Mistletoe Branches in Gold

About this work

Several branches reach horizontally through the width, and the eye follows their gold stems as they split into neat forks. Along them grow the dark leaves, paddle-shaped and outlined in a fine thread of gold, so the deep green never disappears into the black ground. Scattered between them are the berry clusters, small and pearl white, and they give the composition its gentle rhythm of light points. Because the background is completely plain, nothing distracts from the contrast between metal, leaf and berry. The gilded stems are the boldest element, the leaves the quietest, and the berries sit somewhere in between. Up close you notice the gold leaf catching the light at different angles; from across the room the picture becomes an elegant pattern of gold lines and white dots on black.

Mistletoe is easiest to spot in winter. It keeps its leaves all year, so once the trees it grows on have lost theirs, its round clumps stand out clearly against the bare branches. Its white berries ripen in the colder months and are filled with a very sticky pulp. Birds spread the seeds: the mistle thrush, whose scientific name Turdus viscivorus means mistletoe-eating thrush, swallows the berries whole, while blackcaps often wipe the sticky seeds off their beaks onto the bark, where some take hold and grow. The forked stems in the picture are typical of the plant too, which branches in pairs as it grows. Here they are drawn in gold, while the berries keep their natural pearly white.

From the first week of Advent it makes a glamorous dining-room or hallway piece, and because it shows only branches, leaves and berries on black, it stays elegant well beyond the season. Charcoal, black or deep green walls deepen the gold, while white walls make it crisp and graphic. A slim black or brass frame suits it on paper. The print file is 7680 × 4320 px, about 65 cm wide at 300 dpi. The separate 4K TV pack holds 3840 × 2160 for the Samsung Frame or any 4K art-mode TV, plus 2560 × 1440 and 1920 × 1080. On screen the black ground blends neatly into the dark TV frame. Mistletoe in Gold, in portrait, and Holly and Pine Garland together make a matching winter trio.