Why I Paint with Metal Leaf — and What It Does to My Art

About accidents, light, guts, and a little bit of magic

Some things don’t come from planning.

They come from curiosity. From play. From trying something without knowing where it’ll take you.

That’s exactly how I started using metal leaf.

A scrap of fake gold leaf. An idea. A discovery.

It started during my Exclamation Mark series.

I bought some imitation gold leaf — just to try it out.

A fun little experiment. A joke with shimmer.

Until I painted over it.

And I thought: wait... this does something.

The paint moved differently. The light hit it weird.

It was like the piece turned 3D, like it was pushing off the canvas.

So I kept playing. Testing. Messing up. Trying again.

And then it hit me:

this wasn’t just an effect — this was a signature.

What makes metal leaf in my work so special?

It plays with light like no regular paint ever could.

It moves with the room — soft in daylight, sharp at night.

It turns every piece into something visually alive.

And let’s be honest — it’s sexy as hell.

No one does this like I do.

Sure, there are artists who use gold leaf.

But nobody blends it with pop art, portraits, lips, rebellion and storytelling the way I do.

This isn’t decoration.

It’s character. Shine with a message.

And always, always one of a kind.

Want to see what that looks like on your wall?

You can. Because my latest Kiss OFF series just dropped.

And it doesn’t just pop with color — it shines with metal, mood, and meaning.

View the full series here:

www.debbievervoort.com/kissoff

With love and creativity,

Debbie ❤️