This artwork was printed on Sunset Photo Metallic paper. The work was created as one panel that is face-mounted to Plexiglass®. The artwork is 60 x 120 inches.

About this image:

Running throughout the background of this image is a design based on the Mandelbrot set fractal. This is a rough, or fragmented, geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-sized copy of the whole. The Koch snowflake fractal design comes in many forms but is typically a self-similar pattern, where it is the same from near as from far. Fractals may be exactly the same at every scale, or they can be a fractal that begins with an equilateral triangle and then replaces the middle third of every line segment with a pair of line segments that form an equilateral bump.

Snowflakes are a perfect example of natural geometry. Generally, six-sided hexagonal crystals are shaped in high clouds; needles or flat six-sided crystals are shaped in middle height clouds; and a wide variety of six-sided shapes are formed in low clouds.

The snowflakes used in this image were made with a Canon7D camera mounted to a microscope.

Natural Insight: About the Project

The digital artworks in this collection are inspired by the world of nature, and in particular the four seasons. They employ the use of Canon's photographic and printing technology together with the traditional tools of the fine art painter. Canon technology is helping us to see the micro and macro worlds previously unavailable to us. This has deepened our understanding of the holistic interdependent biosphere that we inhabit and its connection to the rest of the universe.

These conceptual artworks were created to provide an interrelationship of Hugh O'Donnell's traditional painting techniques, botanical imagery, and in particular plantings at the new Canon Americas headquarters, as well as imagery from the natural world, poetry, bio-mimicry, and scientific references. Canon optical innovations and Canon equipment, including the Canon EOS 5D Mark II Digital SLR camera and various lenses, were used throughout.

The artworks have been developed to exploit the capacity of high definition digital optics. To this end, the materials and photographs used in the works were captured and composed to allow for large scale fine art mural printing in high definition on Canon printers. Photographic elements, with some exceptions, were shot by Hugh O'Donnell.