Sometimes the nicest thing about being a creative is receiving a message such as the following:

'Hi Dan, just to let you know, your amazing art work was admired by everyone who was lucky enough to see it, especially Amanda and Max who absolutely love their gift. Thank you so much x'

Amanda and Max got married on 28th October this year, and I'd been commissioned to paint a pair of miniature portraits as a gift to commemorate their big day.

They were painted in oils measuring 38mm in diameter and mounted in matching fob watches, which can be worn on fob or neck chains.

This was a particularly intense commission for me simply due to the nature of the occasion. As this was a surprise gift we had 'fun' identifying photo references which we thought best portrayed the character of the subjects, while at the same time being images they would actually like (we can be so choosy about images of ourselves).

I think we hit the right balance and hopefully these little paintings will be cherished mementos of that special day in the years of happily married bliss to come.

Here's to long life and happy unions!

​Dan

Painted in oil on a specially prepared card, this little seascape was a freehand piece to continue my experiments working on a miniature scale.
It measures in at approximately 35mm X 23mm, and was intended as an exercise in painting a different subject to the portraits I've done up to now. I also wanted to play with some richer colour and broader brush strokes (as much as you can on such a small scale).

I wasn't entirely sure how I was going to present this, if at all. I had some miniature dolls-house picture frames that I originally planned to use, but in the end I mounted it in a velvet-lined gift box which formed a nice frame in its own right. ​

Close-up you really start to see the tiny indentations on the surface, some of which are formed by the brush-strokes, others micro imperfections on the ground. 
You start to appreciate why the old masters developed their techniques working on fine surfaces like vellum and polished ivory. Such materials are harder to come by these days but I'm gradually developing some favourite surfaces of my own, like the heavily primed card which I then finely sand and polish with emery papers.


If you're interested in finding out more or wish to have a miniature of your own then it's easy - fill out the form on my 'commission' page and I'll get back to you directly.

Daniel Rose

My latest miniature painting is of this dear little dog called Tag.

​Beloved by his owner, he sadly passed away earlier this year.
This was a very special commission intended as a surprise 'thank-you' gift to be presented at a public event. 
I'm told the recipient was very moved which is heart-warming for an artist.

Tag was painted in oil on a specially prepared heavy weight paper, and measures in at 38mm in diameter. That's pretty small but quite manageable with the aid of a magnifier. I mounted it in a chrome fob watch case which can be worn on a chain or just kept close to hand in a pocket or purse.

As is often the case the reference was a photo but I placed Tag in a different background setting of his owners beautiful lavender garden.

I've done a few pet portraits over the years but never one quite so small. You have to play a balancing act with the amount of detail in fur at this scale.

Daniel Rose

​I've been making artwork in one form or another for over 25 years now.
Most of my regular income has come working as a painter for a very successful commercial art studio in the UK, my specialization being hand-crafted representational paintings such as portraits, realistic landscapes and figurative scenes. 
As an individual artistic presence I've been somewhat hidden away in the shadows of that commercial world, but that arrangement has always worked for me up to now.

Why Miniatures?

Many of the projects I've worked on commercially have been of monumental proportions, both in size and the number of artworks produced. 
It seems somewhat ironic then that I might choose to focus on such a different scale of painting and art creation.
There are a number of reasons for this that have been bubbling away in the backwaters of my consciousness.

As I've slowly advanced into middle-age my inclination has been leaning more toward the intimate and personal world as a creative inspiration.
I've touched on this over the years by taking on a number of portrait commissions and 'fun' projects where the client has had such a personal investment as to be infectious. 

One of those 'fun' projects a couple of years ago was commissioned by my Sister as a Christmas present for a friend at work. Her friend is an avid dolls-house collector and the one thing she was unable to find were authentically hand-crafted paintings in the styles she desired. One was a re-creation of a de Lempicka painting (see top of post), the other an abstract inspired by Ben Nicholson.

Of course these had to be painted on a tiny scale compared to anything I'd ever done before, even as a detail in another work.
But I found the challenge fun and inspiring, even if they did take what seemed like an extraordinarily long time to produce for their size (about 3- 4 hours per painting).
To my surprise there was no issue in terms of what I had to ask as remuneration, such was the desire to have them done authentically and to a reasonable degree of finish.
​  ​

A Natural Progression

I was soon busy researching other forms of the genre, and as one of my passions has always been portraiture I naturally gravitated toward the miniaturists of the 16th -18th century in Europe.

I started painting family and friends to get a feel for where I wanted to take these little works. Finding fob-watches with their flip open cases offered a good alternative to traditional lockets and miniature frames.