The Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculpters and Gravers Exhibition

Yesterday I attended the Private View of The Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculpters and Gravers 2008 annual exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London.

Following an awful train journey I met up with Katherine Tyrrell and Tracy Hall at the Mall Galleries to look round the exhibition.

Katherine has written a comprehensive post on the Exhibition on her Making a Mark blog and Tracy was awarded the Gold Memorial Bowl which is the most prestigious prize offered, so you can see I was in good company.

I am a huge fan of Tracy's work and it was lovely to see it in real life.

The standard of work exhibited was uniformly high, I was amazed at the detail some of the artists had achieved.

The Private View was crowded and the red dots marking sales were springing up all over. Miniature Art is obviously very popular.

Katherine then took us to the National Dining Rooms were we enjoyed a delicious three course lunch.

Returning to the Mall Galleries we attended the presentation of awards.

I liked a great deal of the work exhibited, but apart from Tracy's, the set of work that made the most impression on me was painted by Rosalind Pierson RMS HS[Co-founder] MAA

Her tiny watercolour landscapes are absolutely exquisite.

I came away from the exhibition inspired and determined to carry on painting miniatures.

Read Katherine's blog for more information, photographs and details of all the award winners.

I have continued with the wolf although the light was poor today to get an accurate photograph.

Brushes for Miniature Painting

Due to several requests I'm preparing a small demo to show how I combine acrylic and coloured pencil. I'll post it sometime over the next few days.


The other request I've had is to show what my small brushes look like. So I've taken a photograph of my favourites together with the painting. I've also included a 1 Cent to show the scale (similar in size to a UK 1pence)
From the left are a 7/0, 5/0, 2/0 and 2 Round, then a 1 rigger, followed by a 0 Filbert. I use the rigger if I want a long stroke because the small brushes obviously hold very little paint, and the filbert on the background.
I can't find my 10/0 despite extensive searching so I'll have to order another. I think the fairies have taken it, it will be about the right size for them to use.
A good supplier of all things for miniature paintings is Polymers Plus

Gouache or Acrylic?

I've decided that acrylic is not giving me the results I'm looking for when painting Miniatures. I am struggling with the speed at which it dries and am also finding the colours look a little bit bright.

Because I'm using tiny brushes with tiny amounts of paint it is dry almost as soon as it hits the surface. This has been causing me growing frustration, so I decided to start again.

I decided to use gouache because it will work if I want to add coloured pencil. I also changed the polymin for Arches Hot Press paper.

So far I am finding this much easier, of course I might have changed my mind by tomorrow.

Dot to Dot, another Miniature Painting

I've started another miniature painting which I'm hoping to complete in time for an exhibition later in the year.

It's a Bald Eagle which I was lucky enough to photograph just outside the Rocky Mountain National Park while on holiday. I do plan to do a larger painting of it at some stage, as it sat still for quite some time while I snapped away with my camera. In fact it was far more patient than my two teenage sons.

It is acrylic on Polymin and will end up about 2.5 x 3.5 inches.

I'm using a 10/0 brush and working in dots rather than lines to try to get the detail.

Kingfisher and Bilberries

I wanted some reference photographs of tree trunks with ivy growing up them. Whilst out tracking down suitable subjects I remembered that it was Bilberry season. In fact as I discovered I remembered a bit late. There was plenty of evidence of Bilberries having been there, but they were now obviously residing in someone else's freezer. I did find enough for a couple of pies after a lot of searching in places not designed to be searched.

I have also made progress with the Kingfisher, he has at least an undercoat all over now. I am enjoying the small paintings for a change, although I'm not sure my eyes have the same enthusiasm.

Kingfisher in Miniature

Staying small I've started another miniature painting, this time acrylic on polymin, 2 x 2.5 inches.
Polymin is sold by Polymers Plus and is described as the modern base for miniatures, a dimensionally stable, chemically resistant, translucent, surface treated plastic sheet. The colour I use is similar to ivory, but there is also Polymin White which is obviously white in colour.

Polymin is totally smooth and very nice to work on, I find it easy to correct mistakes although it does take me several layers to achieve rich colours.

Polymers plus supply a wide range of supports, brushes, frames and other accessories for painting Miniatures

Robin Finished

I've now finished my Robin, I'm reasonably happy with it.

There is a bit more all round so I am still thinking about the crop. I also want to adjust the tones on the bird, but I'll let it rest for a couple of days and then look at it with fresh eyes.

The biggest challenge was getting the acrylic to behave itself in such a small space. I found working with a tiny brush ( a 10/0) and applying the paint in tiny drops worked best, that way I could blend the colours quite easily. I did however use tiny lines to represent the feathers.

Going Small - Miniature Robin

I'm trying to get two or three miniature paintings together to submit to an exhibition later in the year.

I've had one or two false starts and realised in the process that my eyes are are not as good for close up work as they used to be. I have an optivisor, but when I put it on my dogs disown me, sure I must be up to no good. Today they were too hot to care, I just got one or two strange looks from Clinton when he popped his head out from under my drawing table.

Fingers crossed third time lucky. This Robin is from my own reference photograph, it is 3 x 2, acrylic on Arches HP Watercolour paper.

I might decide to crop a bit tighter when I can see the whole thing.

Tomorrow Roxie is at a show but I hope to be home in time to finish my monochrome cat as for once it is fairly close to home.

Most of the other dogs have dropped their coats and I can see Roxie looking at them enviously so I expect to be having a forced showing break soon.

Painting a Miniature

My friend Katherine recently went to see the annual exhibition of the Royal Society of MiniaturePainters,Sculpters and Gravers. This reminded me that I had some Ivorine put to one side, so I decided it was time to have a go at my own miniature.

Ivorine is a manufactured imitation ivory with a white translucent surface. It is totally smooth and very easy to work on.

I wanted a change from cats so decided to paint a Chipmunk that I photographed in the Mount Ranier National Park whilst on holiday.

I think it's a Least Chipmunk but please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

I decided to use acrylics on the Ivorine and I'm using 4/0 to 10/0 brushes.

If you are interested the only place that I know to purchase Ivorine is from Polymers Plus, they are very helpful and have an excellent mail order service.