Painting Figures in Miniature

This course is for artists who like painting big! With painting in miniature you will flex your muscle for distilling a lifesize figure into the intimate format of 4x6” or 6x6” canvas.

There are galleries that only want tiny art: there are Calls For Artists inviting only the works of small scale, there are juried exhibitions of mini-paintings, special departments in art museums dedicated to exhibiting miniatures, there are interior designers who seek artworks for compact spaces, art collectors who buy exclusively miniature paintings. One of these art collectors is Cheech, who in his interview to the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego says: “Small paintings hold a very unique power - the power of intimacy. Small paintings whisper to you. You have to get up close to them and pay attention because they are communicating a message that is told at a very low volume... [As an artist] you have to say everything you were going to say, but concisely, and the clarity of vision has to be more acute. You get very inventive as to how to represent something in that kind of scale.”

We can add: in our experience, no art exhibit sells as many pieces as do galleries that show miniatures. These small paintings look so precious and desirable that the gallery visitors feel they just have to own one of them. There is always room for them: the typical excuse “I have no more wall space” does not apply.