enormous tiny art + portsmouth, nh

Renee and I drove up to Portsmouth, NH on Sunday to check out an art exhibit called "The Enormous Tiny Art Show". It was at a store called Nahcotta and it featured works from various artists that were 10"x10" or smaller (most were really small). It was really neat to see how people use different mediums in art. One of my favorite techniques was called encaustic painting where some kind of wax or resin is used on the canvas or surface like a marble tile.

It was kind of disappointing how the gallery/store took down the pieces that had already been sold because it left holes in some of the exhibits, and it would've been nice to see the artists' collections as a whole. A couple of my favorite pieces were by artists Tara Hogan, Rachel Austin, and Lindsay Bentis. Renee and I both liked the pieces by Stephanie DosReis. Renee liked the "Friends" piece and I liked "Utensils", but both were already sold.


We walked around town a little bit and saw some inspiring things. We also saw this funny store display of a skeleton holding this sign.

Check out this display of Le Creuset pots and colanders. So colorful!

A couple of neat business logos on a door.

Renee wanted me to take a picture of this framed poster inside a Starbucks bathroom.

A pretty vase display at Nahcotta.

We came upon a bead store called Beadizen and met the owner who has had the store for fifteen years. She had some very reasonably priced strands so I got some glass beads to play around with. We talked about running a small business and she said that she is considering closing hers down next year, which was kind of sad to hear but almost understandable.

On our way back to the car, we came across a fabric store. Renee needed to buy a special needle for her letterpress class and of course, I had to run right into the Amy Butler fabric section. Oy vay. I saw this great yellow and grey combo fabric and got a yard of each. What to make with it? I'm not sure yet but I'll figure something out.

Afterwards, we drove up to the Kittery Outlets in Maine mostly to check out the Crate & Barrel outlet store. I bought the glasses we originally put on our wedding registry since they were less expensive there and made good use of a couple of our gift cards. I also bought some fabric that they sell for only $8.95/yard in some fun, funky patterns.

After all our shopping, we decided to head back home and stop off at Costco before getting dinner. Alas, we got stuck in a little bit of toll booth traffic leaving New Hampshire and didn't make it there until 5:58 pm. Of course, our luck and it being Sunday, they closed at 6:00 pm so it was a no go for us. So then we headed over to Yoki for a yummy sushi dinner. You can read about that experience here.

All in all a rather fun day full of art and inspiration!