“Dots 14″ little bitty painting

The latest in my ongoing series of small “little bitty” original paintings, each only 5 x 7 inches (or 12.7 x 17.8 cm if you’re into that kind of thing). Each is unique, all are experimental.

This one’s kind of like a maze:

By the way, there’s no right way up for this painting (or any of the others, for that matter). You can display it any way up you like.

“Dots 14″ by Barbara J Carter

5×7″ (12.7 x 17.8 cm) Acrylic on canvasboard

$45 plus postage ($1.50 in the US, $3 everywhere else) and sales tax in California.

No PayPal account needed, just a credit card.

“Dots 13″ little-bitty painting

The latest in my series of “little-bitty” dot paintings:

“Dots 13″ by Barbara J Carter

Acrylic on canvasboard, 5×7″ (12.7 x 17.8 cm)

$45 plus postage ($1.50 in the US, $3.00 outside the US) and sales tax in California

No PayPal account needed, just a credit card.

New little-bitty painting “Dots 12 (Open Grid)”

“Dots 12 (Open Grid)” is the latest in a series of what I call “little bitty” paintings. They’re all 5×7 inches (that’s 12.7 x 17.8 cm if you’re metrically inclined), which is super small compared with my “usual” paintings.

These little bitty paintings are more experimental than my big serious paintings. They are studies, explorations of possibilities. They allow me to break free of any preconceptions I might have (oh yes, I have a few!) about how to make a painting.

“Dots 12″

For this one, I originally planned out an elaborate grid of dots that would be completely filled in. But while painting it, I started leaving gaps here and there. I thought I’d fill in the gaps with different colors. But partway through I realized I liked the effect of the gaps, so I left them. The grid is there, but it’s hinted at rather than explicitly filled in. I like that.

Like the others, this one’s for sale. I can send it anywhere in the world the mail service reaches. So far, other little bitty paintings have been sent as far as Poland, Sweden, and even Oregon.

“Dots 12 (Open Grid)” by Barbara J Carter

5×7 inches (12.7 x 17.8 cm)

Acrylic on canvasboard

$45 plus postage ($1.50 in US, $3.00 elsewhere) and sales tax in California

No PayPal account needed, just a credit card.

More “little bitty” dot paintings

Here are my two latest “little bitty” dot paintings, just finished this week.

These things have been flying off the shelves, so to speak. I figured I’d better get cracking and make some more!

“Dots 10 (Wavy Lines)”

5×7 inches (12.7 x 17.8 cm)

Acrylic on canvasboard

$45 (plus $1.50 shipping in the US or $3.00 shipping worldwide, and sales tax in California only)

Buy “Dots 10″ (no PayPal account needed, just a credit card)

“Dots 11 (Circles)”

5×7 inches (12.7 x 17.8 cm)

Acrylic on canvasboard

$45 (plus $1.50 shipping in the US or $3.00 shipping worldwide, sales tax in California only)

Buy “Dots 11″ (no PayPal account needed, just a credit card)

Candy-colored dot painting

Ta-daa! A brand new little-bitty dot painting in bright and yummy candy colors!

It is, like all my other “little bitty” paintings, 5×7 inches (12.7 x 17.8 cm). This one took a little longer to do than the others so I’m pricing it a wee bit higher, but it’s still a very affordable little original painting. Because as you know, I only sell original paintings. Even the very small ones.

“Dots 9 (Candy-Colored Dots)” by Barbara J Carter, acrylic on canvasboard, 5×7″ (12.7 x 17.8 cm), 2009.

Sold

New Paintings: “Dots 7″ and “Dots 8″

Further experimenting with the formal geometric ordering of the dots, I thought I’d try having two focal points rather than the single central focus of all the other little bitty dots paintings so far. I also tried mixing up the colors a little more. It’s all in the name of experimentation.

"Dots 7" by Barbara J Carter, 5x7", acrylic on canvas panel, 2009

“Dots 7″ is sold.

The result is at least interesting, and gives me more options for covering the larger areas of much bigger paintings. The dots will be the same size, so there will be a LOT more of them on a bigger painting. So blocking out multiple repeating patterns instead of a single overall pattern is a possibility. At any rate, “Dots 7″ helps me visualize how that might work in a larger painting.

