Lotus Sanctuary & Heart of the Mountain: The September Lux Editions
There is a point where a print stops being a copy of something and starts being its own small original.
Standard editions carry the image faithfully. Atelier editions bring the gold leaf back into the piece by hand, and with it, a touch of the original’s presence. Lux editions go one step further — hand-gilded and hand-painted, each one individually finished in the studio until it becomes something closer to a hybrid than a reproduction. Not quite a print. Not quite an original. Something that lives in between.
This September, two paintings are being released as Lux editions for the first time: “Lotus Sanctuary” and “Heart of the Mountain”.
Why So Few?
I’ve written before about why gold leaf behaves the way it does — how it doesn’t simply reflect diffuse light the way pigment does, but reflects light directly, shifting with the hour and the angle and the season of light in a room.
You can read more about that here →
A Lux edition asks me to bring that same living quality to a printed piece. I return to the image directly — placing gold leaf by hand, then working back into the surface with paint until the piece carries something of the original’s vibrational core. It’s patient work, and it can’t be rushed. That’s why these editions stay small: five of one piece, ten of the other, and then they’re gone.
Lotus Sanctuary
30 × 22 inches · $1,650 · Edition of 5
Lotus Sanctuary began as a commission for a wellness environment — a room meant to feel calm, luminous, and quietly restorative, a place where the mind could settle and attention could return to center. The image that emerged was a lotus opening from a field of light.
As a Lux edition, the gold in this piece isn’t background — it’s the atmosphere the lotus rests in. Hand-gilded and hand-finished, each of the five pieces carries its own small variations in how the gold catches the surface, the way no two candle flames burn quite the same.
This is a painting for a room where you want the eye to have somewhere to rest — a reading corner, a home office, a meditation space, a threshold you cross every day.
To read more about Lotus Sanctuary:
Choosing Art for Your Home Office
Heart of the Mountain
18 × 24 inches · $1,150 · Edition of 10
Where Lotus Sanctuary opens outward, Heart of the Mountain holds something more grounded and internal — a stillness with weight to it, the kind of quiet you find at elevation, where the air changes and so does your attention.
At ten pieces, this is the more accessible of the two Lux editions, and a good entry point if you’re new to collecting at this level. It carries the same hand-gilded, hand-painted process as Lotus Sanctuary, just in a slightly smaller format and a more contained gesture.
To read more about Heart of the Mountain see these two articles:
Heart of the Mountain painting
A Note On Timing
Both editions become available for a single window this month: September 18–25, 2026. Once the window closes, what’s been claimed is claimed, and I return my full attention to the next body of work.
If either piece speaks to you, simply email info at yohannajessup dot com (or reply to the newsletter that brought you here) and I’ll hold a piece for you and walk you through next steps.
Lux editions are hand-gilded and hand-painted in the studio, each one unique. Read more about how print editions relate to original paintings [in the Collector’s Guide →], or explore [Gold Leaf and the Presence of Light →] for more on why the materials themselves matter.
© Yohanna Jessup