Scan Artist

Plant. Tend. Clip. Scan. Play around a little. Print and frame. It's all in a day's work for John Poignand of Chatham, a master gardener and digital floral artist.

Poignand's creativity is a fusion of nature, photography, and computer art. His limited-edition prints are the product of a high-quality digital scanner and his manipulation of the images using Adobe Photoshop software. His giclee (French for "spraying of ink") prints reveal incredible details and hues, often showing nuances not seen by the naked eye.

The process begins, though, with Poignand as master gardener. A walk among the ponds and gardens scattered on the half-acre near Ryders Cove that he owns with his wife, Mary Lou, reveals English hollies, tri-color beech trees, Japanese maples, a giant blue atlas evergreen, and perennials galore: lilies, lobelia, hydrangeas, irises, magnolias, roses, and herbs. "If you're English, you garden," says Poignand, a Yorkshire native who moved to Western Massachusetts when he was 10. Soon after, he had his first job, weeding and mowing lawns, at Amherst College for 25 cents an hour.

As an adult, Poignand was a weekend gardener at homes in Westport and Concord, while he and Mary Lou raised a family and John made his living in the computer industry. He traveled a lot, and sometimes his wife came along. "We went to all the galleries and museums," John Poignard says. "Wherever we were -- Bangkok, London, Hong Kong -- we went off to see the gardens."

Eight years ago, Poignand, boyish-looking at 66, moved to Cape Cod with his wife and retired from the computer field. "We bought this house because it had phenomenal gardens," he says of the light-filled Cape-style house where he also has a studio. Three years ago, while playing around with his computer, he placed a crystal ball on his scanner to see what it would look like using Adobe software. "I thought, `Isn't that interesting,' and then I went around the house scanning other things." The first flower he scanned and printed was a dahlia. He entered it in a photo contest sponsored by Chatham's Council of the Arts. It won first prize. "I was off to the races," he says of his new career. "Move over, Georgia O'Keeffe," he says with a laugh.

Up Close

For most gardeners, the reward is the beauty of the blooming flower. For John Poignand, that's just the beginning. A digital artist, Poignand creates his art by placing objects -- flowers, vegetables, leaves from trees -- directly onto a digital scanner. To avoid crushed petals and such, he says, "I don't close the top of the scanner." Sometimes he suspends the object above the machine and scans it in multiple parts.

He then uses Adobe Photoshop to preview, crop, and alter the image, adjusting contrast or changing colors. He adds black backgrounds for a three-dimensional look. "I tweak until I get what I like. My mouse is my brush."

For the final steps, Poignand saves the image and then prints it on an Epson color printer using fine art paper. "The paper is treated so ink stays on the surface," he says. Sizes range from 4 inches by 6 inches, with prints starting at $25, unframed, to 42 inches by 48 inches, with prints costing up to $800, unframed. The larger prints are made by Hunter Editions, a company in Kennebunkport, Maine, but small- and medium-size prints are issued by Poignand from his home studio.

On View

Poignand issues his botanical art in limited editions ranging from 30 to 250 prints, depending on the size. "I don't think people want every Tom, Dick, and Harry to have the same print," he says.

His prints are available at Kennedy Studios on Cape Cod. He will be showing his work at the Maine Boats & Harbors Show in Rockland, Maine, from August 13 to 15 and at the Festival of the Arts at Chase Park in Chatham from August 20 to 22. Prints and a price list also are available online at www.john-poignand.com.

Marie C. Franklin is a member of the Globe staff.