Miniatures Group Exhibition

I was invited to take part in an exhibition of miniature paintings, each work only slightly larger than a credit card. The exhibition will take place at the popular Long Street Art Lovers 1932 in Waterkloof, Pretoria, This place is usually brimful of people on opening nights, often spilling over onto the sidewalks. This will be the 3^rd year that Art Lovers 1932 presents the annual miniature exhibition. Last year the gallery had 97 participating artists and over 300 art works,and yes, it will be bigger and more popular this year.

And my contribution.....no guess work: tiny original versions of some of my rabbit paintings. If you are able to, attend the opening on 22nd May 2014 from 6pm onwards. 

Sketches and Doodles of Rabbits Lead to New Ideas

This can be called playing around, but I love sketching and hope by doing so I can chance upon something new to paint. I also have very important decisions to make in my life and thinking is something one can do the same time as sketching. I will post the sketches here and then in the next post, show something Very Good that happened afterwards.

Snow has lovely lines. I sketched her on newsprint paper on my large flip-file.
 If you know me on Facebook, you will see a gentle photo of Snow with Dexter,
the Alsation on last night's post.

This is Snow, the little bunny that has been in some of my blog stories.

Mmmm, too much like a greeting card, but we will keep trying!

Now, at last, there is some character in my sketch.

A lot of character here. The sketch quickly became the property of a friend!

And here I started doodles in ink and pencil, getting my background ideas from
 the designs of William Morris. The forms go into play with the bunny shapes.
Can you see the connection that has formed with "His Master's Voice"?

A feeling of mystery as the bunny jumps through the William Morris foliage!

I already had such good suggestions as to what the bunnies are doing: males,
 waiting to see what females will come past?  William Morris designs are immensely intricate
and I lack patience to do them neatly, but somehow,
something new was born from these doodles, and I will show them next time.

Porcelain Rabbits

There are lots of porcelain rabbits in the decor shops, and they seem to go with the renewed interest in French country-style decorating. My friend, Melissa, gave me a tiny white porcelain rabbit and I immediately saw the possibilities of this very plain form. It is as if a featureless rabbit is no longer the slave of "scale" and can easily appear gigantic when painted. Melissa also sent me the photo of the rows of porcelain rabbits, and we both thought that they looked scary. I suppose I can turn the idea into something threatening. Maybe it will be possible to move away from the "cute" label.

Three Giant Glass rabbits , 10" x 10" oil on wrapped canvas.

A tiny porcelain rabbit is the model for my 3 giants.
 I used a purple colour to work out the forms and volumes.

More White Rabbits

As I continue with my rabbit paintings, I still fight a battle between subtle, meaningful art and mere perceptive art. Mostly the bunnies turn out "cute". They are the ones painted from pets that I know and the family has owned. I moved away from the cute label when I started to paint the stone rabbits I have seen in a garden. I had these observations from Cathy Gatland:

 Yes, perhaps a little threatening, but also a little lost and vulnerable, not being able to see...and especially in the top one, the marks around the figure suggest other senses in full use - listening, sniffing, ready to act. 

Reading this, I think I have reached a more serious plane with the sculptural rabbits.

The following rabbits leave me very uncertain! Do they "say" something? This time I gave them eyes, hoping it would work out. Incidentally, the lines are all very straight, but the camera caused some extortion in the photos. The soft peach color and all the blues are true to the originals.

Rabbit with a Baroque design border 1

Rabbit with a Baroque design border 2

The Pale Rabbits and an Easter Jigsaw Puzzle

Of course this rabbit theme is just too much fun, and I will explore more and more as time goes by. Here are two images that were inspired by old stone rabbits which I found on my cell phone, photographed in Pretoria a year or so ago, even before I started using rabbits as my source material.

I simply called them "lapin 1" and "lapin 2". As soon as I had published the photos on Facebook, I had a sale and was told by many people that these paintings were more atmospheric and meaningful than my paintings of the Peter/Snowball family.

"lapin 1" Oil on Canvas 10" x 10"

"lapin 2" Oil on Canvas 10" x 10"

The symbolic meaning of "rabbit" is regeneration. Of life, of spirit and of the seasons .
 Thus it is a chosen symbol for Easter
You can buy this gift, made from my artwork from www.whiterock.co.za or find it on Facebook