 2024
Egg Tempera with Gold Leaf and Coral Cabochons
14 x 12 in
$9,500

Fred Wessel
Striped Tulip, 2024
Tempera with gold leaf and Garnet Cabochons
9 x 6 in
$6,000

Fred Wessel
Red Trillium, 2024
23K gold leaf with Garnet Cabochons
3.50 x 3.50 in
$4,600

Fred Wessel
The Constellation Delphinus, 2020
Egg tempera with gold and silver leaf
24 x 18 in
$18,000

Fred Wessel
Our Yellow Orchid, 2020
Tempera with Gold Leaf & Tiger’s Eye
7.50 x 9.50 in
$4,000

Fred Wessel
Pink Rose Icon, 2020
Tempera w/Gold Leaf & Garnets
5 x 5 in
$3,400

Fred Wessel
Angel's Trumpet Icon, 2020
Tempera with Gold Leaf
5.50 x 5.75 in
$2,800

Fred Wessel
Orange Lily-Purple Vase, 2022
Tempera with Gold Leaf and Amethyst
19 x 13 in
$9,500

Fred Wessel
White Orchid, 2022
Tempera with Gold Leaf & Garnets
7.50 x 9.50 in
$4,000

Fred Wessel
West Hartford Canna, 2022
Tempera w/Gold Leaf and Malachite
15 x 13 in
$9,500

Fred Wessel
Little Iris Icon, 2022
Tempera w/23K Gold leaf and dyed coral
6 x 6 in
$3,200

Fred Wessel
Dahlia Icon, 2022
Tempera with Gold Leaf & Coral
7.50 x 7.50 in
$3,800

Fred Wessel
Autumn Zinnia, 2023
Tempera w/Gold Leaf & Malachite
7.50 x 7.50 in
$3,800

Fred Wessel
Fritillaria Imperialis, 2023
Tempera w/Gold Leaf & Malachite
14 x 12 in
$9,500

Fred Wessel
Dogwood Blossom, 2024
Tempera with Gold Leaf
9 x 9.50 in
$4,800

Fred Wessel
Jack-in the-Pulpit, 2024
Tempera with Gold Leaf & Malachite
9 x 9.50 in
$4,800

Fred Wessel
Jenni's Lily, 2021
Tempera with Gold Leaf & Lapis Lazuli
7.50 x 7.50 in
$3,800

Fred Wessel
The Constellation Cancer, 2015
Tempera w/Gold & Silver Leaf
24 x 18 in
$18,000

Fred Wessel
The Constellation Sagittarius, 2018
Tempera w/Gold & Silver Leaf
24 x 18 in
$18,000

Fred Wessel
The Constellation Crater, 2019
Tempera w/Gold & Silver Leaf
24 x 18 in
$18,000

Fred Wessel
Sagittarius Study (Jeanne D'Arc), 2018
Tempera w/Gold Leaf
17 x 12 in
$8,000

Fred Wessel
Modesty, 2016
Tempera w/Gold & Silver Leaf
21.50 x 14 in
$11,000

Fred Wessel
Giana (Fibonacci Revisited), 2019
Tempera w/Gold Leaf
20 x 16 in
$9,000

Fred Wessel
Iris (Revisited), 2014
Tempera w/Gold Leaf
18 x 12 in
$8,000