Astute readers may have picked up on my love for little things:  bric-a-brac, LEGOs, short piano pieces, etc.  In that regard, I am like a little old lady with her Precious Moments or Hummel figurines.

To self-indulgently psychoanalyze myself, I think this love the miniature comes, in part, from my own girthful size.  I’ve always been big (and, frequently and currently, fat), so there’s something appealing about disappearing into a tiny little world.  My brothers know that I am exceptionally good at disappearing during family social functions—usually to read a book or to take a nap in some forgotten corner of whatever relative’s house we’re visiting.

Even in fantasy roleplaying games (RPGs for my n00b friends), I like to play small rogues—halfling thieves, Wood Elf bards, etc.  That stealthy, crafty quality appeals to me, especially in a compact package.

Regardless of why I like small things, I do.  That is certainly the case with the arts; besides piano miniatures, I like short stories, and blogging is, in many ways, short-form essay writing.

That extends to painting, too, and a collection of small canvasses that I slowly turned into a substantial body of amateurish works.

With that, here is 22 February 2022’s “Little Paintings“:

As last Tuesday’s post suggests, I’ve really been getting into small forms of art:  miniatures.  Short musical pieces are fun to compose, and can be dashed off (and, hopefully, recorded) in mere minutes.

I’ve also always been a lover of bric-a-brac—little tiny figurines and collectibles and the like—and am drawn to them in part because of their tiny size.  I have a random assortment of such bric-a-brac on my desk at this very moment—an R2-D2 figurine; a little pumpkin finger puppet; a LEGO Han Solo; a little ghost—and have other little figurines in various places in my home.

Not surprisingly, I’ve also come to really enjoy small paintings.

Back when I was getting ready for the most recent Halloween Spooktacular, I particularly enjoyed painting mugs, which I sold/attempted to sell at the concert.  I had plenty of acrylic paint leftover from the Spring Jam (where children painted birdhouses), and for Christmas I received some little 5″x7″ canvases.

Amusingly enough, I discovered these canvases when looking for Christmas presents for my three-year old (as of today!) nephew.  I was looking at his Amazon wishlist (his mom put it together, not him), and found the canvases… so I added them to my wishlist.  That means I have the same tastes as a toddler.

Regardless, I cracked open the canvases and set about with my first stumbling attempts at painting.  The first I painted was a pastoral scene, which I entitled “Apple Picking” (also featured in this past Sunday’s Sunday Doodles):

In talking to Mariella Hunt on Instagram (yep, I have an Instagram now—d’oh!), she mentioned how much she enjoys pink apples, so I dabbed in some pink spots as a small nod to her.

In honor of Valentine’s Day, I decided to do something with a heart.  I really like to use hearts in my artwork and doodles, but I thought it might be fun to do something a bit different, and fuse Valentine’s Day with one of my favorite holidays, Halloween:

After letting the paint dry a bit, I added some additional details—the blood splatter from Cupid’s arrow piercing through the heart-head; gray on the arrow; and additional detail on the cowl:

I’ve had two proposed names for this painting: “Frankentine” and “Valenween.”  “Frankentine” has a great ring to it, but the figure in this picture doesn’t seem Frankensteinian enough.  I also thought “Valoween” would be a good variation on “Valenween.”

What do you think?  Leave a comment.  Oh, and if you were to purchase artwork, what would you pay for one of these (if anything!)?  Let me know!

Happy Tuesday!

—TPP