Animal Fusion in Los Angeles: Gold, the Lion and the Leopard in the City of Angels

Every city in this series is a place I love. Los Angeles is different: it is home. For eighteen years, this city has been my studio, my light and my inspiration. It is here, in 2016, that I painted my first body in gold. And it is here, between the Hollywood Hills and the Pacific, that Animal Fusion was born: my collection where the golden body meets the lion and the leopard.

People often say Los Angeles is the city of images. It is true. But for me, it is above all the city of light. That warm, golden California light, especially in the last hour before sunset, has shaped my eye more than anything else. When I paint a body in gold, I am, in a way, trying to capture that light and hold it on the skin.

Los Angeles has also become one of the great art capitals of the world. In just a few years, I have watched the galleries multiply in the Arts District downtown, in Culver City, in Hollywood and along Melrose. Every February, Frieze Los Angeles brings collectors from around the world to Santa Monica. And from the hills of Brentwood, the Getty watches over the city like a modern acropolis. Few places combine such creative energy with such a love of beauty.

It all began in South Africa, in 2012. It was there, in the golden light of the savanna, that I took my first steps as a professional photographer. I remember those mornings leaving before dawn, the silence of the bush, and the moment when, suddenly, a leopard appears in the tall grass and rests its gaze on you. That gaze never leaves you. It taught me patience, humility and respect. Above all, it taught me what presence truly means.

Since then, two passions have guided my life as an artist. On one side, the big cats I love so deeply. On the other, the human body painted in gold, and especially the woman: feline, magnetic, sovereign. For years, these two worlds lived separately in my work. With Animal Fusion, they finally meet.

Lion Goddess, from the Animal Fusion collection.

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From the African Savanna to the Hollywood Hills

I returned to South Africa, to Kruger Park, where I was fortunate to stay at the magnificent lodges of Londolozi and Singita. There, nature is not a backdrop: it moves through you. You spend hours following a lioness and her cubs, waiting for a leopard to come down from its tree, watching for the perfect light at dusk.

I photographed the lions and leopards in this collection myself, in the wild, in their own territory. None of them comes from a stock library. Each one carries the memory of an encounter, a suspended moment I had the privilege to live.

Los Angeles has its own wild cat story, one that moved the whole city. For years, a mountain lion known as P-22 lived in Griffith Park, in the heart of Los Angeles, a few miles from the Hollywood sign. He became a symbol: proof that wildness and the city can coexist. His story inspired one of the most extraordinary projects of our time: the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing over the 101 Freeway in Agoura Hills, set to become the largest wildlife crossing in the world, so that mountain lions and other wildlife can move safely between the Santa Monica Mountains and the hills beyond. I find it beautiful that a city of ten million people builds a bridge for its big cats.

The lion moves me with its nobility. It is the most social of all cats, and it is the lionesses who lead the hunt and protect the pride, as the Smithsonian's National Zoo reminds us. The leopard fascinates me with its mystery: solitary, agile, invisible until the very last moment, strong enough to carry its prey high into the trees, as National Geographic describes. One embodies sovereignty, the other enigma. Both embody a kind of absolute beauty.

Leopard Fusion, golden fine art photography.

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The Golden Woman, Feline and Magnetic

Since 2016, I have been painting bodies in gold in my Los Angeles studio and photographing them as living sculptures. Many of the people I photograph are dancers, yogis, acrobats and contortionists: artists of the body, and Los Angeles is full of them. What has always struck me about the women I photograph is their feline side: a way of moving, of holding themselves, of looking into the lens with the same quiet intensity as a big cat in the savanna.

Los Angeles celebrates the body like no other city: on the beaches of Santa Monica and Venice, in the yoga studios of West Hollywood and Silver Lake, on the hiking trails of Runyon Canyon. It is a city where strength, beauty and wellbeing are a way of life. The women of Animal Fusion share that energy.

With Animal Fusion, I wanted to make the invisible bond between woman and animal visible. The leopard's rosettes flow across golden skin. The lion's gaze melts into a woman's face. The figure does not wear the animal like a costume: she becomes it, the way a dancer becomes the music.

