Dripping Tulip

John Grant works in photography, paint, and printmaking, sometimes combining different techniques or exploring innovative uses of technology to create his images. Recent works by the artist take the form of striking floral close-ups.

Spring Flowers

I really enjoy the artist’s recent floral works. While they look like photographs, in at least some of these, the artist uses a high-resolution scanner to capture the form of a flower’s blossom – and not much else. The flower becomes all-encompassing, taking up most of the picture plane. Presented on black backgrounds, the florals take on a dramatic, dynamic appearance – one work, depicting a red and white tulip, is recognizable as the cover image for one of the novels in the Twilight series.

There are obvious parallels between these images, and paintings by Georgia O’Keefe – the way the floral forms become almost abstracted at such a close distance – but the aesthetic is all Grant’s own. I like the way his medium preserves the natural, velvety texture of the flower petals, lending an extra dimension to each work.

Purple Tulip