'Bartholomew Rooms'-finished

I painted the background with acrylic gold. This influenced how I treated this picture from leaving the colour showing with minimum over painting to scratching through to retrieve the gold. This happened when drawing the features of G and M. I could not get the suggestion of their features with paint as all got were blobs at that scale. I started to clean back the failed attempt discovered that scratching through to the under painting work very well.
The result is reminiscent of a religious icon.