Then, I decided to try something completely different, like making curving lines and areas out of the dots instead of the previous squares or random patterns. Again, all in the name of experimentation.

"Dots 8" by Barbara J Carter, 5x7", acrylic on canvas panel, 2009

“Dots 8″ is also sold.

“Dots 8″ kind of reminds me of the eye of an ancient Egyptian god, or perhaps some fishy sea creature. It was supposed to be just a random intersection of lines, but it’s very hard not to “see” objects in this kind of image. And that’s a useful lesson for me too. I probably won’t be using the “eye” motif in any future paintings, but it’s certainly different from the other experiments!

Going Geometric: “Dots 6″ painting

I’m really excited about this direction for my little abstract dot paintings:

"Dots 6" by Barbara J Carter, 5x7", acrylic on canvas panel, 2009

Geometry! The dots form one grid, the background stripes another. This is definitely a direction I’m interested in pursuing further. It dovetails nicely with the ideas I’ve been thinking about recently. So, you can expect to see more geometry!

This painting is available for $45 plus postage (and sales tax in California). First Class postage in the U.S. is $1.50. It is painted on a canvas panel, a thin board that will fit into a normal 5×7″ photo frame. Click on the “Buy Now” button to purchase with a credit card. No PayPal account needed.

New Dot Paintings: “Dots 4″ and “Dots 5″

Catching up with the little bitty dot paintings:

"Dots 4" by Barbara J Carter, 5x7", acrylic on canvas panel, 2009

"Dots 5" by Barbara J Carter, 5x7", acrylic on canvas panel, 2009

I’m particularly pleased that some of the background detail shows up in “Dots 5″. It’s almost completely obscured in “Dots 4″, but you can just barely make it out if you look closely.

These little paintings are fun little works of art in their own right, but they’re also studies and experiments leading up to larger paintings. With these little bitty paintings I can work out what colors I like, how well the background details show up, things like that. So there will be more to come.

Each of these paintings is available for $45 plus postage (and sales tax in California). First Class postage in the U.S. is $1.50. They are painted on canvas panels, thin boards that will fit into a normal 5×7″ photo frame. To purchase one, click on the button below.

Sorry, “Dots 4″ is sold.

Click to purchase “Dots 5″

New Painting: “Dots 3″

The next in an ongoing series of little bitty paintings:

"Dots 3" by Barbara J Carter, 5x7", acrylic on canvas panel, 2009

Being temporarily (I hope) camera-less, I instead captured the image of this little painting on my flatbed scanner. An artist friend had been after me to use my scanner more. He claims scanners take vastly superior pictures of paintings over digital cameras. The downside: anything bigger than the scanner (about 8×10″) has to be scanned in pieces, and I’m just not willing to do that. But for a little bitty 5×7″ painting the scanner works great! The colors are much more accurate than my camera ever got, I have to admit. So, maybe my friend has a point.

This painting is available for $45 plus postage ($1.50 in the U.S.), and sales tax if mailing to a California address. It’s painted on a canvas panel, a thin canvas-covered board that will fit readily into any 5×7″ photo frame. To purchase, click on the button below.

New Painting: “Dots 2″

In spite of being sick for the past several days, I managed to finish another little bitty abstract dot painting. Voila!

"Dots 2" by Barbara J Carter, 5x7", acrylic on canvas panel, 2009

I’ll admit to thinking a little about interstellar space while painting this one. (I’m allowed to do that: I have degrees and everything.) The “cloud” of lighter colored dots is similar to the distribution of stars in a galaxy. (For you astronomy geeks out there, I was originally thinking about a spiral seen edge-on, but then it turned more into an elliptical galaxy.) But mostly it’s an abstract painting having fun with color.

The unfortunate thing about being sick is that this one painting is pretty much all I’ve accomplished this week. Well, this and the consumption of 1.5 boxes of Kleenex and an entire bottle of DayQuil. Good news: I’m feeling much better now!

This little bitty painting is sold, but many more are still available.