These Magical Paintings Fuse Oil And Gold Leaf To Capture Light In A Way That Feels Almost Sacred (20 Pics)

There’s something transcendent about Brad Kunkle’s paintings. The New York-based artist has been creating these ethereal works since 2008, blending traditional oil painting techniques with delicate layers of gold and silver leaf. He held his first solo exhibition in 2010 at Arcadia Gallery in New York City, and since then, his work has captivated art lovers around the world.

You may have even seen his art without realizing it. The artist’s dreamy, gilded imagery was featured in the award-winning opening title sequence of Netflix’s "Anne With An E". The way his work captures movement and light made it the perfect choice to bring that world to life, hinting at magic in the ordinary.

The inspiration behind Kunkle’s art is deeply personal. He describes his creative journey as an attempt to reconcile his own struggles with listening to himself and following the path he truly wanted in life rather than what society expected of him. This inner conflict became a conceptual thread in his work, with the goddess motif emerging as a symbolic heroine for all of humanity. “Listening to one’s own inner nature (intuition) is perceived by most as more of a feminine trait than masculine,” he explains, “so I’ve used the Goddess motif as my symbolic heroine for all of humanity.”

Visually, Kunkle was drawn to gold leaf after a transformative moment in Paris. “I was in the Louvre, and I looked up at the gilded ceilings. I realized I was more inspired by those than by the paintings hanging in the museum,” he recalls. This fascination with light and reflection became a signature element of his work, giving his pieces a sense of sacredness and movement. As you walk past one of his paintings, the gold leaf catches light from different angles, making the artwork seem alive and ever-changing.

Kunkle’s creative process is as intricate as his paintings. He often begins by photographing his own subjects and then loosely composing a scene in Photoshop. “I think of my process as creative alchemy,” he says. “This means that I need to complete the first step before the second begins, because the completion of the first step gives me the direction for the next step and so forth.” Working with gold and silver leaf requires careful planning, but after more than a decade of refining his method, Kunkle describes it as complex yet instinctive.

Here are some of Brad Kunkle’s most breathtaking pieces that show why his work feels both ancient and modern, sacred and intimate, and why they’re best experienced in person, where the gold leaf can truly work its magic.

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