Painting tiny little paintings

For an exhibit later this month entitled Visitekaartjes (Calling Cards), I’ve promised to deliver six miniature paintings. The size limit for these is 100 cm², which translates to 10×10 cm for a square or 8×12,5 cm for a rectangle (for the metric impaired, that’s roughly 4×4 or 3×5 inches). In other words, really really tiny!

As if that weren’t enough of a challenge, I’ve also chosen to use the square format, which I rarely do. This proved to be a considerable limitation, as most compositions fit more comfortably in a rectangular format, and those with architectural elements even more so. Nevertheless, I do like the square format, especially for very small paintings, and was able to find some lovely square frames for them.

In this little painting I chose a subject which I’ve painted before, many years ago – also very small (I believe it was a 4×6 inch). This blue door inside the castle walls of Ankara has been losing its blue paint progressively over the years. The first time I saw it, it was still mostly blue, but five years later, little blue remained. Perhaps someone has given it a fresh coat of paint by now…