Tiny Plants & Expressive Fine lines

January 2024 Studio practice was with the tiniest sticks, Toothpicks.

I am fascinated by plants so I painted some. Plants bring so much colour and joy to my life during the winter months that I couldn't resist capturing those expressions.

In December, I experimented with long stick brushes, but this time, I wanted to learn how to control making really fine lines without them being so calculated or rigid. So I played with water spills with toothpicks. I enjoyed it so much that I created over 20 unique mini-paintings of plants. I not only cherished the subject, but the challenge of painting small was also beneficial to my practice.

I learned to use spontaneity to create fine lines, something that I always found difficult to express as an expressionist. Lines always seem so rigid to me, I like the emotion of thinking outside the box and wanted to express lines in that way. In this practice, I played around with fine lines expressively while still being fine with them and so happy that they not only looked finer but were made spontaneously and expressively.

Every painting was created using Winsor & Newton Inks on Fabriano 140 lbs cold-pressed watercolour paper, which I found to be the best medium for this theme. So fun to play with spills and movements of the inks on watercolour paper.

I am satisfied with how these turned out, and they make me feel warm and cozy in the winter. I have packed each painting in a tiny box with a cute message like "Just for you" or "Happy graduation." Maybe you might like them as gifts to give to someone as an adorable little gesture of love.