Indian Miniatures

A Mughal-era Painting

Miniature painting began in India around the 12th century.  The earliest incarnations were manuscript illustrations of various texts -- often Buddhist or Hindu, and they were done on palm leaves.  Eventually, paper replaced palm leaves.  As time went by, Persian miniature painting began to influence the painting of Indian miniatures.  This culminated in the Mughal style of painting.  Though they were often still illustrations to manuscripts, they tended to depict the doings of royalty.  Frequently, they were PR tools that showed important events that took place during the king's reign, or depicted the king's as a mighty warrior or hunter. Scenes of court life were also frequent topics, and the small depictions were clearly designed, at least in some cases, to be realistic depictions of actual people.

It would be a mistake to brush these off as pure PR, though.  Quite a lot of great art throughout the world has been done under patronage or to flatter powerful people -- that doesn't take away from its extraordinariness.  Miniatures from the Mughal era in particular show bright colors and fine, tight rendering.

A Rajput-era Painting

Miniature painting also flourished during the Rajput era in India.  It often portrays love stories or accompanies heroic saga poems.  The colors became even more brilliant -- with the use of gold and precious stones (such as lapis lazuli) in the pigments.  Rajput miniatures, though still often used as illustrations, were also placed in albums, much like today's photo albums.

More of these "history of miniatures" posts are to come.  The opportunity to post some of these gorgeous images is just too much to pass up.

What is the equivalent of outlining?

NaNo writers are allowed to outline, but not to write, before November 1.  If my 50 paintings project is supposed to be an equivalent to NaNo, I should be allowed to do the equivalent of outlining, right?  OK, so what is the painting equivalent of outlining a novel?  And how can I do it if I'm moving in October?*

It seems to me that using actual paint would be going a step too far, but that doing an under drawing would be ok.  But how do I do an under drawing when I don't know what I'm painting in the first place?  If we weren't moving, I could set up still lives and make under drawings of them.  But my life (and all the stuff I keep around for still life studies) is all packed up.  It is hard to draw things when they are all packed up (well, I could, but black canvases are so faux-Rothko).

So I'm brainstorming things I can do to "outline" for my 50 paintings challenge without actually beginning to paint.  I could decide on subjects to paint -- simple, graphical things that will fit on one of my tiny canvases.  I could paint traditional still-life things like pitchers or lemons or apples (a blue bowl full of yellow lemons is something I have wanted to paint for a long time).  I'm sure I'll end up painting a half-empty moving box (as I'll be surrounded by them).  Maybe I'll start by coming up with a list of things to paint.

*For those of you who didn't know, my dear hubby and I are in the midst of moving.

An exceedingly brief overview of miniature painting

Ottoman Miniature

The painting of miniatures has a long history in India and Persia, as well as in the Ottoman tradition.  In fact, the miniature at left is a Turkish miniature depicting artists painting miniatures (how very meta!).  Western Art has the tradition of the portrait miniature.  So while miniature painting isn't universal, it is definitely a widespread phenomenon.

In the European and some Asian traditions, miniature painting comes out of the tradition of illustrating manuscripts, and when you think of the small size the illustrators were working with, it is no wonder the word "miniature" became associated with smallness.  It originally had to do with the word minim -- which is the Latin term for the red lead used as a pigment in these illustrations.

Artist Trading Card

The Artist Trading Card movement is the most prominent modern incarnation of miniature painting.  Artists create works of art on canvases about the size of a baseball card, and trade them with each other.  Many art forms -- from collage to drawing and painting -- are used.

Another modern incarnation of small art is the web site 20 x 200.  They market new artists at affordable prices, but in order to keep their prices down, they print their editions small.  You pay more for larger art, but only $20 for one of their standard 8 1/2 x 11 editions.  8 1/2 x 11 isn't teeny-tiny, but in the world of art where easily obtainable canvases run 24 x 36 or larger, it is definitely on the smallish end of things.

Since I like to know the history of stuff I'm involved in, expect some historical overviews in the run-up to November.

How small is small?

Post-It Notes

I mentioned that I'll be painting on canvases that are 3x3 inches big. You know those square Post-It notes you see everywhere? Those are 3x3 inches big.

While I'm not going to be painting on anything nearly as small as a grain of rice -- or sculpting the tip of a pencil, neither do I have the training (or magnification equipment) that those tasks require. I'll be going at this with brushes you can buy in any art supply store (the small ones), and regular acrylic paint (the kind they trust schoolkids with) -- nothing exotic.  So 3x3 inches is pretty darned small under the circumstances.

The funny thing is, there doesn't seem to be a phrase for what I'm doing.  Formal "miniature art" guidelines tend to refer to scale rather than actual size (that is, a 10x10 inch painting of a building is a miniature, but a life-sized butterfly is not), and while that is what I'm doing, that really isn't my intention at all.  I'm painting miniatures, but I'm also just painting small.  Maybe that is what I'll call it -- painting small.

How is this going to work?

In a word: miniatures.  I'll be working with canvasses that are 3x3 inches and some 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches big.  That is just a little smaller than the size of my hand.  Painting miniatures is a long tradition (especially in India), and I have a little bit of help.  I found a book called Big Art, Small Canvas, and though it is technically geared toward oil painting, and I paint in acrylics, a lot of the advice is sound regardless of medium.

In addition to the small format, I'll also be dealing with some time constraints, so I picked up a book on doing acrylic paintings in 30 minutes.  It is called (logically enough) 30 Minute Art: Acrylics.  Even though acrylics' fast drying time will be useful to completing paintings quickly, learning some speed techniques strikes me as a good idea.

While many miniatures are painstakingly detailed, I intend to use this chance to improve my overall composition and "big picture thinking".  I have no illusions about being "great", but since that isn't what this is about, that is a good thing.  I'll admit to being intimidated, but I'm also excited.

Why am I doing this, anyway?

My husband does National Novel Writing Month where the participants write a novel in a month.  And though it wouldn't seem like writing 50,000 words in a month would be a liberating thing, it is.  The sheer number of words he has to write overwhelms his inner critic.  All editing comes later, and there is no time for second-guessing -- giving him the freedom to just write. Sure, there will be bad writing, but there will be good writing, too, and most importantly, there is writing itself.  That kind of creative liberation is something I crave, and I'll admit, I am a wee bit jealous of him.

I initially planned to do the novel-in-a-month myself.  The thing is, I'm not a story person.  I love to read them, but writing is not my creative forte.  I'm much more a visual kind of person.  I got to thinking -- how can I set myself up for the same type of challenge and creative liberation, only using a visual, rather than written medium?  So as I was brainstorming one day, the thought that a picture is supposed to be worth a thousand words drifted through my brain.  And if the NaNo writers write 50 thousand words, wouldn't that mean that painting 50 pictures would make for the same kind of challenge?

Thus, 50 paintings in one month was born.  Wish me luck.