12pt. Font, Tardigrades, Original oil painting

Original oil painting by Sarah Soward.
Oil on panel
20x10 inches

There are tiny water bears (tardigrades) painted into this impasto piece. The idea is that a piece of paper with 12 pt. font that reads, "The tardigrade is the world's tiniest animal," is magnified to a size large enough that the minuscule tardigrades are just large enough to see.

12pt. Font is a heavy impasto painting. Thick, deep palette knife strokes of white create a rollicking texture for the painted tardigrades to inhabit. As you likely know, tardigrades (water bears) are the smallest animal on Earth. In order to clarify that point, I painted them here at scale to 12pt. Times New Roman font. I decided to make it look as though the letters were banged deep into the fantastic texture of white paper, enlarged so that the tardigrades would show up to the human eye without the aid of magnifying equipment.

This is a little bit conceptual for wildlife art, but that's where the contemporary art side of things comes in. I do enjoy art that has a little something hidden in it, whether it's a tiny tardigrade or a mountain of meaning.

Please keep fine art and prints out of direct sunlight and UV light.