Nested



This is one of Tyson's "Mathematical Nature" paintings.



This means that he has applied the paint to the aluminium in a mathematical order. In this case, he poured on the pigments in a numbered spiral but only where the prime numbers would fall.



Usually Tyson uses 10 to 15 substances on each work, including stained-glass window paint, ceramic glazes, resins and pigments he's invented himself.



(Image: Keith Tyson)

Fire



The following four works are the "Elements" series of the "Nature" paintings.



The idea for the work came about by accident while Tyson was busy collecting "all the paints known to man" in his studio for another project.



"One day they all collapsed and there was just this huge pile of junk on the floor. I was devastated as this was thousands of pounds' worth of paint, but there was one corner that had this incredibly DNA-like structure.



"I spent ages trying to work out which paints were responsible and in the process found more patches of the mess that I liked."



(Image: Keith Tyson)

Earth



Tyson says it's purely coincidental that his paintings end up looking organic: like a geological formation, a collection of tissues on a medical slide or an artist's impression of a black hole.



The title of this work refers to the way he creates the art, he says, rather than what it ends up looking like.



(Image: Keith Tyson) Advertisement

Water



"Nature does its stuff instantly, at all scales, everywhere. There's no part of the painting that can be lazy. It all has to obey the laws of physics," says Tyson.



"You zoom into them and they retain their level of detail, but with a painting done by hand you can always get down to the brush marks. The paintings look as good close up as they do far away.



"Nature's better at painting than I am."



(Image: Keith Tyson)