I LIKE small

I love this shot from Nahcotta Gallery.....plenty of small art neatly arranged, ready to hang....mine are in there. I'd like to see how they hang all this....I'll bet they do a great job. Check out the show if you're in the area.

The Enormous Tiny Art Show 7, opening Friday February 4th, 5-8 pm.

Nahcotta Gallery

Works on small panels for Nahcotta Gallery

These are the last of the paintings that will be sent off to Nahcotta...but as always, everything else will enter my Etsy shop almost the moment it is completed.

Property Line

7.25" x 6.5" acrylic collage painting on pine panel. I was very pleased to discover this little size...there is a whole series of works on panels this size and I'll make many works on paper this size also. I need to frame these up soon, but a very nice black tom cat has moved into my basement and I don't want to freak him out with miter saw noise before he feels perfectly at home. The tom that lives upstairs still wants to murder him so I don't want them together.

In the continuing saga of little pleasures, I was happy to find a use for the orange collage paper on the bottom. Perfect for this November scene. Orange is an uncomfortable colour for me and I don't do much with it. One of the advantages of collage is that you are very likely to find surprises in colour outside your comfort zone....it's very easy to move colours in and out to assess effect.

Aspen Stand, Late Autumn

One more for Nahcotta Gallery. 8" x 10" cradled birch, gessoed panel, acrylic.

It feels great to have some time off at Christmas. I'm trying to stick to my usual rate of a painting a day....so far so good....today I painted a moody stand with a grey sky and a snowbound field in the foreground.

To Collage....or Not

The 2nd image is 8" x 10" acrylic collage painting on cradled birch panel, and the first is a straight acrylic painting on smaller pine panel. The decisions work something like this. I know when I will paint....I know if it will be tomorrow or not for example. To some degree it depends on how busy I am with other things, but I know the next painting will be within a day or so. I don't know what will be painted. I might stop the car on a back road on the way to school and make a 30 second sketch from a motif I see, or I might try to make an encapsulation of the overall mood of the whole day, but using a specific motif to accomplish this. Just as I start the work session...setting up the lights and the materials....I decide there and then how the piece will be made. I know then but not before, if it should be a straight painting or a collage painting...and I usually feel that with great certainty. The approach of the collage paintings is way different...making them feels different....the pace of making is different. I also usually know how long it will take. I might know before hand that the work should be done in an hour...or perhaps three, if I expect to meander around.

These 2 will also go to Nahcotta Gallery

Some New Paintings

I've been working on 10 or 12 works that will be sent to the
Nahcotta Gallery tiny art group show in the new year. I won't be able to go, but I think it'll be fun to check out...send me a photo if you're there. I've always liked tiny art shows....little treasures all jammed together. I'll post the series here over the next few days. These are acrylic collage paintings on pine panels 7.25" x 6.5". These 2 show that dry, quiet November period...an odd time really...rather hard to live through, but quite beautiful in its way.

Thanksgiving Day

October 12th...Thanksgiving Day in Canada....chilly and cloudy but the fall colours are intense. Here just a bit of red peeks through into the coniferous line. Small acrylic on gessoed paper, 7" x 6", listed on Etsy.

Most recently I've been painting a series of small 8" x 10" panels for the next Enormous Tiny Art Show at Nahcotta Gallery in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Nahcotta Gallery

My fascination with tiny art goes back a long way. I started making small things as a way to continue producing while teaching. I've always needed to finish the work in one sitting and it was possible to produce regularly even with an often demanding schedule. Beyond that, I also found that the small works were more open, contained more surprises, were more intuitive and free, and in many ways more intriguing overall. There is also something secretive about small work which is appealing...more can be said because it is whispered.

There is also something more democratic about tiny works. They are cheaper and really, anyone can afford a piece if they are interested. This opens up the market to those who are younger and just starting out, giving them more time to develop a strong sense of connoisseurship. Larger pieces need larger walls, putting restrictions both upon those who might buy and the artist who makes. Believe me it is easier to warehouse 400 tiny paintings than that number of larger canvases! You hold a tiny piece closer to your body and feel a sense of intimacy, and there are any number of places and ways it can be exhibited in any and all home environments.

I'll hold back the works for the Nahcotta until it is time to ship, but everything else goes directly into my shop. It has been my practice to avoid galleries for the past number of years because I enjoy the online selling experience a great deal. But I liked how Nahcotta was doing things and wish them great luck with their tiny art ventures....they are worth a look!