Gilded Butterfly Plants

I've adored these plants for many years. Surely no-one could resist a plant that looks so like a butterfly! When I began painting flowers for my first exhibition of Verre Eglomise, I drew these plants obsessively. I love that at night they close and seem to go to sleep and then they open in the morning and move towards the sun. I don't think these pictures do the gold justice. In reality the leaf is velvety to the touch and the gold has a softness that you only get when you gild something living.