Topher Straus

Topher Straus's body of work represents an unconventional, stylized approach to depicting natural and urban landscapes. Sublimated onto large-scale metal sheets, they are powerful statement pieces that instantly surprise and engage the viewer. His process merges technology with an artist’s eye for form and colour to highlight the essence of each subject matter, allowing his digital creations to pop off the metal substrate.

My process includes modern technology and methods that haven’t  been around very long, and are rarely utilized by creators of fine art.

I start with a photograph of a natural landscape (mountains, rivers,  oceans, etc). I examine the photo and look for the most intriguing  aspects of the image and for the most prominent colors. Then I take  my stylus and select specific colors from the original image—turning it  into my palette—and paint over the photograph with those original  colors.  

Once I’ve obsessed over the minute details, and I feel content with the  quality and composition of the digital painting, I sublimate the painting  onto an aluminum sheet—the sublimation process bonds dye to the  aluminum on a molecular level. The aluminum sheet is then coated in  a glossy resin, to give it a partially mirrored finish. 

The end result is a well-known landscape engulfed in contoured lines  that superimpose the autogenous beauty of the original photograph. I  take recognizable, natural landscapes and convert them into a modern  array of sharp lines—blending and contorting them up the slope of a  mountain or shaping the soft, blurred lines of a waterfall. My zest for transcending established iconography makes for a unique  combination of traditional vistas and modern style.