The
Classic Miniature has a long and venerable tradition, perhaps back to the
Ancient Greeks, but certainly to the Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts. The tradition is then traced through the
Portrait Miniature of Elizabethan times, painted in Watercolour on Ivory for
brooches & lockets. Miniatures were
given new life during the Victorian times, and in the 20th century the present
day Miniature Societies were born. The
Classic Miniature is not merely a small painting (though many small works are
wrongly called Miniatures), but is a small work built up with layers of
transparent & translucent colour, and usually in detail, no matter the
Medium, whether Watercolour, Oil, Gouache, etc.
Using these methods a little jewel of a painting is the striven for
result.