More Tiny Paintings

3x3 inches, acrylic on Tyvek

This week I had a relapse of the cold I caught in Mexico last month, but I have felt well enough to work on this series of miniature paintings.  This one shows my grandfather with his new car, visiting my parents on the farm.  He loved his cars, and we have several of him posing with them. This must be the late 1940s or early 1950s. The figure here is my least favorite of all the paintings so far, just because it is so tiny and was hard to make convincing.

3x3 inches, acrylic on Tyvek

This one, featuring my brother-in-law's grandfather, ice fishing in Door County in the 1940s, is more successful, I think.  Even though the face is vague, the figure is better.  It is hard making out all the details of old black and white snapshots.  I find myself having to just make some things up, and omitting lots of extraneous small items to improve the composition.  I laughed at the original picture.  You can just make out words on the box on the right side, that says "Eat Your Salt."

New Series - Thinking Small

3x3 inches acrylic on Tyvek synthetic paper

As much as I have been enjoying working with collage, I am setting that aside for a couple weeks to work on a series of small paintings for a show of miniature art in Door County.  None of the paintings, drawings, or wee prints will be more than 25 square inches.  I had requested information about the annual show last year, hadn't heard anything for months and months, then got a nicely organized packet of material at the beginning of March.  So, I found myself painting on  4x4 inch scraps of Tyvek, and using techniques I usually save for larger paintings.  This first try was painted from a photo I clipped from a source I no longer remember.  I liked the girls' body language, and their simple shapes, important when working so small. I didn't even try to add details on their suits, or even details of their faces.

3x3 inches, acrylic on Tyvek

This one was adapted from a black and white snapshot I had of my mother and aunt, probably taken about 1940.  Again, I avoided trying to create an actual portrait, instead concentrating on making simple shapes, suggesting autumn with my color choices.  I also worked to have the girls be the obvious center of interest, their faces framed by the ropes of the swing, the strongest colors reserved for them.

3x3 inches, acrylic on Tyvek

This is the painting I finished today.  The girl was cropped from a photo I took on a trip to Punta Cana.  It is becoming very clear to me that the simpler the shapes, the better these little paintings are.  I took the trouble to make a little value study first, concentrating on getting a good range of values.  Once I transfer the sketch to the Tyvek, which I coat with gesso first, then I do a an under painting of complementary colors - very gaudy.  After that I go back and put in the local color, leaving bits of the complementary colors peeking through for added punch. 

I'm excited by this project of miniature paintings, having fun choosing reference material from my trip photos and family stash.  I may do one of my brother-in-law's uncles ice fishing, but I'm not sure I can leave these sunny scenes for a day on a frozen lake - even in paint.

Another Textured background

8x10 inches, mixed media

One of my personal goals is to find a way to create art that is unique to me, or at least it doesn't look like a reflection of the most recent painting workshop I attended.  In 2008 I had a solo show at the local library, and while the comments in the book provided by the library was positive, I had the uneasy feeling that my painting said more about the influence of my various workshop instructors than it did about the way I approach making art.  That show, based on the variety of approaches, media, framing, sizes, everything, looked like it had been created by a committee instead of one person.  Live and learn.

I still resist settling into a single medium or approach, but little by little I see myself gravitating toward either straight collage, or a combination of collage with painting and drawing.  This little piece started out as a recycled quarter sheet of Tyvek.  I didn't like the portrait I had created on a full sheet of the synthetic "paper", so I cut up the sheet and decided to see how else I could it.  I glued down pages from an old telephone directory using soft acrylic gel medium, then went over the results with a mixture of gesso and acrylic paint, to unify the page.  I like using the gesso/paint combination because it has some tooth, and I can draw and erase on it easily.  The image of the woman came from a photo I took of a garden statue.  I liked the simple shape, and the strong areas of sunlight and shadow,  perfect for this technique.  I used white gesso for the highlighted areas, then added black acrylic ink to the white create grays.  Gradually I transitioned to all diluted ink.  The results were OK, but improved when I went over the dark areas with a warm gray colored pencil, and the white areas with a white pencil.  I wasn't thrilled with the somewhat neutral background, so I went over part of that with a marigold colored pencil, and then buffed the background to smooth out and brighten the color. 

I'd like to try this technique on figures done in a figure drawing studio - but of course I need to start hauling myself back to that on upcoming Monday evenings.  The days are getting a little longer, so that will probably start happening soon.