This evening from 4pm to 9pm, Sunset Hill Jewelers and Fine Arts Gallery will be hosting its 19th Annual Miniature Show featuring 25 different artists, which is made up of 24 painters, both veterans and new ones, and one photographer. A variety of artistic methods will be featured, from colorful, pop paintings to realism and still lives. I spoke with Sandy Riper, Sunset Hill’s owner, about the importance of this Miniature Art Show.
“The Miniature Art Show is successful in part due to the holiday season,” she explained. “And new collectors can invest in affordable works, as well as meet the artists who produced each work.”
Sandy explained that there are about four or five new artists in the gallery, including Rachel Beltz, a twenty-something who painted a house on a lake so
small, it was about the size of a quarter.
“The amount of detail and time she invested in this piece is incredible,” Sandy said. “And we have another new painter featured who started painting when she was 80 years old!”
Sandy took me upstairs where I previewed the various pieces of art of all different shapes and shades. I asked Sandy a difficult question: which one is your favorite?
“I don’t have one; I like all of them,” she replied. “From landscapes, to still lives, and all the different styles, I love them all.”
She explained that hosting these galleries provides her with new insights on interior designs, as the paintings are mounted on the walls in a particular, glamorous fashion.
One element of the gallery that was conspicuous was the artists’ choices of frames, or lack of frames, for the pieces.
“Each artist does their own framing,” she explained. “But some people use canvas boards in place of frames to make them pop and keep the cost of the work down.”
“A good frame can really complete an art piece and really make it stand out,” she continued. “But over-framing can take away from the piece. After all, framing is an art in itself.”
