Small Feats 2013!

Small Feats, an art exhibit and fundraising event put on by the Niagara Artists Centre (NAC) will take place on Saturday, the 14th of April, 2012 from 8-11pm at 354 St. Paul St. in St. Catharines, Ontario.

Last year, at the first ever Small Feats, a small horde of 300 or so stormed the Niagara Artists Centre, and enthusiastic collectors got their pick of 150 original works. Seventy-five of them were whisked off, raising $10K for the NAC, and another $5K for Niagara area artists. The 2nd annual event is expected to have an even larger crowd snatching up 12″x12″ original works of art – photographs, paintings, assemblage, and prints, by Niagara area artists, for $200 each.

All artwork was due on Tuesday, and the staff at the NAC are busying documenting all the artwork for an online preview before the show.  They actually received more artwork than they have room for this year, so will have a jury select which pieces and how many by each artist to include.  You’ll be able to preview everything on the Small Feats page of the NAC website and watch their promo video below.

I’ve been working on two oil paintings and an encaustic painting, which I dropped off Tuesday afternoon. Since one of the themes I have been working on in my artwork recently is shoes. I already had ideas for the paintings I would submit, and liked the play on words of “small feats” and “feet”. However, when I got home with a Small Feats poster, our cat Winslow decided to pose, and became the subject of one of the oil paintings, “Winslow’s Small Feet”. I’ve included images of the preliminary drawing, work in progress and finished work below.

One of the girl’s in our homeschool group became the subject of the 2nd oil painting, “Pamela’s Boots”. I’ve been taking reference photos or people’s feet whenever I come across interesting looking shoes and feet poses.  I really liked the colours and patterns in the boots, and the relaxed pose I got in my reference photos. I’ve included images of the preliminary drawing, work in progress and finished work below.

For the third painting, an encaustic, which is pigmented wax, I chose our horses, and the interesting textures they create in the pasture with their hooves this time of year. I haven’t painted in encaustic in quite a while, but really enjoy the medium and plan on working in encaustic in future work.  I buffed out the horses after the painting was finished and the wax had time to harden well. This gives a nice sheen that contrasts with the textures of the ground.

It’ll be a great exhibit and a chance to get some great original artwork by local artists at a great price, so if you are near  the St. Catharines area, come on out at 8pm on the 14th of April!

Go to Small Feats 2013!