Painting a 'Little Gem'

Night Line
Acrylic on Canvas Panel
5 x 7 in/12.7 x 17.7 cm
Copyright Byrne Smith 2017

It's been a couple of years since I painted and/or blogged about little gems, not since 2015 to be exact.

If you don't know what a little gem is, it's what I refer to as any small painting--small being 36 square inches (about 232 square centimeters) or less.

I'll tell you why I like little gems. They make you:

- immediately decide the most important things about your painting (composition, viewpoint, focal point)

- paint small, almost miniature, which means you naturally leave out all but the most necessary details

- control your painting world in a very confined space

- paint rather quickly because you can fill up the space with a few brushstrokes

Today's image is only 5 x 7 in (12.7 x 17.7 cm) and was completed in way less than one hour.

I hope you enjoy my work.