Friday, October 24, 2008

Size Does Matter

For someone who usually paints at least 24" x 24" and recently 30" x 40", trying this horse at 5" x 7" was a different experience to say the least. I

know that Rembrandt painted some small paintings, and very successfully I might add...but I'm not sure that I will be doing this size on any kind of a regular basis...trying to keep an open mind.....

17 comments:

Kendra@Creative Ambitions said...

Hi! Just stopping by your blog. love your paintings...nice brush strokes! I don't like to paint too small either...in fact...the bigger the better. :)

Paula Villanova said...

Thanks Kendra! I enjoyed looking at your blog also. I really love your animal paintings. Nice design!

Odd Chick said...

That it a perfectly porportioned horse which is so hard to create. Your oils inspire me so much.

sandy said...

I'm so impressed by the size of this and how beautiful it is. My hands shake if I go too small. Just beautiful.

Kelley Carey MacDonald said...

Nice one, Paula! The key, I think, to painting small, is in smaller brushes. I like flats in every size for the little pieces, except, of course, to sign them, you need an itsy-bitsy brush!

Paula Villanova said...

Thanks Odd Chick and Kelley! I guess I'm really not a small brush kind of girl...however...there may be a way to conquer this size canvas that works for me. I considered entering an upcoming show in which the requirement is small paintings...but we'll see how that works out! Having a tiny painting as an end result isn't wowing me yet, but I have only done one. Maybe it'll work for me, maybe it won't...I'll give it a shot.

Paula Villanova said...

oh, and Odd Chick, thanks for your compliment on the horse!

Unknown said...

Paula, your colors are amazing. I will have to try to be like you and jazz up my palette. This is another winner, no matter what the size.

Paula Villanova said...

I don't know Deborah, I like your palette and I visit your site often because I think your work is wonderful. Thanks for the compliment and for stopping by!

artslice said...

Hi Paula...
Bravo! I find it very difficult to paint small, for some reason I prefer to paint big. I've forced myself to do it since I've had kids(for the sake of time) and it was a real challenge. Have a good night.
:)
~Brenda

Mary Sheehan Winn said...

Nice, Paula.

sandy said...

I would swear I commented on this awhile back. I must have thought it posted but it didn't. This is a beauty, and the shadowing and feel of it is great.

Marian Fortunati said...

I'm curious... It seems like a successful painting to me... What did you find that you didn't like about the smaller format?
Is it more difficult to have nice brushwork???
A painter named Michael Naples does a lot of small format paintings and I can see nice brushwork on his...
Glad I checked in... so many nice paintings to see!

Paula Villanova said...

Hi Marian, a great question...I had this tiny canvas for years, and I'm not even sure why I bought it, but I decided to challenge myself to see if my style translated to this size. In this case, it did, but after it was complete, it did not seem to have the impact of my larger paintings to me, simply because it was so small. I've only done this one small painting (my 11x14 paintings feel teeny to me) and I will probably try a couple more just to give it a fair shake, but right now, they don't interest me a whole lot. The funny thing is, my 24x30 paintings are tiny to many other artists, so I guess it really depends on what it is we wish to convey. Thanks for asking, my own reaction to painting this small surprised me, but I don't really like to discount anything totally, especially when it comes to art.

Paula Villanova said...

...And after rereading my previous comment...that seems like an excellent challenge to me...perhaps I will buy a few more 5x7s and see what happens!

Susan Carlin said...

This painting enlarged to LARGE would be just fabulous, too!

Paula Villanova said...

Thanks Susan...I just may! Glad you stopped by!