minis and miniature art

Blue Blooded mini, copyright Teresa Mallen, coloured pencil on colourfix paper, 6" w x 2 3/4" h

Here are some minis I have been working on this past week. The piece above and the one below are approximately six inches wide by three inches wide. Both are done in coloured pencil on colourfix paper. I had a lot of fun doing these. If you have been following my blog for a while, the mini above might look a bit familiar. It was inspired by my work entitled  Blue Blooded.

Mini # 2, copyright Teresa Mallen, coloured pencil on colourfix paper, 6 1/2 " w x 3" h

My motivation to create some smaller works started last fall. Some of you might recall that I was working with ink and cps and I was dashing off small works of feathers and fruit and such. I eventually got a bit bored with this so I stopped.

Then last November, I purchased the drawing magazine pictured on the left. The cp portrait on the cover is the art of Kerry Brooks. I was surprised to learn that Kerry not only works quite big but she has also done very detailed, smaller works (3" x 4" for example). 

The seeds of inspiration were sown and I soon started pondering doing some cp minis (as I call them). I must confess previously having an aversion to working small simply because I am not that keen on squishing tons of detail into a tiny area, and well, I like detail! But hey, when the muse beckons... :-)

Mini Rose #1, copyright Teresa Mallen
4  3/4" w x 3  3/4" h, coloured pencil on Stonehenge paper

Miniature Art is a very interesting genre. I find it fascinating that people use magnifying glasses in order to place teeny, tiny brush strokes on intricate originals the size of postage stamps. There are miniature art societies in countries all around the globe.

Of course there was the eruption of ATCs (2.5 x 3.5 inches) onto the art scene a few years back. Millions of artist trading cards were created and swapped. Later many artists transitioned into ACEOs (art cards,editions and orginals), selling these art cards during the Daily Painter craze. I saw an enormous amount of bad art back then as people jumped on the bandwagon of creating quickly and making sales. I am glad this fad seems to be over. I am not knocking the Daily Painters out there, the ones still standing are doing excellent work, just saying I had a thing about those ATCs... :-)

So, to be clear, my intent is not to create miniatures in the formal sense of the word and I am not working ATC size nor am I considering these ACEOs.

Mini Rose # 2, copyright Teresa Mallen
3 3/4" w x 3 1/4 " h, coloured pencil on Stonehenge paper

The roses are in the four inch by three inch range.

When more have been completed, I shall create a sales gallery. These minis shall be offered up for sale matted and unframed so shipping shall be nice and easy. I will of course post about that development when it happens.

For now I am hoping to get some good photo references on those apples I mentioned in a previous post (need a sunny day for good shadows) and in the meantime, I have started a new peony petals piece - another one for the series!

Finished Blue Blooded

Blue Blooded, Coloured Pencil on Colourfix Paper, 19" x 17" (48cm x 43cm)

Copyright Teresa Mallen

Here is a finished image of my funky Blue Blooded. The colours are brighter and more vivid in real life but this is the best photo I have at the moment. Until I worry about getting a good image for my website, this shall suffice. I have had this done for quite awhile but every time I wanted to take a photo, it was raining outside. I find this a spooky piece to have in the studio unframed. It looks so much like pastel that every time I move it from one spot to another, I keep expecting pastel pigment to fall off!

Things have been real exciting in the studio - I have been taking inventory. Woo-hoo. :-) I have gone through my pencils and I have shopped for ones that needed replacing. I even got out my superglue and glued pencil stubs to my new pencils. Now I realize that some cp artists think this is going over the top. Many just throw out their pencils when they shorten down so much that that they are impossible to hold on to or sharpen. Me, I like to glue. I find it works really well, they sharpen just fine in my electric sharpener and they look really cool when people visit your studio!

I attended a presentation last week by local watercolour artist Brian Seed. For readers who are watercolour artists, you might wish to check out the handprint website. Brian recommended it as a great resource for info. I had a look and it does seem like you could spend quite a bit of time there.

I always like seeing the work of coloured pencil artists. The April/May 2010 issue of International Artist featured several pages of cp art by Judith Burton. If you don't have a copy of the magazine, you can see Judith's work by visiting the pencil gallery on her website. (just click her name for the hyperlink)

Well yippee, my taxes are done. Now I am working on tweaking my website. In the studio, I have some pots of Colourfix primer (the same stuff that is applied to the surface of Colourfix sanded pastel paper) waiting to be applied to some birch panels that I have bought.

For those of you who have been reading for awhile, you will be well aware of all of my trips out of town to get the house when my parents had lived ready for sale. I am happy to report that much work has been done and the property has now been listed in real estate. That translates into more time in the studio for me. Finally. Oh and in the garden too. :-)

It is a beautiful spring here in Ottawa. Here are a few pics I took today.

Starting with daffodils...

forsythia shrub...




white hyacinth...



and some red tulips that are starting to open...

You might recall my basement grow-op that I mentioned a few weeks ago. Here are some of my tomato plant seedlings as they look now...

And here are some squash seedlings...


May you be enjoying a wonderful spring where you are!