Artist & Painter Rebecca Latham’s Nature & Wildlife Art

This is a new miniature I painted that went to England for a miniature art exhibit. It is a finch with apple blossoms and is a little smaller than 4×6. My Dad has some awesome flowering fruit trees that I love …which inspired this painting… (I have ’spring fever’ -I’m really wishing for spring around here to look like spring. :p )

The little bird isn’t life-sized…which I really would have loved to paint him (I love painting things life-sized and the challenge to make them look like they will walk off my artboard ). The piece was painted to be shown in this exhibition which has an image area limit, and he had to be arranged compositionally in the painting with the flowers…this was the most pleasing arrangement that I came up with.

I really would like to paint the concept as a 6×8 or a little larger sized miniature so that I would have more space for everything… (Maybe the next painting… lol!)

First of all, I need to thank everyone that came to the NatureWorks show in Tulsa this past weekend - It was fabulous to meet all of you…and see familiar faces again! My family and I really appreciate your support for us and our work. We really love what we do and are so pleased to see that others enjoy our finished pieces and the wildlife that is so meaningful to us as well! Thanks for making the 2008 NatureWorks one of our best showings in Tulsa! We look forward to seeing everyone again next year! ( www.natureworks.org )

Also…. Some gallery news - For those who may not know, we are now represented full time in Texas by Whistle Pik Galleries ( www.whistlepik.com ). Their gallery is one of the most beautiful show places that I have seen and the people who run the gallery are superb.

Our gallery in Montana is expanding ( www.moosehorngallery.com ) - they will soon be opening another Moosehorn Gallery in Washington state. The Montana gallery will also be having a large event this summer that we will be attending in Big Sky with a new collection of artwork. …so we will be busy at our easels for a while.

Lastly (..but definitely not least…) An article about our family, "A 24/7 Family Affair", is featured in this month’s issue of Wildlife Art Magazine. Thanks to Wildlife Art and our author, Fran Howard! ( www.wildlifeartmag.com )

I thought that I would post a little of my inspiration.

I do quite a bit of digging around researching earlier miniature art through various different sources.  The art of miniature painting has so many different facets to it and connected to so many cultures.  Seeing so much that has come before me is very inspiring in my own painting.

This is a miniature painting of a blooming cactus 3-3/4" x 4-3/4" that I just completed titled "Cactus Jewel".  It’s a pretty intricate and involved painting.  It is painted on ivorine, a simulated ivory surface - Ivory is a traditional ground and popular for miniature artists to paint on since the 1700’s - of course, due to conservation reasons, has now been replaced with the synthetic version (which, though synthetic, has been used by miniature artists for over a century). 

I have been delighted with my experience with painting on ivorine. (…and am planning to paint more of them.)  Normally I have painted watercolor on board, which would be similar to traditional surfaces that were used also, though a little more modern.

The experiments with this surface have been due to one of my friend’s, Joan Willies, influence.  She has a tremendous knowledge of miniature art as well as the history and techniques, and a little of it is rubbing off on me.   She also has a beautiful website of her miniature paintings here. 

This is the progress of the three fox kit miniature paintings in my studio right now.  I have a lot of the detail on the foxes themselves painted in already, though I’m not completely finished with them yet.  For the commission, I am fortunate to have no set deadline, so I am able to set these pieces in my studio and study them and determine how to proceed to completion. (Though, I am eager to see them proceed as are a number of my blog visitors.)  I am not quite sure how I would like to complete the logs in two of the paintings - what lichens or mosses to add, etc.  I have done some research for the paintings recently during a short research trip with my family (to be posted soon) and may also bring some of the local forest habitat into my studio for reference to paint from life.