By Tyler Wright
The Sherbrooke Art Society and the Australian Society of Miniature Art Victoria are proving good things really do come in small packages in an upcoming joint exhibition.
‘Small Packages,’ a collection of 108 miniature artworks, will be on display at the Sherbrooke Art Gallery in Belgrave from Saturday 3 September until Saturday 8 October.
Five entries have been mailed in from the USA, with others shipped in from Tasmania and New South Wales, exhibition coordinator Leanne Vassallo said.
“Last year we had [Small Packages] during Covid, and it was one of the few ones in the world that went ahead; everyone else cancelled,” Leanne said.
“We went ahead and we had entries mailed in because everyone was in lockdown, and they had nothing to do, [so] they all got behind it and did it.
It’s really boosted the numbers in the last couple of years.”
This year artists had the option of submitting paintings, drawings and etchings using oil pain, acrylics, watercolour, ink, gold leaf and gouache.
The works fit into one of two categories; either a miniature on a painted surface under 100 squared centimetres, or a vertical or horizontal 9×5 inch piece.
“We get wildlife…we get landscapes, there’s still life, there’s even some abstract,” Leanne said.
“It is a very diverse range of work, and a lot of people that have not tried to do miniature art have given it a go.”
According to Leanne, the popularity of miniature art has risen in recent years as a result of social media, with young locals dabbling in the art form for the first time.
“There’s a lot of artists on Instagram that are doing things very small, under the size of a penny, as a challenge; because it is something that you can sit down and achieve in a day,” she said.
“On the other side of that, there’s artists that are working in miniature that can take months to do a piece because they’re almost doing it with dots how simple, or how intricate; so it’s up to the artist as to how they want to do something.”
Members of the Sherbrooke Art Society and the Australian Society of Miniature Art Victoria will be holding demonstrations on Saturday 17 September and Sunday 18 September, sharing their process of making a miniature painting.
A $300 award for both ‘Best Miniature’ and ‘Best 9×5’ is on offer, as well as the ‘Michael Freshwater Award for Excellence’ trophy which comes with a $200 voucher.
The artist awarded ‘Best Graphite’ will be given $250, with the public’s favourite scoring an $100 voucher.
The Sherbrooke Art Gallery is located at 62 Monbulk Road Belgrave, and is open from Friday until Sunday, 11am until 3pm.
