How To Embellish Artwork with Silver Leaf

After doing a little happy dance at being offered the commission, I quickly got busy on my research—looking for imagery in the band’s songs to spark my imagination.

I was inspired by spending some quality time studying lyrics from Procol Harum's vast back catalogue of music, and being lucky enough to have a highly entertaining chinwag with band's lead man, Gary Brooker MBE about the band, it's history, ethos and music.

The cover for Still There’ll Be More evolved from imagery inspired mainly by the Wreck of the Hesperus (the song title taken from a 19th Century poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow), the starry night skies and ethereal moonlight at sea.

I loved the end result so much that in June 2018, just after the box set was released, I decided to create a limited run of 10 prints of the Wreck of the Hesperus.

Created on beautiful, heavyweight paper, with a luxurious subtle texture, I wanted to add a special dimension to these pieces, so I hand-embellished each print with silver leaf and watercolour—making every one of the 10 truly unique.

This video shows you how I applied the silver gilding to the artwork (click below):

I have only a small handful of prints remaining*, so if you'd like one of the last few, I recommend you get yours now, before they all fly off to other happy homes around the world.

*Updated January 2021 - All Limited Edition 'Wreck of the Hesperus' prints are now SOLD, but you can find my other available work in the shop - just click here .