Marquetry vs. Painted Picture

[bradleyheathhays]

Hey everybody. Welcome to the weekend!

I've been told there are some very high-end marquetry pieces that were made to represent a painting, and when placed side by side you can hardly tell the difference between the two. I've searched a good deal but I can't find any examples of this.

Does anyone have a link that shows a marquetry piece beside the painting it was meant to reproduce? I would love to see it! Thanks.

 

[jttheclockman]

Impossible for some obvious reasons. With marquetry you are limited in wood color choices and grain and shading within the veneers. With painting you can shade paint to look more life like. yes some marquetry is seamlessly done but if you look close you see seams because all wood veneers butt up against each other even though they are match cut. just the nature. If you look at each from a distance it is less telling. just like if you look at a painting close you see the brush strokes but from afar you can not see unless you have very good vision. if you are doing scenery pictures in both, showing the shading of light sources is very tough to do in marquetry because again of wood colors. Painting it is easier to shade to will.

 

[bradleyheathhays]

Thanks jt. All your points make good sense to me. I'm working with an exotic veneer company here in the states and one of the company reps has mentioned some advanced marquetry works he's seen that are dmn near identical to a painting. Now I'm sure some paingings, depending on their complexity, would be easier to copy than others, but that's the standard of realism we're setting for ourselves in developing this new process. My rep friend is at the top of his field at the world's largest exotic veneer distributor so it wouldn't surprise me if he's seen many fine works most people will never see or even hear of.

 

[jttheclockman]

Well you can probably get close if you are talking about static photos. that is photos that are of objects or subjects that do not have movement within them or light shifts. Veneers come in all woods and shades of woods so it is possible to get close but for what I talked about seams and things like this. There is just no getting around that. there are no seams in paintings. There are marquetry clubs that do that for $$$ and I have seen their work being in the scrollsawing business myself but none of the works and I have seen some beautiful stuff can be mistaken for a photo painted. Also remember the grain of woods give it away also. No grain in paintings. If it is you that has taken this art on then I wish you luck and love to see some of your work.

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[derekdd]

There was a guy at a craft show up here in Wisconsin a couple of years ago who did marquetry that was absolutely stunning. I lost track of his name and website, but I remember how amazing his work was. Not quite the same as painting, but still impressive.

I think of Blake Weber and some of the work he does with different woods cut on his Glowforge.

 

[greenacres2]

From Wikipedia, all spalted colors with no dyes. Ancient German--so the colors last.