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I keep expanding the gallery wall in my studio as I make more and more tiny oil paintings. (Though as you can see, I am starting to paint some slightly bigger paintings as well.) This is proof that you don’t have to plan a gallery wall in advance, instead, you can let it grow organically as your art collection grows. (And you can always fill in blank spaces with plants!)
As I keep making more and more tiny oil paintings, it’s really fun to see the gallery wall growing. (Since hanging the paintings is the best way to keep space clear on my work table for more paintings!)
I did plenty of painting this week, but haven’t had a chance to share until now, so I’m going to be sharing a lot in this post! Most of these paintings are part of my tiny paintings series, but a few are a bit larger. (Including a 6″ x 6″ and, I know I’m getting crazy here, an 8″ x 10″ painting I made yesterday!)
And speaking of series, I feel like I’m starting to hone in on a cohesive body of work, which I’m calling (not quite officially) Bridges and Boulders.
Today is a big day! These 16 tiny oil paintings are now available in my online shop! Of course, I’m a little sad that they won’t all be hanging on my wall like this anymore, but I also believe that art is meant to be seen and shared, which is why I’m making them available to you! (And I’m selling them individually, so you can buy one or a whole wall full!) Click here to check them out for yourself.
Ever since I saw the Matisse exhibition In Search of True Paining at the Met, I’ve been inspired by the idea of exploration variation through subtle tweaks between one work and the next. And this came out a lot as I was playing with new watercolor sketches the other day.
When I started working on my tiny oil paintings, the first place I looked for inspiration (and subject matter ideas) was the sketchbooks where I keep all my watercolor marker sketches. It turns out, there’s lots of ideas to work with there!
But then the other night, it occurred to me that I didn’t have to be limited to just the watercolor sketches I’ve already done. So I pulled out my watercolor markers and started playing with new ideas. Then the next day, I went into the studio and turned a few of those into more tiny oil paintings.
It’s been a while since I’ve done any plant shopping, so on Saturday, I decided it was time to remedy that.
It turns out that my local garden center cuts way back on their selection of indoor plants over the summer in favor of lots more outdoor plants. Which was a bit of a bummer, because I don’t do outdoor plants. (I’m highly sensitive to poison ivy, so outdoor gardening is seriously stressful for me!)
Fortunately, they did have some succulents that were calling my name. I’ve been mostly resisting succulents to this point because I’m worried my current studio situation doesn’t have enough light for them. But I decided to give these guys a go.
And while they aren’t that big compared to some of the plants in my studio, they are pretty big as far as succulents go. And even though I wasn’t trying at all, these two plants ended up being the perfect fit for these two Elizabeth Benotti planters (ok, I think one is technically a vase) that I picked up over the last couple of months.
Of course, I couldn’t resist tossing in one of my new tiny paintings just to complete the scene!
I was running out of room on my work table for the tiny oil paintings I’ve been making, so I started hanging some of them up. It turns out that tiny paintings are great for making a little gallery wall!
I know I said I wanted to work bigger, but now that I started making these tiny oil paintings, I can’t stop!
I think I have creative ADD. Just a couple days after writing this post about scale (and how I wanted to work larger and on paper) and on the same day that Tara posted this thoughtful response to my question “can you be taken seriously as an artist if you only work in watercolor?” I decided to bust out my oil paints.