The Golden Pine Cone

About this work

The picture is built in two layers. Above, the needles spread in long, fine strokes of muted blue-green, light and airy; below, the two cones sit heavy and solid, one left of centre and one lower right, overlapping just slightly. That contrast between feathery and dense gives the composition its balance. A woody brown stem runs down to the lower left edge and leads the eye gently out of the picture again. Because every scale tip is touched with gold, the cones break into hundreds of small highlights, and their brown sinks into the black so that the gold seems to float. Fine engraved shading models each scale, so the cones look round and weighty. From across the room they read as two glowing shapes; close up, the rhythm of the scales and the relief of the gold leaf hold the attention.

Look closely at the base of a pine cone and its scales turn out to sit in two sets of spirals, one winding clockwise and the other anticlockwise. Count them and the numbers are usually neighbours in the Fibonacci sequence, such as 8 and 13, where each number is the sum of the two before it. The ratio between neighbouring Fibonacci numbers comes ever closer to 1.618, the golden ratio that runs through many works on this site. The same kind of arrangement appears in pineapples and many seed heads, and it lets each scale pack in tightly without crowding the next. The gold-edged tips in this picture pick out every scale, so the close-packed pattern of the cone catches the eye.

Gold on black makes it a strong choice for a darker room, a library corner or a living room with wood furniture, and it is easy to light: a warm lamp nearby sets the gilded scales shimmering. Charcoal, deep green, ochre and warm white walls all work. Through the winter it fits among candles on a mantelpiece, and in spring nothing about it looks out of season. A black or bronze frame keeps the mood. Snowy Pine Cones makes a seasonal companion, and The Golden Fern adds another gilded plant study on a dark ground. Printed from the 7168 × 10752 px file, it stays sharp to about 60 × 90 cm. A Frame TV version with a gallery mat is included.