April - Snippets and Painting Miniatures

Painting Miniatures

I have been asked about books suitable for people who wish to try to paint miniatures.

I do not paint myself, but have a couple of books in my library. They both cover landscapes, portraits, flowers etc.

One is by Elizabeth Days Wood published in 1989 and the other is by Sue Burton, published in 1995.

They appear to give good instructions, so if anyone is interested, I suggest you try to track them down, although there are other similar books as well.

I find www.abebooks.com is quite a good place to look for books.

Daisy Blades
I thought it might be interesting to know that since my last post about Daisy Blades, I have been sent some more interesting information about her family which I have added at Blades, Daisy - portrait of a child It is nice to be able to add information about a relatively unrecorded artist.

Every week I get a number of emails about miniatures, asking opinions about them. I know miniature portraits are very much a "niche" area of interest, but they do seem to attract occasional new visitors. A kind visitor wrote; "I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often."

I have also had a nice comment about the Shrubrick family reading, "Thank you for this extensive amount of family history. I am a lighthouse historian doing research on the early members of the U.S. Light-House Board, and your site is a treasure trove of information on William Shubrick and his family." See Fraser, Charles - Mary Branford Shubrick

As an example of the variety of question that I get asked, the following arrived this week. "I started a search this morning on miniature portraits as I'm trying find the owner of a miniature that I found a copy of in an old magazine. The publishing company is no longer in business so I haven't had any luck in that department. His name was Percy Pack and he was a surgeon of the 41st Regiment of Foot in the late 1790's - early 1800's until he became sick and died in 1804. I am currently working on a book of the 41st Regiment when they served in Canada from 1799 until 1815 so it's vital I get permission to us this portrait. Can you possibly steer me in the right direction on how to find the owner?"

I could only reply, "If you can send me the image I am happy to post it in my April comments and see if anyone recognises it or owns it, but I think you would be lucky. Otherwise you could do what I have seen elsewhere, and make a statement along these lines. "Attempts have been made to contact the current owners of all the portraits used, some without success, but I am very happy to acknowledge them in future editions of this book.""

Another visitor asked "I came across your blog during my research for information on the painter Frank Lucien Nicolet , as I have a few original water colors pictures from him from the 1930's Paintings taken in Quebec Canada. Would you know any one that specializes.in his works." I had to reply, "I am sorry I do not know of anyone who specializes in his works. Very little seems to be known about him and it took me a great deal of hunting around to gradually discover the information I have shown on the website."