2015 Top Stories in Miniatures Compiled by D. Thomas Fine Miniatures!

It was a GREAT year for the miniatures world! A number of high profile media outlets reported on the topic, giving much needed support and awareness around the small-arts which we know and love!

Here provides a hand-curated list of just a few of the BIGGEST news stories to hit the little world in 2015:

____________________________________________________

Artist "Shrinks" Historical Rooms in Miniature Masterpieces

Henry Kupjack on the CBS Evening News

June 22, 2015

CBS Evening News features this story about reknowned miniaturist Henry Kupjack with an interview by veteran journalist Dean Reynolds. Viewers are invited into Mr. Kupjack's studio and to hear stories about his famous father, Eugene Kupjack, noted for his particiapation in creating the famed Thorne Rooms on permanent exhibition at the Art Institute Chicago.

____________________________________________________

Letter of Recommendation: The Thorne Miniature Rooms

The Thorne Rooms in The New York Times Magazine

September 17, 2015

Writer Charles Siebert takes the reader through the history of miniatures in this story about the acclaimed architectually accurate minature rooms that make up the Thorne Rooms commissioned by Narsissa Niblack Thorne on permanent exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago.

A slide show filled with gorgeous photographs of the collection accompany the story.

____________________________________________________

Grunwald Gallery Brings Magic to Minis

The Miniature at the Grunwald Gallery/Herald Times

August 31, 2015

Fine art miniatures and contemporary art in miniature join forces for "The Miniature" at the Grunwald Gallery at Indiana University/Bloomington. This storytalks about the tiny treasures and other thought-provoking wee-world creations exhibited by miniature artisans including Thomas Doyle, Joe Fig,Michael Yurkovich, Mark Murphy and Althea Chrome among others.

____________________________________________________

Dollhouse Appraised at $8.5 Millon Is on Tour

The Astolat Castle Featured in the New York Times

July 16, 2015

Once again, miniatures are featured in the New York Times in this story about the Astolat Castle, reported to be the most expensive dollhouse in the world and appraised at $8.5 Million. The house began its tour with stopover at the Time Warner Center in New York City, just in time for the 2015 holdiay season!

_______________________________________________________________

Worlds Largest Pint Size Tourist Attraction to Open.

Gulliver's Gate Launch in Crain's New York Business

November 17, 2015

This may just be the BIGGEST story to hit the miniatures world in a long long time about Guliver's Gate featured in Crain's Business News. This new interactive miniatures destination promises to be THE attraction to see when visiting New York City! 49,000 square feet filled with miniature marvels promises to excite, delight and astound and will be located in the former New York Times building in Times Square.

_____________________________________________

It's A Small World

D. Thomas Fine Miniatures in Westchester Magazine

November, 2015

D. Thomas Fine Miniatures is featured in a story in Westchester Magazinetalking about the latest gallery installation: Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window in Miniature. The piece, which won top prize at the Philidelphia Flower Show in 2015 was created by artist, author and educator Louise Krasniewicz who writes a blog about miniatures called The Wonder of Miniature Worlds.

Here's to another GREAT year of miniatires in the news in 2016!!

_____________________________________________________

ABOUT D. THOMAS FINE MINIATURES

D. Thomas Fine Miniatures is an online and in-store retail destination featuring artisan dollhouses and top quality collectibles including 1/12th scale furniture and accessories. The shop also offers workshops and classes taught by master artisans.

The concept, designed to appeal to collectors, crafters and enthusiasts at all skill levels and abilities, was created, in part, to raise awareness of miniatures as a decorative art form and to introduce the discipline not only to a new generation but to those who may just be discovering it!

The shop also features a gallery space showcasing works in miniature by well-known artists from all over the world.

D. Thomas Fine Miniatures is located at 579 Warburton Avenue in the village of Hastings-on-Hudson NY. Gallery and shop hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm and Sunday from Noon to 5:00 pm. Evening hours are available by appointment.

For more, follow D. Thomas Fine Miniatures on: Instagram Facebook and Twitter.

Still Life Miniatures/Natasha Beshenkovsky

A Life’s Journey Expressed in Fine Miniatures: The Master Artistry of Natasha Beshenkovksy

Creating a work of art is an intense and highly individual process. The process is a very personal and intimate journey the artist agrees to undertake to convey their ideas and points of view. For many artists the journey starts at the moment of inspiration and includes time spent organizing thoughts, vision and accumulation of their human experience, selecting the materials and various structural components specific to the medium and the many hours spent in the studio or workshop. The ultimate goal is to provide a path to their vision, passion and personal truth with an end goal of engaging their audience. For more than 30 years Natasha Beshenkovsky has traveled this path, applying her vision and unique signature style to the creation of intricate and scale miniatures across many genres. Her creations continue to delight, inspire and engage us and allow us to join her journey.

