Life in miniature wins artistic largesse

A MINIATURE portrait that took more than a month to create has been awarded the $50,000 Metro Art Prize

miniature

A MINIATURE portrait that took more than a month to create has been awarded the $50,000 Metro Art Prize.

Natasha Bieniek's 10cm x 15cm Keepsake, an oil-on-wood painting, was announced yesterday as the winner of the 10th annual prize, the country's richest for up-and-coming artists.

The portrait, depicting a friend of the Melbourne painter, was selected over 25 other works by artists from around the country.

Bieniek, 28, said she was overwhelmed by the award, saying it was a justification of her decision three years ago to focus on miniature art.

"I was working on a life-size scale for 10 years before I scaled down. I quite enjoy testing those limits and seeing how far I can push it, how small I can make it go," she said.

Keepsake, painted on Japanese magnolia, proved a time-consuming project. "It can be frustrating working on such a small scale," Bieniek said. "There's really no room for error. If something's 1mm out, it will blow out all the proportions."

Bieniek's works have attracted plenty of attention during the past two years. She has twice been shortlisted for the Metro and twice for the Archibald .

Bieniek said she was inspired by the 16th-century miniature art movement as well as present trends of viewing images on portable digital devices.