Featured Artist Tom Grill

Photographer Tom Grill assembles different scene structures into a comprehensive story. Find more of his work by visiting his website.

 

Everglades photography by Tom Grill

“Everglades sawgrass and morning skies” limited edition photograph on aluminum, 32″ x 40″

 

I spent most of my career as a professional photographer in New York advertising. I also travelled extensively throughout the United States and the world, photographing its natural beauty for my art.

 

photograph of the Everglades by Tom Grill

“Everglade abstraction, study III” limited edition photograph on aluminum, 64″ x 36″ or 44″ x 26″

 

For the past five years, I have lived in Florida where I have concentrated on photographing its defining natural landscape of ocean, sky and the Everglades.

 

photograph of Antelope Canyon by Tom Grill

“Falling sand Antelope Canyon” limited edition photograph on aluminum, 50″ x 30″ or 40″ x 24″

 

I search for meaning in my subject by mentally digging below its surface. I look there for the underlying geometric structure that betrays its form, much as the rhythmic structure of the nautilus shell gives evidence of the symmetrical mystery in our natural world. In exploring these patterns, I try to create images that are objects for meditation.

 

seascape photography by Tom Grill

“The fall of Icarus” limited edition photograph on aluminum, 32″ x 32″ or 24″ x 24″

 

I think of myself as a minimalist artist. I try not to look for a single, complex explanation of the scene before me, but strive instead to ferret out its simplicity and capture it in one, sparsely re-assembled image.

 

photograph of a snowstorm by Tom Grill

“Snow storm on The Pond” limited edition archival pigment print, 40″ x 26″

 

I impose the structure I see within a scene onto the scene itself. The human mind has always attempted to find an underlying comprehensible pattern to the universe we live in. I seek this in my art.

 

photograph of Death Valley by Tom Grill

“Death Valley sunset” limited edition photograph on aluminum, 65″ x 37″ or 44″ x 25″

 

The modern digital camera allows me to not just see a subject and capture it in one shot. The freedom offered by the automated convenience of modern cameras offers the ability to explore a subject—to walk around it, examine it from different angles, different times of day, close-up, far away, overhead.

 

seascape photography by Tom Grill

“Mariner’s dream” limited edition photograph on aluminum, 36″ x 24″ or archival pigment print, 30″ x 20″

 

I don’t “take a picture” anymore. Instead, I explore a scene, take many photographs from different viewpoints and later sort through these images and reassemble them to tell a more comprehensive story of what I experienced.

 

seascape photography by Tom Grill

“Morning by the sea” limited edition photograph on aluminum, 60″ x 40″ or 40″ x 24″

 

It might take minutes, hours, or even days to cover a subject this way. The time I spend actually becomes a critical part of the composition itself. Sometimes I might capture distant views of my subject from the overhead perspective of a helicopter and later, on the ground, by walking or hiking through the same landscape for a more intimate, close-up view.

 

photograph of a Florida sunrise by Tom Grill

“Florida Sunrise I” limited edition photograph on aluminum, 60″ x 33″ or 40″ x 22″

 

The many photographs I take while covering a subject like this become building blocks for the final image I create. I find that by assembling these myriad viewpoints into a single cohesive composition, and combining it with the overlay of a geometric pattern, I can provide the viewer with more of a complete experience.

 

abstract photography by Tom Grill

“Tropical dreams” limited edition photograph on aluminum, 52″ x 27″ or 40″ x 20″

 

Concern for the ecological condition of our world today plays a large role in what I see before me and how I interpret it in my art. This ecological concern is an important part of the world we live in today and it cannot be ignored.

 

Artist Tom Grill invites you to follow him on Facebook and Instagram.

 

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