Natasha was reared in Moscow as part of a family rich with appreciation and value for all arts; her father (a writer) and mother (an actress before her ultimate role as mother and homemaker) filled their family home with artists, musicians, writers and others involved in music, theatre and film. From an early age she displayed true signs of an artist; her parents provided her with private art lessons and at the tender age of 11 entered the rigorous Moscow Art School, an affiliate of the prestigious Academy of Art. It is here that she began her life’s study and appreciation of the works of the masters, decorative arts and architecture. Natasha continued her education at The Moscow Film School and pursued a multi-faceted professional life in the Soviet film industry with roles including art direction, set design, model making and animation. These professional positions drew on her training in the fine arts and her inherent talent and facility in the areas of textile design, illustration and watercolor and oil painting, enabling her to refine and perfect her skill as a fine artist and served as perfect preparation for her next professional journey and life in the United States. This new adventure began in 1977 when Natasha emigrated from the Soviet Union to the US, leaving behind family, possessions and the agreement to never return to her native home.

Natasha quickly settled into American life and chose the Washington Heights section of New York City as her new home, joining the roster of diverse artists residing in the area’s emerging creative community. Attending a show of miniature works presented by the International Guild of Miniature Artisans (IGMA, www.igma.org), sparked the idea of working in a new category. Impressed by the miniatures she saw at this show, she realized her skill in creating miniature models and puppets for animated films would fuel success at this new artistic genre. Natasha embarked on this new journey into the creation of fine scale miniatures from the confines of her modest Manhattan apartment. Her earliest works consisted of highly stylized and decorated period furniture and within one year her intricate works could be found at IGMA shows and became available through various miniature dealers including Molly Brody (an IGMA founding member). Within that same year she was elected to the coveted status of IGMA artisan, her works became recognized by various miniature and art publications and her unique creations became part of numerous private collections and displayed in various museums. In December 1999 she was honored with the exhibition “Natasha: A 20-Year Retrospective” at the Tee Ridder Miniatures Museum at the Nassau County Museum of Art in Roslyn Harbor in the heart of the Gold Coast of Long Island. The museum, situated on land that was originally part of William Cullen Bryant’s Cedarmere estate, was home to the private collection created by Madeline “Tee” Ridder (1926-1991) during the final 15 years of her life and included 1/12 scale room boxes containing Venetian glass, English porcelain, fine textiles and furniture she collected or commissioned. The exhibition was curated from her works of the time and from the private collections of her admirers and included many of her significant shadowboxes, furniture and paintings created during the first twenty years of her miniature journey.

Ever reinventing and challenging herself to step out of the comfort zone, Natasha’s quest as an artist is to pursue new categories. She recently commented “I try to reinvent myself as often as possible; this is what I do as a rule. I often hear that I constantly come up with something totally unexpected.” In the mid-1980s following her personal credo, Natasha created “three-dimensional paintings” that resemble miniature theatrical settings consisting of a scenic backdrop and various layers including hand painted furniture, accessories, flora and food items and often a figurine with highly stylized expressions. These 3-D paintings or shadowboxes that are no larger than 3- to 4-inches in depth are designed to engage and invite the viewer to retreat and enter into the setting and become part of the story and experience the feelings and emotions of that specific place in time.

Today her ever evolving portfolio of miniatures include furniture (tables, commodes, musical instruments), her now famous shadowboxes, fully hinged painted room screens, trays, small painted boxes, paintings, sculptures of cats and dogs, and other sculptures of whimsical, expressive characters crafted from panels of painted wood assembled at various angles to resemble origami.

Natasha continues to be recognized for her mastery of the miniature art form and growth as an artist. Currently an exhibition of her key works may be seen at the Gallery of D. Thomas Fine Miniatures in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. “Still Life in Miniature: Natasha Beshenkovksy” (December 6, 2015 – February 15, 2016) is curated by Darren T. Scala, proprietor of D. Thomas Fine Miniatures and includes examples of her master works of miniature portraiture, furniture, sculpture, and shadowboxes, including the exquisite “Kitchen in Delft,” a 3-D painting inspired by the paintings of the 17th Century Dutch Master Peter de Hoch. Scala says “I have admired Ms. Beshenkovsky’s style for many years and I have fantasized about owning one of her beautiful works. I feel privileged to have just a sample of her incredible body of work on display in my gallery and I am proud to showcase Natasha’s mastery of the fine scale miniature art form this winter.”

