Natalya B. Parris: 'Portrait in Lace'

Alexandra by Natalya B. Parris

There are several shows coming up this month and this winter for painter Natalya Parris. Known for her "dots" technique, which overlays dots of different sizes within a composition to form a familiar and sometimes abstract image, Parris will be showing work at four venues in the coming months: Blackrock Center for the Arts in Germantown in the annual Art League of Germantown winter show; the Maryland Federation of Art Circle Gallery in Annapolis in its National Juried Small Works Exhibition; the Foundry Gallery in Washington, D.C. as part of the "Come In from the Cold" exhibit; and the Strathmore Mansion in North Bethesda as part of the 81st Annual International Exhibition of Fine Art in Miniature show.

For the latter, she created her first miniature painting "Portrait in Lace," a 4x4 inch black and white piece incorporating her dots technique on a much smaller canvas. (She usually works at four to five times this size.)

Portrait in Lace by Natalya B. Parris

"In “traditional miniatures” not only the size of the artworks is small, but the image is also very small; and that is where the biggest challenge was. I do images in my art 'bigger than life,'" she stated in describing how she had to condense all of her thoughts and emotions into this one miniature.

"One canvas just could not hold all of my feelings and ideas," she added, attributing her tendency to work at a relatively large scale to her Russian roots and what she terms "love without measure."

Nonetheless, participation in this show is encouraging her to produce more miniatures and develop this line of work, "I am thrilled that my first miniature artwork was juried into the prestigious International Exhibition of Fine Art in Miniature."