Remington Robinson’s Adorable Tiny Oil Paintings Fit Into Any Pocket

By
Kate A
-

We often admire the famous painters from the past and think that nobody will ever have such talent and skills again, when in reality there are so many incredibly talented people today all around the world. We also have more ways than ever to see their work thanks to social media and one great example of that is Remington Robinson’s Instagram page.

Robinson is a Colorado-based artist who paints true masterpieces on tiny mint tins. He actually paints on small wooden panels that he attaches to the container lids. Once prepared, he travels to an inspirational site and uses the tin as the palette as he paints on the wooden panel.

“I use a new container every time, and when I am finished, the painting stays with the container it was painted in, complete with the palette of paint that was used to create it,” Robinson tells My Modern Met. Each container become a little art artifact, as he says. 

Check out his art below and find more on Instagram.

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Subdued autumn colors on Cherryvale with a side of wildfire smoke. ✔️ Oh yeah, there used to be a tree there on the left, but it got chopped down since the last time I came to this spot. I decided to pay homage to our lost tree friend and put it in the painting, also because I like the balance it adds to the composition. #pleinair #pleinairartist #pleinairpainter #pleinairpainting #altoids #altoidstinpainting #oilpainting #miniaturepainting #miniatureart #miniatureartist #minipainting #miniart #miniartist #tinypainting #tinyart #tinyartist #smallpainting #smallart #smallartist #micropainting #microart #microartist #coloradoart #coloradoartist #boulderopenspace #bouldergreenbelt #bouldercolorado

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I was looking for something “autumn” to paint last week, and ended up at this cottonwood tree on the side of the road. ➡️ This painting, along with nine others are in a plein air exhibition with @sugarlift in NYC, and the opening is tonight at 508 W 28th St., New York, NY. And if you aren’t able to make it to the opening, don’t worry! All of these paintings, as well many others from a great lineup of artists, are available online at art.sugarlift.com. . . . #cottonwood #cottonwoodtree #autumncottonwood #coloradoart #coloradoartist #pleinair #pleinairartist #pleinairpainter #pleinairpainting #altoids #altoidstinpainting #oilpainting #miniaturepainting #miniatureart #miniatureartist #minipainting #miniart #miniartist #tinypainting #tinyart #tinyartist #smallpainting #smallart #smallartist #micropainting #microart #microartist

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Weekend vibes were touching on tropical in the south with this luscious banana plant in Birmingham, Alabama. 🍌🌴 First time ever in ‘Bama over the weekend for my cousin Sarah’s wedding. This banana plant was right across the street from my family’s AirBNB. Its colors were looking so juicy in the morning sun that I just had to paint it. It reminded me of being in Mexico or Florida, and made me want to paint more banana plants in the future. P.S. – I just found out that even though the banana plant is commonly called a ‘banana tree’, it is not classified as a tree since its stem is not made of woody tissue. . . . #alabamagetaway #bananatree #bananaplant #tropicalpainting #tropical #pleinair #pleinairartist #pleinairpainter #pleinairpainting #altoids #altoidstinpainting #oilpainting #miniaturepainting #miniatureart #miniatureartist #minipainting #miniart #miniartist #tinypainting #tinyart #tinyartist #smallpainting #smallart #smallartist #micropainting #microart #microartist

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The end of this summer here in Colorado has been plenty hot, not to mention very smoky from all the forest fires. Then all of the sudden, 💥BAM💥 we get pummeled with a freak summer snowstorm! Yesterday’s snowstorm was pretty devastating for all of the deciduous trees in town. I was driving around with a plan to paint sunflowers and snow together, and I was feeling pretty depressed about all the damage to nearly every single tree in the city. But then again, my default mode is that I tend to always look on the bright side of things, so the sad state didn’t last long. Sunflowers and snow together is just such a rare opportunity and I couldn’t pass up painting these!! The Flatirons also came out from behind the clouds just in time for the plan to come together successfully. And, hopefully the snow has quelled those wildfires somewhat. ❤️ . . . #sunflowersandsnow #summersnow #summersnowstorm #bouldercolorado #coloradoweather #coloradoart #coloradoartist #pleinair #pleinairpainting #altoidstinpainting #remingtonrobinson #2020whatayear

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I’ve got a story for you! When I was in Vail last week, I had the opportunity to paint a live model: a brook trout! My initial idea was to find a spot on Gore Creek where I could paint a scene of a covered bridge with the smoke-obscured mountains in the distance. But when I arrived, I noticed a beautiful little brook trout feeding on insects. Instead of painting right away, I wanted first to try to get some photos with my Nikon of the trout. As I was sitting still, patiently waiting for the fish to rise every few minutes, groups of kids began to come down the river on river tubes. They were kicking and splashing, even getting out of their tubes right near me and that would scare away my fish friend. This happened every 10-15 minutes or so. Also while I was taking pictures, a few people brought their dogs to play catch in the water right across from where I was. Same thing, the dogs scared the fish. They also made the water murky, which would subside as the water flowed. But even though all these things would scare the fish away, it kept coming back every time! After over an hour of shooting photos and learning of this fish’s reliability, I figured it would actually be possible to make a painting of this little guy. The fish took about an hour and a half to paint. Once I finished the painting of the fish, that’s when I went right into painting the scene of the covered bridge, which I included again here. (I almost didn’t paint it, as I really wanted to hit the road to go home. But it just looked too good to resist. And I’m glad I did paint it, because that one sold very quickly!) For those into photography: I needed a fast shutter speed so that there wouldn’t be any motion blur, and I was shooting with a large aperture because I wanted a shallow depth of field (background blur). The tricky part was having to manually focus the lens just right to get the insect in focus. And anyway, there wasn’t enough light to use a small aperture and still keep a fast shutter speed. That would have made everything a lot easier as far as everything being in focus, but the effect I was looking for with the depth of field would have been lost anyway. 🤷‍♂️

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