Noticing xxiii - miniatures

Every year our local art museum has a miniatures exhibit and raffle as a year-end fundraiser. Today we happened to be in the neighborhood while running errands, and we decided to stop in to see about some membership cards that we never received. Turned out, our membership had never even been processed! But we had proof of purchase, and within short order our membership was officialized.

While there, we took in the 150-odd miniatures on view, all by local artists. What an eclectic array—such talent! And nicely presented, with pleasing groupings: the still lifes with fruit; the abstracts; the monochromes; the landscapes; the decorative pieces; etc.

I was drawn to many of them, but the following five were what won my camera's eye. I'd even be tempted to drop my name in the attached boxes, if only I weren't the sort who never, ever wins things. Our membership will have to be our donation to the museum. But still: it's a lovely exhibit, and I might just go back to see the pieces again—and maybe reconsider the raffle. I can't always be a loser, can I?

Allyson Malek, Pastures of Heaven (encaustic)
(I adore  encaustic; one of these days I might even try it myself)

Diane Eisenbach, Bee Plate (ceramic)

Dixie Dixon, Man on Cliff (archival pigment print)
(Dixie  happens to be Dorothea Lange's daughter-in-law,
though  she never actually met her: Lange died in 1965,
almost 30 years before the Dixons married)

Wynn Bullock, Photogram, 1970 (pigment on paper)

Elizabeth Murray, Renoir's Garden  (handmade book)