A big show full of tiny art

A little bit of space on a gallery wall goes a long way.

Like a blob of heavily pigmented paint, the canvases in an upcoming exhibition at the Kariton Art Gallery are small—four by four inches, exactly—but mighty. Some works will be an artist’s first in a gallery exhibition. Others are painted by professionals. But a portion of the proceeds of each sale help fund arts programming in Abbotsford.

This will be the second year for the Abbotsford Arts Council’s Big Tiny show, for which anyone can submit a small piece of art.

All work is accepted, but local professional artists join the show too—both by submitting their own pieces, and getting others involved. (The show is now open; the public can visit and see and purchase prints until June 24).

One local illustrator treats the show as an opportunity to give back to an organization that helped her start out. Another uses The Big Tiny to introduce her young students to the wider art community.

Small art, small artists

Shannon Thiesen paints professionally and competes in live portrait painting competitions—she recently won a province-wide competition in Langley. She’s also an elementary school teacher. The twin careers, both full-time jobs for her, go well together.

“They lend to each other. I get inspired by my kids, and my kids get inspired by my work,” she said.

Thiesen’s paintings themselves aren’t the only way her career as an artist impacts her students. Her knowledge of the art world—and her help navigating it—helps students learn about art as a profession as well as a passion.

Lately, she has been coaching her fourth and fifth graders through the process of creating and submitting their work for The Big Tiny.

Thiesen’s students love to create. But seeing value—even a future—in painting or drawing can be tricky even for older students. For kids who are about ten years old, it can be hard to imagine.

“They love their art, but they don’t see their art as being a community-based practice,” she said. “Just having your work on the wall, it's so exciting. It's so invigorating. A lot of kids don't see their work as being valuable enough.”

That’s where The Big Tiny provides a major boost.

Each piece submitted in the show can be bought for $75. The pieces are all subject to a standard 30% commission, and a portion of the proceeds go to support the Abbotsford Arts Council’s community arts programming. (Artists can also choose to donate the full amount of the sale.)

An introduction to other people who care about—and, sometimes, want to pay for—their work helps the students see that art has value.

“I've had students that are in grade three sell their work to people they don't even know,” Thiesen said. “And I tell them, ‘There's nothing that tells you that you're a true artist like when your work sells to someone that you don't even know.’”

A community-based practice

Local illustrator Julia Martens has been one of those students before (though she was in high school when she started submitting work to galleries). Like the fourth- and fifth-graders joining the show this year, she was first introduced to a wider art community by way of open-call art exhibitions.

“That's where I started back when I was in high school and I was just figuring art out,” Martens said. “I would participate in a lot of [the Abbotsford Arts Council’s] exhibitions that were open-call based.” The Big Tiny hasn’t been around that long, but other exhibitions open to amateur and up-and-coming artists have been a feature of the council’s programming for years.

Now an illustrator who sells custom pieces in her vintage-inspired style, Martens helped promote last year’s first-ever The Big Tiny with a video of her working on her submission—a duck in a Victorian-era costume.

The Abbotsford Arts Council, Martens said, is one of the few resources that artists in Abbotsford have. She stayed involved, even after her own work started taking off online, because she values the community the council helps build.

“I really want to be involved with the community. There's just something so nice about being able to come back to the community based-art field.”

Tips for submissions

Looking to join the exhibition with a tiny piece of your own? There’s still time to fill a tiny canvas or frame—the deadline for submissions is Saturday, May 20. A range of media are accepted, including drawing, photography, sketching, pen-and-ink, collages, and more.

If you’re planning to paint, Thiesen and Martens have some suggestions for you.

Thiessen suggests painting realistically on these small pieces. Abstract work needs more empty space—and on such a small canvas, space is at a premium.

Thiesen tells students she works with to start with bigger brushes than they think they’ll need—and to paint the biggest shapes first.

“Then, once I've got those [shapes] laid in and I can't make them any more detailed with that big brush, that's when I put the big brush down and start getting smaller.”

Similarly Martens said planning before you start painting is important.

“Think of what you're going to draw before you dive into it…What's going to be easily visible to the viewer and not so difficult for you to actually work on?”

Finished pieces need to be framed (unless painted on stretched canvas) and dropped off at the Kariton Gallery in Abbotsford before 3pm this Saturday. You can read more about the competition and the submission rules here.