Leopard Goddess, a very limited edition from a small private collection.

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An Idea Three Thousand Years Old

I am not the first to dream of this fusion. In ancient Egypt, the lion-headed goddess Sakhmet, "the powerful one," embodied both strength and healing. Her statues, carved more than three thousand years ago, are preserved today at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. And that same civilization reserved gold for the gods, because it never tarnishes, as The Met explains in its essay on gold in ancient Egypt.

Los Angeles, the city of dreams and legends, understands the power of myth better than anywhere else. Here, stories become images that travel the world. With Animal Fusion, I bring one of humanity's oldest myths, the sacred animal and the sacred metal, into the language of contemporary photography.

Real Women, Real Big Cats, Real Gold. No AI.

For me, this is essential. Every woman in this collection is a real person, whom I painted in gold by hand and photographed in the studio. Every big cat is a wild animal I photographed myself in South Africa. In an age of AI-generated images, I want every element of my work to have been lived, felt and shared. I explain this in more detail on my page No AI Art, Real People.

In the city that invented visual effects, I believe a photograph that is entirely real has a special power. Gold has been worked by hand for millennia, from Egyptian goldsmiths to the master gilders of Florence, and here in Los Angeles, the Getty Conservation Institute still documents these traditional crafts. My work humbly continues that lineage, with the human body as its surface.

What Each Work Carries

• The lion and lioness: courage, leadership and radiant confidence.
• The leopard: independence, intuition and quiet strength.
• Gold: light, permanence and the sacred potential of the human body.

Lioness Fusion, in a modern bedroom.

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Animal Fusion in Los Angeles Homes

Los Angeles homes are made for light. In a mid-century modern house in the Hollywood Hills, with walls of glass opening onto the city, a golden figure answers the sunset every evening. In a Mediterranean estate in Beverly Hills, Bel Air or Holmby Hills, with white walls, terracotta and arched doorways, the warm tones of the savanna feel instantly at home.

Golden Leopard Fusion, one of my collectors' favorite works.

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In a beach house in Malibu or Venice, a leopard brings depth and sensuality to sunlit, airy spaces. In a converted loft in the Arts District downtown, with concrete and exposed brick, a lion brings raw power and warmth. From Brentwood and Santa Monica to Calabasas and Hidden Hills, in a bedroom, a study or an entrance, a golden figure welcomes every guest with strength.

Golden Embrace with Leopard in a contemporary interior.

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Pairs, Diptychs and Triptychs

I designed this collection as a dialogue. Two works hung side by side create rhythm, symmetry and a silent conversation between the woman and the animal. The large open walls and high ceilings of Los Angeles homes are perfect for pairs, triptychs and monumental formats.

Two Animal Fusion works hung as a pair.

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For larger walls, I invite you to discover the Golden Feline Spirit Diptych, uniting the lion and the leopard, or the Feline Fusion Triptych, created for collectors, hotel lobbies and private residences.

For Los Angeles Collectors, Interior Designers and Hotels

Los Angeles is one of the world's great capitals of hospitality and design: the legendary hotels of Beverly Hills and the Sunset Strip, the boutique hotels of West Hollywood and Downtown, the beach resorts of Santa Monica and Malibu, the private clubs, restaurants and wellness spaces that shape the city's lifestyle. In Beverly Hills, my large-scale gold photography is already part of the interior of The Cellar Beverly Hills.

Beyond my home city, my photographs live in more than 120 David Lloyd clubs across the UK and Europe, where they are seen by over one million members. And looking ahead to the LA 2028 Games, I am preparing Golden Heroes, a series of portraits in gold celebrating Paralympic athletes, as a tribute from an artist to the city that has given him so much.

If you are an interior designer, an art advisor or a hospitality professional in Los Angeles, I would be delighted to work with you: selecting works for a specific project, adapting formats to your walls, or preparing a larger series for a hotel, a restaurant, a spa or a private residence. Contact me directly to discuss your project. We are in the same city: I would be happy to meet you, or to welcome you to see the works in person.

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