We join Mr. Scala in feeling privileged to enjoy and experience the artistry of Natasha Beshenkovsky and thank her for allowing us to join her artistic journey through life. To learn more about her work, please visit: http://natashaminiatures.com/. For more information on the exhibit “Still Life in Miniature: Natasha Beshenkovksy” please contact Darren T. Scala, D. Thomas Fine Miniatures.

Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window in Miniature

The newest gallery installation at D. Thomas Fine Miniatures features Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window in Miniature, a special work created in 1/12th scale, by professor of anthropology and artist Louise Krasniewicz.

Louise writes extensively about miniatures and discusses why miniatures are so prevalent in modern culture. In her work she suggests that, when carefully constructed and scaled, miniatures are like stage or movie sets that invite the viewer to visit an alternative place and experience a different world. Her works portray miniatures as imaginative productions, true marvels and wonders of art.

Krasniewicz created this intricate miniature setting, a replica of the main movie set from Hitchcock’s 1954 classic film, for inclusion in “Celebrating the Movies,” part of the miniature settings category displayed at the 2015 Philadelphia Flower Show earlier this year). Her creation achieved First Place and Best of Show.

When Alfred Hitchcock planned the set for Rear Window, he made the windows that looked into the Greenwich Village apartments appear to be miniature movie screens, showing the drama within each cramped space. The love stories played out in the windows of the abstractly named characters—Miss Torso, Miss Lonelyhearts, the Songwriter, The Newlyweds—depicted a possible version of the life of Jeff Jeffries, the wheelchair-bound photographer, watching his neighbors. When Jeffries suspects one of his neighbors of murder, the parallel stories framed in the apartment windows all contribute to the mystery.

“Cramming all of that, along with the details of the apartment of the murderer Lars Thorwald, into a scale-model replica of the Rear Window set was the challenge,” claims Ms. Krasniewicz. “It demonstrates numerous scratch building, painting, design, lighting, and construction techniques as well as providing the perfect demonstration of the notion of “worldbuilding” that is defining the newest approaches to miniatures” she goes on to say. Louise believes that when seeing miniatures as built worlds rather than just play things “we have the possibility of entering that world and experiencing its wonders.”

By viewing a scaled replica of an enormous Hollywood stage set, the viewer can take in evidence from all the scenes at the same time and enjoy the connections between the stories played out in the windows.

Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window in Miniature will be on display in the Gallery at D. Thomas Fine Miniatures until November 25, 2015.

About the Artist

Louise Krasniewicz, PhD, is an adjunct in anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania where she teaches anthropology courses on anthropology, popular culture, and movies. She is also affiliated with the Cinema Studies Program and is a fellow at the Penn Cultural Heritage Center. Her academic training in media studies and anthropology made her an expert on pop and geek culture phenomena and the theoretical frontiers digital media. Krasniewicz is the author of numerous books including biographies of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Johnny Depp, and Walt Disney, and a study of the California recall election. Louise’s passion for miniatures include the study of ancient miniatures across times and cultures, miniatures in film, and miniatures at World’s Fairs. Krasniewicz’s insights may be found in her blog The Wonder of Miniature Worlds…past & present, in theory and practice.

About the Film

Hitchcock’s Rear Window was released by Paramount Pictures on September 1, 1954 and relates the story fictional photographer of L.B. “Jeff” Jeffries (played by James Stewart) who passes time by watching the private lives of his neighbors through their open windows when confined to wheelchair in his Greenwich Village apartment while recuperating from an accident during a summer heat wave. The film explores man’s fascination with voyeurism and the attraction of being watched and observed. Rear Window received four Academy Award nominations and in 1997 the film was selected for preservation in the US National Film Registry of the Library of Congress as being culturally, historically and aesthetically significant.

About D. Thomas Fine Miniatures

D. Thomas Fine Miniatures is a retail and gallery destination featuring fine scale collectibles. The shop also offers workshops and classes taught by master artisans on making miniatures. It’s located in the historic lower Hudson River Valley in the Moviehouse Mews, once The Hastings Theater (opened in 1920) and attended by local resident Billie Burke – who played Glinda, the Good Witch, in the 1939 classic, The Wizard of Oz and Flo Ziegfeld, of the Ziegfeld Follies. The address is 579 Warburton Avenue in the village of Hastings-on-Hudson, NY. Gallery and shop hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM and Sunday from Noon to 5:00 PM. Evening hours are available by appointment.