Joep Hommerson

  The mathematics of plant forms within Nature

I have long been fascinated by the inner, organic structures of plants or other natural forms. This began at school when I studied botany within my Biology A Level examination course.

It was during those classes that I also discovered I could draw!

 Cactus - Mike Healey

You can see in this charcoal drawing of a cactus (above) the underlying semi-circular shapes that, for me at least, define this dangerous plant

  Caliban's Garden - Mike Healey

Although the plant forms in this painting (above) appear chaotic, they are carefully structured and 'layered' to give some sense of nature's complexity

 Strange Garden - Mike Healey

I use decolcomania techniques to create strange plant forms and undulating surfaces - all of which actually exist in nature if you look close enough.

 

Study of plant forms - Mike Healey

While Cezanne discovered cubes within Nature, I find spheres and rounded forms

Golden Plant - Mike Healey

 One contemporary artist whose work I like is also exploring similar ideas of the inner, mathematically determined 'shapes' within natural, organic forms.

His name is Joep Hommerson. Below is how he describes his own work:

Joep Hommerson

 'My sense of wonderment is the source of my paintings. I gain a lot of inspiration from nature and my work often explores birth, death and decay; the journey through matter, or circle of life.'

'Blue and violet - the colours of the cosmos - stand out in my paintings.'

 'The world which I summon up for my viewer is an alien, celestial one where very exact, familiar details pop up, like a snail.'

'Although my paintings appear intuitive, they are actually very deliberately put together according to the Golden Ratio. When you look closely, they are full of mathematical forms.'

'A cube subtly transmutes into an orb; symmetry and anti-symmetry interchange with one another. The spiral with its two different courses of direction can be seen in the nebulas or the texture of the rocks.'

'Through experimenting with dualistic forms, I aim to conjure up their metaphysical counterparts: order-chaos, mobility-immobility and mind-matter; which I see as essential elements of life.'

From Haeckel's Art Forms from the Ocean

Dover Publications

The above examples of Joep's work are taken from an excellent website that features many new or younger Surrealists.

Click on the link below for direct access to this comprehensive site:

BEINART

Mike Healey