By Tyler Wright
An Olinda-based artist has stepped out of his comfort zone to enter into a miniature exhibition at Como House in South Yarra.
The Giant Miniature Art Exhibition (GMAE) will raise funds for the National Trust of Victoria to restore Heritage Homes like Como.
Maxwell Wilks will have four tiny paintings, roughly the size of a postage stamp, displayed until 23 July in his first venture into painting on a small canvas.
Wilks chose to paint landscapes of Williamstown, the Murray River, a Venice evening and a man reading the paper; all with the fixed dimensions of 25mm by 38mm.
“You’ve got to have a decent enlarger. In other words, look through a magnifying glass,” Wilks said.
“My wife’s a painter as well, so she had a big magnifying glass, and you look through this big glass, which is on a stand, and at least you can see what you’re painting and you can work on it without straining your eyes quite so much.”
Wilks’ oil paintings accompany 800 art pieces from 219 artists around the world; 46 of which were submitted by members of the prestigious Twenty Melbourne Painters Society – an organisation Wilks himself is a part of.
“I enjoyed doing them. It’s not for me to do miniatures,” he said.
“With my style of painting, very fine painting like that and being very exact is not something I’m used to in my normal way of painting because the brush size, you might have a couple of hairs on it rather than a large brush that you would normally use.”
Wilks, 79, began painting professionally at 30 years of age, forsaking a career in advertising for his love of art.
“I went to the gallery school when I was very young, at the age of 16, and spent my time there…I was with Ian Armstrong and John Brack…they were the tutors there,” he said.
“I was in advertising for quite a few years, and then I won a scholarship called the Bale Scholarship, which I’m now one of the judges of, which which has been going for many years, and that enabled me to go to England.”
Returning to Australia with a family and finding a home in Olinda 25 years ago, Wilks said he did not return to advertising as he believed he could make a living from painting, going on to teach at the University of Queensland for 20 years.
“The only state I don’t teach in is Western Australia… but I go to most capital to tutor at the societies…in Adelaide there’s two societies, there’s one in Tassie, Brisbane.”
Wilks was the winner of the ‘Masters Circle ‘challenge in the recent Streeton, Roberts, McCubbin Art Awards with a painting inspired by Arthur Streetons famous work ‘The purple noon’s transparent might’.
“I work with all mediums… I painted oil most of my life, but pastel is something I’ve taken on and that seems to have become quite well known…and I do watercolour.”
“It is a realist style…It’s not photographic or anything like that, It’s very much an Impressionist way of looking at something.”
National Trust of Australia (Victoria) Director Wayne Degenhardt, said the organisation is “thrilled” to mount the GMAE for a second time with more than double the artworks shown at the inaugural exhibition held in 2021.
“The Trust is delighted to present its second exhibition of miniature art. This time we have managed to set a new record as the world’s largest ever miniature art exhibition,” Degenhardt said.
“The exhibition is an incredible opportunity for artists from all around the world to showcase their talent and creativity in miniature art, and we are pleased to provide the platform. ”
The top 100 finalists of the GMAE were also chosen to be auctioned.
Among the finalists were Sherbrooke Art Society members Maxwell Wilks, Antoinette Blyth, Annee Kelly, It Hao Pheh, Carol Toogood and Leanne Vassallo.
The reserve price for each auctioned artwork is $100, with each framed piece available for purchase from $55.
The GMAE 2023 offers two prestigious awards for the involved artists; including the the Gordon Moffatt Miniature Art Prize awarded to the ‘Best in Show’ artist.
The second award is the People’s Choice Award given to the artist whose artwork receives the most votes from the viewing public.
The GMAE is located in the Ballroom of Como House and Gardens, at Williams Road and Lechlade Avenue in South Yarra.
The exhibition is open to the public from Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm, until 23 July 2023.
Entry to the exhibition is free.
For more information on the exhibition, visit https://www.nationaltrust.org.au/event/giant-miniature-art-exhibition/
More than 300 of the miniature artworks have been collated in a book called ‘Small Wonders – A Selection Of Artworks From The Giant Miniature Art Exhibition 2023,’ which is available for purchase at Como House and all National Trust of Australia (Victoria) properties for $14.95.
