Pip the pipsqueak pup

Sunday, April 04, 2010

a win for a mini Pip

I entered my first and only (and perhaps last) miniature painting in this year's Royal Easter Show in Sydney. I've always adored miniatures, and thought it'd be amusing to do one of little Pip. The painting is called Merdog, and you can't really tell from this picture that was taken by a Sydney-based family member's phone, but it's of Pip on the beach wearing Seaweed hair.

I'm not a painter. The limitations of the medium irritate me. I like the tactility of drawing and sculpture: the way that you can use your hands so actively; and the ability to respond quickly to sudden inspiration or changes. I made the mistake of thinking that oil paint would dry within 2 weeks. The fact that I couldn't do quick layer upon layer meant that this painting actually took me a year to complete, despite the fact that it's only about seven square centimeters.

So after the completion of this tiny epic painting, I was quite pleased that I received second prize and the associated monetary 'compensation' (for the time spent labouring over my magnifying glass, tiny brush in hand).

I receive a lot of emails about professional art awards and competitions, yet none seem to be specifically asking for miniature painting, hence why I chose the rather daggy (and unprofessional) Sydney Royal Easter Show as the place to exhibit the work. It's a shame the genre is so out of vogue, because despite my lack of enthusiasm for actually producing work of this size, I love looking at tiny works of art.

Monday, March 15, 2010

messy printing weekend

This weekend I finally got around to printing a couple of lino prints I did months ago in front of TV. I was a bit fidgety and had a spare square of lino lying around so I cut a version of The Bone Delusion: