The Selina Rose Gallery

This is the project I am currently working on. For those who have followed my blog from day one you may recall an earlier post where I said one of my sisters had been waiting for many many years for me to do a house for her. In fact my dad built the corner house back in the 1990s when I was doing miniatures the first time. I then had a break from miniatures for 15 or so years and the house went into storage for all that time. In the meantime my sister Karen took up painting and now produces some fabulous 'quirky' (her words) art. So when I got back into miniatures again recently I suggested we turn her corner house into an art gallery to house miniature copies of her paintings.

Because it is a corner unit there is limited floor and wall space. I am thinking the ground floor will largely house Karen's art, the second floor could display more of her art and a guest gallery, the third floor could have an easel and a painting in progress, and the attic space could be a quiet space for reading art books and having a cuppa. As you can see below there is some furniture in the gallery. This is some furniture Karen bought back in the 1990s, so I am trying to work around these pieces.

I put some tape wiring on the house back in the 90s so I am not sure it will still be okay. I might even look at putting LED battery lights in the house. Being a corner house it might be awkward trying to sort wires and transformer unless I build a base, because they can't go behind the house. I'll have to think about that one.

My sister would like light walls, being a gallery. I have been trying to source white/off white miniature wallpaper or scrapbooking paper but I've had no luck. I think I might have to get a roll of full sized wallpaper.

There is a front with windows and a door but I'll deal with the main part of the house first and then work out how to deal with the exterior.

This is some of my sisters paintings that will go in the gallery.

Miniature copies of full sized paintings by my sister Karen Panton.

At the moment these images are just glued on fine canvas for a bit of texture which is then glued on to some matt board. This is my third try at producing the miniature paintings. My previous attempt was using foam core which didn't produce a satisfactory result at all.

Prior to that I had tried to replicate the look of stretched canvas which is what she uses for her paintings, but one painting took a long time and really didn't produce the best results.

This is my 'stretched canvas' attempt. I first glued the photo on some mesh bookbinding fabric for texture, but it is a bit too textured. I used matchsticks for the frame. I'll put this one on an easel but I don't think I want to do dozens of them.

Another challenge will be displaying them in the gallery. I am thinking of building something to display them on rather than just sticking them on the walls, then things can be changed around on a whim.

The name of the house is the Selina Rose Gallery. I designed this sign for the gallery but then accidently marked it so will have to do another copy.

Now that I have made a post about this project my sister will be able to see I am making slow progress with her project and all my blog friends can keep me accountable.

I promise you my darling sister you will get your house this year. I think over 15 years is long enough to wait.