Abstract Art by Paul McGuire

Paul McGuire


Abstract Artist: Paul McGuire
Medium: Digital
Website: www.fractallography.com

My work uses a digital process whose algorithm is similar to the same ones that govern natural phenomena, so my images evoke many natural patterns: smoke, fire, water, land. These natural forms often resonate with the viewer’s own life experience, and people usually connect with a particular image over others, in their own unique way. Some pieces are truly random generations, which I modify by adjusting the internal color and shape transforms; others are seeded from photographs to introduce patterns or a target color palette. Finally, I produce the images on canvas, tile, or glass in extremely high resolution, which provides new levels of discovery to the viewer, even over time.

Paul grew up with a variety of artistic and cultural influences. His older brothers studied creative writing and poetry, sculpture, and architecture. Paul’s own interests were in computers and mathematics. But computer arts were growing in the popular consciousness. Conway published his Game of Life, a program that generates endless complex patterns of swarming pixels following very simple rules of pixel “birth” and “death”. Mandelbrot’s famous fractal art also showed the limitless complexity and beauty of a simple recursive expression, and bridged these artificially produced patterns to very similar ones found in nature.

In the mid-1980’s Paul wrote his own software to generate fractal art, using a process of fractal decomposition similar to that used to generate fractal landscapes. Paul added his own formulas for transforming color and form, but the images he created at that time were rough and crude. In 2008, Paul revisited his program with modern computer resources, and was able to create much more complex and intricate images, with filaments and flares of color and shape. Since then he has produced these works in limited editions on canvas, tile, and glass, and has sold works in the US and Europe. Paul lives and produces his artwork at his home in Austin, Texas.

Browse Other Artists

Scott Fisher
Karo Evans
S.A. Barone
Helen Wheatley
Nancy Perry
KR Moehr
Bregje Horsten
Annie Rodrigue
Laura Warburton
Jack Hernon
Ernie Ferguson
D.U.R.A
Vasco Kirov
Nestor Toro
Kevin Geary
Ludolf Grolle
Arvee
Leo Otzen
Julian Vergara
Marianne Hornbuckle
Claudiu Presecan
Remmi Franklin
Juan Jose Catalán
Molly Sieburg Courcelle
Natalie Abrams
Tim O' Connell
Jan van Oort
Susie Gadea
Craig Peck
Tim Lincoln
Allison Iris
Susan J. Harris
Theresa Paden
Jan Corcoran
Teresa Castaneda
Stephanie Shank
Megan Rieke
Monika Jensen
Sandi Neiman Lovitz
Durand Seay
Gregg Simpson
Georgina Vinsun
Catherine Emile
Alexander Sadoyan
Alexis James
Sadettin Karacagil
Lara von Waldenburg
Drew Wood
Carrie MaKenna
Niki Katiki
Kerrie Warren
Usha
Cristina White-Jones
Mauro Maris
Rathi Thevi R
Evelyn Collins
Wayne Marto
Carolynne Coulson
Linda Sherman
Jenny Hunter Groat
Jane Tracy
Greg Benz
Alan Soffer
Nick Dwyer
Jaison Cianelli
Olivia Alexander
Vassil Stoyev
Lucie Beardwood
Rebecca Klementovich
Stuart Kirby
Mo Tuncay
Gabor Csaszar
Sean Ruttkay
Sona Mirzaei
Claudie Bastide
Penelope Paige
Brian Adgate
Geoff Oke
Stephanie Paige
Van Renselar
Jennifer Perlmutter
Joanne Tarlin
JJ Jacobs
Linda Langerak
Eelco Maan
Diana Farace
Cheryl Pirkl
Wayne Salvatore
Paul Bennett
Marina Rehrmann
Arthur Jacob
David Munroe
Sharon T. Hirsch
Amie Williams
Nicola Harvey
Cathe Hendrick
Fola Lawson
John Cullen
Steven Montgomery
Beau Wild
Regina Reid
Patricia J. Finley
Al Johnson
Bente Hansen
Ansgar Dressler
Anne Grandin
Linda Wiltz
Eduardo Monteagudo
Teun van der Zalm
Donna Blackhall
Barbara Brady
Mirza Zupljanin
Adrian Negenborn
Keith Adams
Pat Stacy
Teresa Young
Andrea Sabeli
Genie Maples
Caroline Ashwood
Philip Oliver