Gold leaf shows up in three pieces in the collection — Tidewater, Horizon Gold, and Starry Night — and it's the detail most people ask about when they see one in person. Not because it's flashy, but because it doesn't behave the way they expect.
Flat metallic paint reflects light the same way from every angle — uniform and even. Leaf detail is laid in irregular fragments, so it catches light unevenly: bright where a piece breaks the surface, dull where it sits under a shadow from the texture beneath it. That's why these three pieces look different in the morning than they do at night under a lamp — the gold is doing something a flat colour can't.
On Starry Night and Tidewater, the gold leaf sits inside layers of built-up paint texture, not on top of a flat surface. That's why the oil painting original ($350 trade) reads so differently from the canvas print ($200 trade) of the same design in person — the print captures the colour and composition faithfully, but the leaf's light-catching behaviour is a property of the physical surface, not something a print can fully reproduce.
Gold leaf works best where a piece gets natural light through the day — near a window, in an entry that catches morning sun, or under a warm lamp in the evening. It's part of why we describe the collection as decor "for the slow part of the evening" — these are pieces that keep giving you something to notice, long after the first look.
Curious how a gold-leaf piece looks in real light? Every design is currently in Sydney and viewable in person by appointment. Browse the collection or get in touch to arrange a viewing.
Tidewater, Horizon Gold and Starry Night.
A print reproduces the colour and composition faithfully, but the way leaf catches light is a property of the physical surface, which a print cannot fully reproduce.
Where a piece gets natural light through the day, such as near a window, in a sunlit entry, or under a warm lamp in the evening.