This community is for the display and discussion of artwork created by utilizing, depicting, or replicating one or more natural processes. These can include but are not limited to: chemistry, tidal forces, gravity, sediment deposition/erosion, lightning, organic processes, burning, eco-graffiti, pyro-chemography, fractal expressionism, photomicrography, colonization, etc!
2nd Place at the Biophysical Society's annual Art of Science competition in 2024 went to Benjamin Stottrup for this stunning image - "Every breath you take is possible because of lung surfactant. Lung surfactant makes these intricate and beautiful patterns that vary with composition and surface pressure. This image was taken by confocal fluorescence microscopy. Sample composition is 9:1 (4:1 r:racDPPC):hexadecanol with 1.5 mol% dehydrocholesterol."
This image of a rodent optic nerve head showing astrocytes (yellow), contractile proteins (red) and retinal vasculature (green) by Hassanain Qambari and Jayden Dickson won first place at the 2023 NSW Photomicrography competition.
https://www.nikonsmallworld.com/galleries/2023-photomicrography-competition/rodent-optic-nerve-head
The processes of erosion and subsequent sediment deposition can produce some very intriguing and visually staggering imagery, whether on a small scale, or visible from satellites, as presented here.
Wherever there is nature, you will never be far from Art.
https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/10/dan-coe-lidar-rivers/
One of the most amazing things about Art which is meant to change within an environment as the environment changes, is the cumulative effects that change can have, when viewed over a long period of time. This artwork was meant to archive that change, as that change transformed the work of art.
It's important to revisit works like these, to get in touch with the passing of time in beautiful new ways.
Kim's work resulted in this beautiful image, which won 2nd place in the annual "Art of Science" image contest hosted by the Biophysical Society, in 2013!
https://www.biophysics.org/Portals/0/BPSAssets/Awards/ImageContest/
Sediment deposition/erosion is a natural process that produces some breath-taking imagery! Many thanks to Brian for this newest work!
This image was captured by Differential Interference Contrast by Dr. Lynn Boatner et al of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA for the 2003 NSW competition, where it placed 15th. ...But of course I will hone in on it because it looks so much like a landscape!
This painting was a salvage operation, from the moment when I discovered that my gesso had been replaced by a cheap impostor wearing the same bucket. The gesso cracked and fell away from the masonite, and I almost gave up on this painting - and painting in general. I didn't though, and just applied more gesso over what was left in this painting. The end result was definitely an interesting surface to apply pigment to, resembling a rocky coastline where a few puzzle-pieces of gesso held on.
My work has always attempted to echo nature, by applying some of the same processes that nature uses - in this case sediment deposition (in addition to fractal field applications), to reproduce alluvial fans, river deltas, and other geological features often found in the natural world.
Pigment is applied in a highly aqueous state by pouring it over a level painting like flood waters, which move over some areas quickly, and others more slowly. Depending on the pigment grain, the individual particles settle at different rates, collecting on the surface in differing concentrations. Just like in nature, this liquid collects from these "rivers and streams" into larger "lakes and seas", which sometimes take days to dry completely in the sun.
Each consecutive layer interacts in unexpected ways with the previous, resulting in a work that was painted by nature. As the artist I just facilitated the various processes it needed to accomplish its magic.
https://blog.yourdesignjuice.com/2021/11/an-artists-life-by-loren-hall/
Submitted to the Nikon photomicrography competition in 1990, this entry won 4th place. In addition to just being a lovely piece, it has the distinctive signs of nature repeating herself - this time in the form of an alien desert landscape! And THAT, is a tell-tale sign that some natural process art is afoot!
The more I look at these, the more I'm taken by the feeling that what I'm looking at was not only formed by nature, but colonized by nature in a seemingly random way that has a mind of its own - apart from the artist. It is this "mind" that creates a lot of natural process art, and as an artist I can tell you that it is a joy and a wonder to work with, once you can forge a relationship with it.
I do not think that this particular artist copies mold colonial distribution exactly, mapping them all out using mathematical coordinates, but there's an overall feeling that says "this is natural", not a placement that feels labored over, or over-considered, and that requires an artist for which the natural world, its preservation and presentation, is more important than the ego, or the will of the artist.
I can highly respect that.
This entry from the 2013 competition won first place, and in spite of its rather pixelated appearance, it is indeed fascinating, and visually intriguing! It was created by using fluorescence microscopy imaging, and shows "alterations in the morphology of Dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) monolayers at an air/water interface due to extended exposure (8 days) to carbon nanodiamond particles. The images show discrete dark liquid condensed phase domains in a continuous bright liquid expanded phase due to interactions with the carbon nanoparticles."
...I couldn't have said it better, myself.
This image won first place in the NSW photomicrography competition, in 1990. Looking at the other entries from that year, the competition seemed to be fairly stiff. I will most definitely be posting some more images from that year!
This particular image was produced by Richard H. Lee of Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, Illinois, and looks for all the world like a fish rising to the surface of the water to me.
This striking image, produced by Eammon Kennedy of Notre Dame, is a composite of six Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) topographs of cancer cells. Programmed cell death (apoptosis) has been induced by laser irradiation.
This image won 2nd place in The Biophysical Society's annual Science of Art competition, in 2017.
Elin Thomas has used the "mold and lichen" motif on everything from clothing to book covers and more, but her exhibition pieces are arguably her most intriguing, because rather than using these individual elements as an accent, or simple adornment, these larger pieces capture the random distribution of colonies over an area, which to me is every bit as fascinating and visually captivating as the formations themselves.
Are scientific illustrations natural process art? That is up for debate, but in my opinion any art that is based on direct observations of nature can be considered natural process art, so long as the intent is not only to illustrate an idea, or present a thing, but present it in an aesthetic, visually appealing way. The intent is also to create something beautiful, not just educational, or scientifically accurate.
The work of Ernst Haeckel definitely fits into this category. Not only does it offer an accurate reporting of biological forms in their various environments and life cycles, but does so in a staggeringly beautiful, graphically intriguing manner.
All work from "Kunst Formen der Natur".
The intricacy and color depth of this one just floor me... It came in 8th place in the Small World competition in 2014, but if you ask me it should have ranked higher, in spite of the high quality of the competition!
This video was produced by the same organization that brings us their annual agar art contest each year! I was fascinated to learn how this is done, and hopefully the process will intrigue you, as well!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXwxU-nIcDY&pp=ygUIYWdhciBhcnQ%3D
