OK, so I knew I needed to practice certain aspects of my painting, I also need some quick pieces for a table-top art and craft market in the coming months. The easiest way to solve both these problems was to start painting a miniature series. You may have noticed that each of the paintings pictured above features water; a rough sea, a calm sea, a river and a lake. You may have also noticed that the aerial perspective is a little off, in the lake and river particularly. I have yet to perfect this aspect of landscape painting, but by continually pushing myself to practice I know I will master both water and aerial perspective soon enough.
Miniatures are great for this kind of practice as they force me to break down the subject into basic shapes and tonal values. It's just not possible to get every tiny detail into a painting this small - each canvas is just 9cm x 7cm. Every tree or shrub is a single brush stroke - forget about painting leaves on trees at this size. The sky is painted as a flat mass shape with simple brushwork to add clouds - with the exception of the sunset which was something else I felt I needed to practice. So, if you feel a need to practice some aspect of your painting, or you want to loosen up for a more impressionist, "painterly" style, you could do a lot worse than start your own miniature series. It doesn't matter if you paint landscapes, portraits or still life, you can cut out the noise and concentrate your efforts on the aspects of your art that need practice by going small. Once a technique is mastered on a small scale it's simply a matter scaling up; larger canvas, larger brush, larger movement. Before I know it I'll be covering the 50cm x 40cm canvas I have stashed away - I just need a bigger work area, but that's a whole other story...
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