Camelia Smith’s latest miniature exhibition sparks big joy

Posted on 3 November, 2022

Giving us a tiny peek inside her world, Camelia Smith’s latest exhibition, ‘Autumn Bounty,’ captures comforting scenes from her garden and the intimate details in the everyday.

Open now until Tuesday November 13, Camelia will take you on an artistic journey that is anything but small.

Autumn Bounty is part of a larger exhibition at Wren’s Nest Gallery, dedicated to shining the spotlight on Canberra artists who are drawn to creating works on a smaller scale.

It’s in this intimate and incredibly detailed landscape that Camelia’s art comes to life—finding her sweet spot in a 10cm-by-10cm frame. Despite these small parameters, every piece feels expansive and vast, holding the viewer’s eye and, at times, sticking us right within the artwork itself.

“I belong to the local miniature art group in Canberra. I used to coordinate the group for the last 11 years [until recently], so I have been painting in this format for quite some time. And for me, it’s always been appealing—I think that that is such a nice size, and it creates work that invites you in and asks you to look just that little bit closer.” says Camelia.

As you journey through her body of work, it becomes clear that Camelia is deeply present in her creations. Each piece busts with a rich and carefully patterned landscape inspired by her garden and connection to this transformative season—where ripe fruit falls, and golden caramel textures sing.

“Autumn, when you think about it, is the season of plenty and glut in some ways,” she says. “And I am inspired by my garden. Every April there’s a lot of stuff coming off those trees, particularly the quinces. It’s a tree my uncle gifted me, and every year it’s laden with fruit, which is beautiful to paint.”

And as we take a step closer, audiences can find smaller seasons of change that live within this larger narrative—this time taking shape in the form of roses—thematically linked by Camelia’s repetitive colour plate that delicately captures Canberra’s magical hour sunlight.

“Within that smaller season, I have painted roses and all the golden ambience and light that comes through autumn. So, they all have that glow and golden representation of autumn.”

While Camelia works across other art mediums, such as sculpture and painting, watercolours have always had a way of singing out to her. And as she listens, rich marks danced across the page, forming these warm and inviting works that carefully hold colour, allowing it to emerge and gently recede.

“It can be challenging at times because watercolour does what it wants to do, and you just got to learn how to rein it in. But once you’ve obtained some knowledge and some gift in being able to wrangle it, you can produce really clean works.”

Autumn Bounty is proof that little art can still hold immense power, capturing expansive details that somehow live within these hand-sized frames. All the works at Wren’s Nest Gallery illustrate the sheer talent that flows through the ACT—something Camelia encourages all Canberrans to support.

“I welcome anyone to come and have a look. Because besides my work, anything within that Emporium is exceptional. And people could come through and pick up something very intimate that has a connection to Canberra. Sometimes you forget that your backyard has a collection of such talented artists.”