Art in miniature garners big attention

Art comes in all shapes and sizes as they say, even tiny paintings only a couple of inches square.

Currently the small space within the Godfrey Dean Gallery in Yorkton is home to literally dozens of the tiny works, all by prolific Yorkton artist Jeann Spilak.

Spilak said she has been doing small paintings for years.

"The small stuff is easier to sell," she said with a smile.

In 2012 Spilak had tracked down a few small canvases in Montreal, and went to work.

A couple of those paintings were purchased by Don Stein manager of the Godfrey Dean Gallery.

Stein liked the works and had an idea for a show at the Gallery.

"He asked 'can you do 200-300 for me'," said Spilak with a smile.

"I can do anything I set my mind too," she added, so she took up the challenge, starting last October to meet Stein's request.

The result was 360 miniature paintings, most of which are part of her current solo show at the gallery.

The project was far more work than the painting. Spilak accessed tiny canvasses all over the place, including online. She also cut a number of wooden cubes to paint, applying sealer and finally adding images.

As far as the painting itself, it is fine work to say the least.

"I have five-hair brushes, but you can't get them to do everything you want it to do," she said.

So Spilak has become a master of improvisation when it comes to her painting tools.

"A stick pin does a great job of the top of spruce trees," she said, adding a pin point holds very little paint, so it is fine, repetitive work.

And then Spilak picks up a small knife. Its blade has been re-fashioned, shaped by her hand to a particular need. It is now a tool she can tip in her paint to lay down a particular 'look' on her tiny canvases.

Spilak said experimenting with tools and techniques is a part of art she truly enjoys. It is something which develops over time, with new ideas coming to her as she delves into something new on a canvas.

"I don't care how long you are painting, it's still trial and error," she offered with a smile.

Spilak said it's a case of having a vision of what she wants to create in a given piece and then choosing what tool will make that vision a reality. It might be a traditional paint brush, or it might be a matchstick, or a pin.

The works in the show range from black and white scenes, through landscapes, to ones with buttons and other small items glued on for effect.

"The little whimsical ones are for the kids," she said, adding when doing a show she tried to create something that would catch the eyes of all ages.

The reaction to the show is one Spilak said has surprised her.

"It is way different than I expected. I didn't think people would really care," she said.

Spilak said a lot of people, even those that know her, were not aware she painted in miniature.

"There was a lot of excitement from people I didn't expect," she said.

Then again Spilak, in spite of her solo show, and having created hundreds of works over many years, does not wear the label artist well.

"I really have a problem with that title. I think I just paint Everybody does what they like to do," she said, adding painting is something she does as a creative outlet. " I'm just a person who really enjoys doing art."

Spilak said her inspiration comes by taking elements she has seen at some point, and putting them together on a canvas.

"I kind of have a photographic memory, I think," she said.

As a result Spilak relies on images from her memory as inspiration.

"I never really work off photographs," she said.

Spilak related seeing an old farmyard on the way to Canora, a scene which she drew from her memory and put it onto a canvas several years later. The piece hung in a show, and a woman came up and wanted to know if it was the yard site by Canora, she said, adding she must have gotten most of the scene right for it to be recognized.

Spilak said she sees something, and holds it in her mind until it fits a painting she is working on.

"If I see some really odd-shaped tree I remember it I might not paint it for months," she said.

Spilak admitted she loves trees, but almost any element of nature intrigues her.

While most of Spilak's works are landscapes and nature scenes, she also delves into abstracts.

"I've always liked abstracts, but they're not as salable a product," she said.

Spilak said a lot of people look at abstracts as not technically strong.

"They think you can't paint. They think you wanted to be a painter but never got there," he said.

But abstracts have technique, and as an artist they are something Spilak likes to explore.

"I like to do crazy things," she said.

What she paints on a given day often relies on mood for Spilak.

"It does depend on the day," she said. " Sometimes it's almost a craving to do black and white. It gives me a great deal of satisfaction to be able to shade."

While it may depend on the day what inspires her, other than in the heat of summer, Spilak said she's likely to pick up a brush most days.

"I do work almost every day when I have a project on," she said, adding with smaller works it usually means working on multiple canvases. "I can be processing one or two or three or four at a time."

Spilak works on larger pieces as well, and has for years. She said generally they are easier than her works in miniature, but there are exceptions.

A recent commission was an example of how technical painting can be.

The client wanted a particular airplane painted on the side of a mailbox. They provided photographs of the plane, but Spilak said the work was exacting after that.

The airplane in the painting had to be proportionally correct to look 'real', she said, and that meant taking the dimensions in to photo and then upscaling it to the size of the mailbox, while keeping everything relative in size.

"I had to make the wing proportional, the propeller proportional," she said. "It was almost like engineering."

But even in cases where Spilak faces technical challenges with commission works, like the client who provides photos of his cabin for a painting, but wanted her to add a deck he planned to one day build, she said large canvasses are ultimately more forgiving for the artist.

"Big ones are just easier to work with," she reiterated.

Spilak's works are diverse in scope, in size of canvas, medium, and subject matter, the latter something the artist said develops for a piece as she works on it.

"In my head I don't have a finished product," she said. "Sometimes I know exactly what I want in a finished painting, but usually I have no idea until I add in a shed, or a tree."

As a result of the freeform approach, "some take almost no time at all," said Spilak, adding other times it's "a last-minute decision what I want."

The one thing Spilak is sure of is that she will never run out of ideas for paintings.

"In my head there are thousands of things I want to put on canvas, it's just not always the right day for certain things," she said.