Stunning miniature worlds capture Australia’s raw beauty as you’ve never seen it before

Source: News

Forster in NSW (left) and Mareeba in Far North Queensland: incredible images by Australian digital artist Catherine Nelson

AN AMAZING series of digitally manipulated artworks by the Australian visual artist who brought Kylie to life in Moulin Rouge stretches the boundaries of how we see the natural world.

Sydney born artist Catherine Nelson takes hundreds of photographs of a specific location before spending up to a month digitally stitching them together to make one incredible imaginary landscape.

Miniature worlds: Sydney Botanical Gardens. Image: Catherine Nelson

Her art works feature Australian landscapes such as the Snowy Mountains, Kosciuszko National Park and Far North Queensland’s Mareeba wetlands, as well as European landscapes.

Nelson’s beautiful transcendental orbs have been described as “miniature worlds”.

Miniature worlds: Snowy Mountains. Image: Catherine Nelson

Begun as a simple way to tell many stories in one image, the works are made possible by modern technology such as Adobe’s image editing software Photoshop and the 64GB memory cards the artist uses to store hundreds of high resolution pictures.

Employing Photoshop’s toolbar as her painterly pallet, Nelson’s career shows how creative artists are exploiting digital tools to take visual art in hitherto unexplored directions.

Miniature worlds: Forster, NSW. Image: Catherine Nelson

“I’ve always looked at the world with a painter’s perspective”, says the artist from her home in Ghent, Belgium.

Employing a technological version of traditional collage, she takes hundreds of photographs of a particular location with her Canon 7D camera, then stiches them together on her computer to make dramatic large scale images exhibited at 150cm x 150cm and 100cm x 100cm.

Miniature worlds: Mareeba, Far North Queensland. Image: Catherine Nelson

After studying paining at Chelsea College of Art in London and Sydney College of Fine Arts, Nelson embarked on a glittering career in the movie industry as a digital compositor on films such as Harry Potter, 300 and Moulin Rouge.

Beginning her movie career in the early days of the CGI revolution initiated by Industrial Light & Magic and Pixar Animation Studios, Nelson likens her time working on feature films to the long apprenticeships of Renaissance painters in the 17th century.

“I was exposed to the latest technologies and fabulous techniques. It was a fantastic training, a brilliant way to build my skills”.

She played a key role realising Kylie Minogue’s unforgettable cameo as The Green Fairy in Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge.

Miniature worlds: Guthega, Kosciusko National Park. Image: Catherine Nelson

Since 2008 Nelson has combined her expertise as a painter and digital compositor to create wonderful imaginary landscapes.

Miniature worlds: The Kings Garden. Image: Catherine Nelson

Showcasing nature’s beauty and fragility, miniature worlds have a particular appeal in an age when many people are concerned by the pressures humanity is placing on the environment.

Miniature worlds: Danube Lillies. Image: Catherine Nelson

The artist says that her works are a positive reminder that much of the natural world remains wonderfully wild.

“A lot of people have been writing to say how moving they find them,” she says. “These are very inclusive.”

“People worry about the planet, but I try to present a positive picture of our surroundings and people respond to that optimism.”

Nelson’s first exhibition was shown at the Centre for Contemporary Photography in Sydney in 2010, and since then she has been shown around the world at galleries in London, Los Angeles, Paris and Beijing. She is currently preparing for an exhibition in South Korea, with Miami to follow in December.

Catherine Nelson is represented by Michael Reid Gallery in Sydney and Gallery Smith in Melbourne.