I have always been drawn to the still life : the richly textured photographs of Roger Fenton, the exuberant floral arrangements of the 17th century Dutch painters, the lush roses of Fantin-Latour, and the serenity achieved by painters such as Zurbaran and Morandi.

I don't particularly wish to emulate any of these artists, but the things that attract me to their works are the things that make a scanner an ideal tool: juxtaposition of textures: use of colour, light and shadow, the careful consideration and placement of the individual objects.

I admire painterly photographs. I don't like paintings that look like photographs, or photographs that have been made to look like paintings. Sometimes I use the programme that came with the scanner to change the colour, or the intensity of the image; mostly I use it to remove the dots of pollen which drop off the flowers during the scanning process. Where possible, I prefer to achieve my effect either through the use of different backgrounds, or by laying down transparent materials before making the arrangement.

Besides all that, scanning suits my magpie tendencies. Boxes of shells and stones, bits of driftwood, feathers, dead leaves, scraps of paper and material, old ornaments etc etc now turn out to be useful after all...

See more of Christine's creations
Go to her homepage >

All Images Copyright
© 08-2013,
Christine Page
All rights reserved worldwide.