At LEIF, we’re fascinated by points of intersection — form and scent, art and science, the digital made physical. This space of contradiction is one that Florian Markus knows well. The architect-turned-artist bridges the worlds of traditional painting and digital fabrication, using robotic plotters to create pieces shaped by programmed precision and vibrant pigment.
This tension between the analogue and the digital drew us to his Brush Plot series for our Holiday '26 Collection. Beyond their visual impact, Markus’ works felt familiar. Like our own flow as a design studio, Markus begins in the digital landscape before creating physical form.
In Mid-October, Markus will travel from the Netherlands to Sydney to join us for the launch of the Holiday Collection at our new Redfern home. Ahead of his arrival, we wanted to take a closer look at the ideas, processes and contradictions that shape his work.
Hailing from Haarlem in the Netherlands, Markus’ path to painting began in architecture, where digital tools and physical realisations were already closely linked. This training continues to underpin his practice, approaching painting not simply as image-making, but as a system of tools and translation.
His process took on a life of its own when he began experimenting with a drawing plotter — a machine designed to move a pen with exacting precision across a flat surface — before replacing the pen with a paintbrush. Where a pen produces a consistent line, a brush responds to height, pressure, viscosity and pigment.
He quickly developed his own plotter — one that could access the vertical angles he desired, allowing the brush to rise, fall, press and release along digitally devised paths. Videos of these experiments soon went viral, and two weeks later, he left architecture to pursue his artistic career full-time.
“Diving into the craft and adding the robot later is something I want to keep doing forever. It’s so interesting to me that you could combine traditional painting with robotics to make something entirely innovative.”
Markus’ work is shaped by both machine and human hand. The rounded movements, now his signature, suit robotics better than abrupt corners; programmed pressure changes the width of a stroke; and colour sequences are planned around how wet pigments meet and mix. “Any slight difference in my movements, or irregular human hands, is then enlarged by the super-precise robot,” he explains. “I really like that contrast — that something very earthy and natural could come together with something very precise.”
He describes the process as a form of digital craftsmanship, in which technology is grounded in an understanding of materials and traditional processes of painting and making. These idiosyncrasies raise an inevitable question: if the robot holds the brush, where does the machine end and the artist begin? “I get an even split of people hating it and people defending me and loving it,” he explains. “There is some controversy around it, but that’s how I know I’m doing something right here. It sparks something in a lot of people’s minds.”
For LEIF’s Holiday Collection, Markus honed in on colour and transformation. “We really tried to focus on the transitions, making every next colour flow into the previous one in a really satisfying way,” he says. To heighten these moments, he lifted the brush slightly higher and applied more paint than usual, giving the pigments greater freedom to meet, bleed and blend into one another. Colours were chosen to offer a vibrant interpretation of the hues across the LEIF range.
“I have always loved gradients. Any two colours that flow into each other amazes me.”
The result is four original paintings created in Markus’ Haarlem studio. LEIF friend and collaborator Peter Van Alphen captured the works while the paint was still wet, preserving the sheen, depth and movement of the fresh surfaces.
From there, we chose to fragment the works, isolating passages of colour and texture and translating them across eight Limited Edition Gift Sets. Cropped closely, the gradients become almost landscape-like — the edge of a brushstroke becoming a form in itself. “It really shows the most special parts of my paintings,” reflects Markus.
Designed to be gifted, shared and treasured, the collection turns fragments into objects of celebration: individual and unique pieces of a larger work, carrying its own composition, colour and character, forged with heart in the spirit of collaboration and craft. These sleeves decorate LEIF signature scents to form gifts for the holiday season — we hope you love these works as much as we do.
Introducing our new Redfern home — a place for LEIF to take physical form, and for ideas, objects and collaborations to come to life.
You’re invited to a preview ahead of the official opening, where you can meet Holiday artist Florian Markus, who’ll be joining us from the Netherlands with his robot to reveal the process at 5.30pm.
Date: 16 October
Address: 74 Pitt St Redfern, NSW, 2016
Time: 1pm–7pm
Live demonstration: 5.30pm
Spaces for the live demonstration are limited. RSVP below to secure your place.
