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Drawing with a stylus of silver dates from 1000 to 1350 A.D. Artists used silver more for preliminary study sketches than for finished work. Canvases of linen or cotton, or parchment from lambskin or rabbitskin were coated with gesso and sanded smooth. Gesso of that time was basically made from rabbit skin glue, powdered plaster, chalk and a powder-fine metal, usually lead or sometimes more costly tin or zinc. Umber or ochre pigment was added to mask the dingy appearance of the homemade gesso. Drawing in silver became known as silverpoint. Renaissance work was highlighted with white chalk and called silverpoint heightened. Among the well-known Renaissance artists who worked in silverpoint are the Brugels and DaVinci. Durer produced a number of silverpoint heightened pieces; small birds and mammals in habitat vignettes. There was a brief revival of the silverpoint heightened technique in Elizabethan England and again during the early statehood days of our own 13 colonies. One of Kansas City’s best known artists, Frederick James, enjoyed working in this media. Several pieces of his are owned by the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.
Today we have polymer gesso and tube acrylic paints to work with. Polymer gesso with titanium white acrylic produces a white surface which lends well to silverpoint. This combination with umber, ochre or paynes grey acrylic added produces a good surface for silverpoint heightened. A minimal metal content in the coating is necessary to stabilize silverpoint by ionic bonding, avoiding the necessity for a fixative, thus allowing the drawing to oxidize in time. Renaissance work looks a lot like very fine sepia ink today.
Mr. Ensley became interested in silverpoint as a drawing media while working on a paper about Renaissance portraiture for an art history class. "Portrait of a Young Girl," by DaVinci was such an exquisite drawing, silverpoint heightened, that he spent more time researching silverpoint than he spent on his paper. He asked his drawing instructor about silverpoint and the instructor responded with, "Silverpoint died with Latin. Spend your time with today’s media." Approximately 10 years later Mr. Ensley saw a piece by Frederick James at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art which rekindled his interest. He first used a tine from a silver fork. Later he purchased a piece of sterling silver wire, gage #9, from a jeweler and began to experiment with various papers and gesso mixtures. Keith Coldsnow was of great assistance. Keith told him that his gesso mixture on 100% rag museum mountboard was superior to any clay coat available today. About 20 years ago he purchased a foot of 99.9% pure silver wire, gage #9, from another jeweler and he prefers this to sterling.
Mr. Ensley has been involved in art for most of his life. He earned his Associate of Arts degree from Graceland College in Lamoni, Iowa and majored in art at the University of Missouri. He has studied drawing, pastel painting, watercolor, pen and ink, design, ceramics and sculpture. Mr. Ensley has taught art classes throughout the metropolitan area. He has taught for the Parks and Recreation Department of Independence, Missouri; the Jackson County Parks and Recreation Department; Truman High School in Independence, Missouri; Art Images Gallery in Westport and at several private studios. He has been a judge for art shows sponsored by the Art Association of Greater Kansas City, the Wyandotte Art Association, the Tri-County Art Association, at the Art Happening in St. Louis, Missouri and at the St. Joseph Harvest Festival.
Mr. Ensley has shown his work in Art Westport, the Mid-Winter Art Fair, Unity Church on the country Club Plaza, Independence Art Association Annual Shows, the Art Association of Greater Kansas City Annual Shows, Crown Center, the Kansas City Flower, Lawn and Garden Show, the Mid-America Orchid Congress and for the Orchid Society of Greater Kansas City.
For more information about this or any other exhibit at the Kansas City, Kansas Public Library, call Sarah Bohndorf at (913) 596-5800, or email sbohnd@kckpl.lib.ks.us.
