Each year I like to create “littles” to exhibit at the open studio and Pleasant Hill Christmas Show as gift ideas. Everyone seems to love painting big. I love painting and creating small. There is something about the intimacy of it, and that one must look close up to experience subtlety, a quiet thing.
This season I have four different series. Zinnia Joy, Protozoa, and Homage to Birds are acrylic paintings with collage on 4x4x.7” cradled panels, varnished. Desk Art is layered heavy paper, which stands open to reveal the affirmation on the back. Also, acrylic painting with collage and varnished. In each case meticulous care is given to its production.
16 Different Littles
There are 12 Zinnia Joy pieces that have background from Da Vinci’s “Dello Natura, Peso, e Motodelle Acque” manuscript, “The Codex Leicester”, compilation of notes on water cosmology, 1506-1510 in Florence and Milan. My neighbor in Washington printed it out for me in 1980, before I knew what a computer was. The pages were painted with dark rose-colored mixture to highlight the miniature collage pieces with zinnia petals.
12 Zinnia Joy
Zinnia Joy
Protozoa is a series of four. It is comprised of many acrylic painted strips and prints of “Infusoria” from a 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica. Often I use inspiration from my journal in my daily art practice, like this one from late June.
Daily Art Practice journal 6.30.25
Protozoa 1-4
There are four in the Homage to Birds series. They include image transfers from some of my favorite bird collages from years ago.
Homage to Birds, 1-4
Desk Art is a series of four. It is comprised of many watercolor squares, painted over with acrylic. Each is framed with printed Japanese paper and handwritten affirmation inside.
Desk Art 6
Desk Art 3, affirmation