World audience for local miniatures

Livermore artist Barbara Stanton goes small in her paintings but is about to go large in her audience. She will be the first American artist featured on the Australian television show “Colour in Your Life!” with host Graeme Stevenson.

“I’m so excited about this opportunity to share my miniatures with the world,” Stanton said. “It was wonderful to meet Graeme and his lovely camera lady, Sophia Stacey. They spent the day with me, interviewing and filming me paint a miniature landscape in oils.”

The show will be aired on PBS stations across the U.S. and will be released on YouTube .Jan. 22.

“They were quite the professionals but also very friendly,” Stanton added. “I love their Australian accents. They made me feel very comfortable in front of the camera.”

She hopes that being on the show will help promote her miniature painting workshops.

“I would love to spread the news about this wonderful way of self-expression,” she said.

Stanton specializes in miniature oil painting and portraits, miniature and full size. She paints in the dollhouse scale, 1/12 (1 inch equals 1 foot), so the paintings fit perfectly in any fine miniature collection, some no larger than a postage stamp. Her oil paintings are done on a variety of subjects in a realist style, using color and light to make each piece glow.

Although Stanton is known by fine art miniature collectors around the world, she also creates larger works. Pleasanton, where she grew up, commissioned her to paint a 22-foot-by-7-foot mural called “Pioneer Founders of Pleasanton,” which can be seen on Main Street under the Arch across from the Museum on Main.

Stanton also runs a figure drawing workshop and teaches art classes at Livermore’s Bothwell Arts Center. Her works are displayed at the Livermore Art Association Art Gallery, 2155 Third St., in Livermore — a local co-op where she has been a member for about 25 years.

About the show

“Put Some Colour In Your Life” — or “Colour In Your Life!” — is a television series created in 2010 by master artist Graeme Stevenson. It began in the small town of Murwillumbah, an artistic region of Australia, and the show has spread out to encompass the arts and artists of the country — and the world. The website www.colourinyourlife.com.au, which runs in conjunction with the TV series, was created in the hopes of building an arts hub for artists all around the world.