Liveryman Peter Walpole, his wife Mary, and Honorary Freeman Annie Robertson were among guests who attended the Craft Celebration event at The Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers, Monday 12 May. The multi-talented members of the Painter-Stainers showcased a wide range of skills as part of London Craft Week. Live demonstrations and talks were provided on techniques including trompe l’oeil, stenciling, wallpaper design, marbling, wood graining, gilding, bookbinding, illumination, and historic panel restoration. The evening included a reception, talks and a buffet supper. The practitioners included Polly Bennett, an artist and Decorative Surfaces Fellow who “portrays the land, with the land” who showed how she uses traditional craftsmanship and locally sourced material to create artists pigments and inks from material she sources herself including clay, bone, plant material and egg. She gave meaning to the terms “bone white” and “eggshell” and reminded us that egg tempura paints, using only water, pigment and egg yolk, in use for centuries, were used by Leonardo da Vinci in his painting of The Last Supper. A fascinating and enlightening evening was enjoyed learning about, and admiring skills and techniques that are all too easy to take for granted, when it is the work of Liveries such as the Painter-Stainers who preserve and encourage the maintenance and development of skills that contribute to our civilization.
