The world will be getting a lot smaller at Barrhead Art Gallery.
Visit the gallery Nov. 15 and you will be entering the artist’s equivalent of Lilliput, the imaginary country inhabited by six-inch people, described in Jonathan Swift’s “Gulliver Travels.”
You will see scaled-down artistic visions of our world … tiny lakes, tiny flowers, tiny birds, tiny people, tiny everything.
In fact, canvases measure under 144 square inches, for that is the rule of this show of miniatures by Barrhead Art Club. Not only a display, mind you, but also a sale, with paintings costing anywhere between $35 and $100.
Past president Maria Sieben said the event, which will run until Dec. 27, was organized to coincide with Christmas Light-up. As of Monday, Nov. 4, more than 60 paintings had been entered.
It is hoped visitors will find an early Christmas gift, easy on the pocketbook.
“We’ve never done a miniatures show before,” said Sieben, who came up with the idea. “Our club is all about variety and trying something different.”
Sieben is contributing six paintings to the exhibition.
“I started doing miniatures this year,” she said. “It’s a bit of a challenge, but in many ways easier than doing bigger paintings. It’s much faster because you are obviously dealing with less space. I find it a lot of fun.”
Some of Sieben’s pieces – “Fall Folly” and “Forest Splendour” – stemmed from her time in Cadomin and Robb, two hamlets in west-central Alberta.
She is also submitting experimental work using a self-levelling gel and acrylic.
Another exhibitor is Sangudo’s Hilde Keller, the Juror’s Choice Award winner at this year’s Northern Alberta Juried Art Show in Barrhead.
A member of Barrhead Art Club and Sangudo Art Club, her acrylic painting, “Through The Trees”, captured the judges’ eyes at the Alberta Community Art Clubs Association (ACACA) event.
German-born Keller, who has been painting around 13 years, said miniatures presented special challenges.
“I found it hard with landscapes to get the perspective right,” she said.
Art Club president Jo Anne Nanninga has entered several pieces created during her visit to Cortes Island in B.C., while Charis Ng, whose painting “Wild Alberta: The Grizzly” took a beginner prize at the ACACA show, will show off more of her burgeoning talent with work like “Seagull in Contemplation.”
Ng comes from Spruce Grove, but joined the flourishing Barrhead arts circle on the suggestion of Sieben.
Other well-known local names like Lorna Hamilton-Schafer, who won the Signature zone award for her mixed media work, “Majestic Mountains,” at the ACACA show, are also taking part.
The exhibition will herald a busy 2014 for the club, which plans to put on several themed shows, starting in January with work depicting winter.
*On Monday, Nov. 18, the club will hold its annual general meeting at the art gallery, starting at 6:30 p.m.
