Mini Moments: Small Original Paintings Inspired by Memory and Place.
Recently, I’ve been thinking about the moments we bring home from a holiday or a day spent somewhere unfamiliar.
It’s often not the landmark or carefully planned experience that stays with us. Instead, it might be the colour of a hillside, light moving across water, a sudden change in the weather or simply how it felt to be there.
These fragments often become the starting point for my paintings.
Mini Moments: Small Original Paintings Inspired by Memory and Place.
Recently, I’ve been thinking about the moments we bring home from a holiday or a day spent somewhere unfamiliar.
It’s often not the landmark or carefully planned experience that stays with us. Instead, it might be the colour of a hillside, light moving across water, a sudden change in the weather or simply how it felt to be there.
These fragments often become the starting point for my paintings.
Painting what remains
I’m Sarah Pittaway, an artist based in North Yorkshire. My work explores nature, memory and the emotional connections we form with places. media;
My practice is experimental and intuitive. I build each painting through layers of colour, line, texture and collage, allowing it to evolve rather than beginning with a fixed idea of how it should look.
This approach led to Mini Moments, my first collection of small original mixed-media paintings. They were born from my efforts to make space for creativity for the sake of joy, suspending judgement on results and focusing instead on the line, the colour, and the feelings and memories that arise as I work.
Why I began painting Mini Moments
I made these works to connect with myself and find calm amongst the chaos of my day. I often begin with large works and use my whole body to make expressive marks in mixed media.
Often, weeks or months later, I find fragments among these larger works. That might be a line or a colour that appeals, which I feel has potential to build on. This process takes time. It often involves difficult decisions; saying yes to one part of a painting often involves cutting out something else. This process is emotionally cathartic, and it resonates with the choices and decisions I make in my life. Being still and choosing a slower, peaceful life has meant focusing on less so I can enjoy what I have more. In my artistic process, I do the same. I focus on what remains and build on it, cherishing it and highlighting details that draw the eye, inviting you to take a moment to see something previously unseen, to focus on fleeting beauty, and to be still amongst your own busy life.
Each Mini Moment becomes a small space for experimentation. I can respond to a colour, remembered view or fleeting feeling without needing to explain everything. Some are calm and spacious; others are more energetic or unsettled.
Although miniature, they aren’t studies for larger paintings. Each one is meant to be a complete, individual work of art.
During this period of my life, I have reflected a lot on what led me here. I hope each work finds its way to someone who will let it bring them a moment of calm, energy, and enrichment. Perhaps the colour and the line transport them to their own memories or bring a calm resonance to their space.
Mini Moment No. 1 was recently exhibited with Fronteer Gallery in Sheffield. Seeing such a small, personal piece take its place in a gallery exhibition felt like an important moment for me.
Small paintings and quiet spaces
Original art doesn’t need to be large or imposing to have a presence.
Small paintings encourage a more intimate kind of looking. They can live quietly on a shelf, beside a bed, above a desk or among books and other objects with personal meaning.
Each Mini Moment measures approximately 7.5 × 7.5cm and is double-mounted in an 18 × 18cm white wooden frame. Each piece is original—not a print or reproduction—and comes with a Certificate of Authenticity.
Their size makes them easy to place, but their purpose is the same as my larger work: to create an emotional connection with a remembered or imagined landscape.
Beginning an art collection
Collecting original art can sometimes feel intimidating, but a collection doesn’t have to begin with a large painting or a detailed plan.
It can start with one small piece that makes you pause.
Over time, a collection can grow through instinct and personal connection. The works might share particular colours, subjects or materials, or they may reflect different moments in your life.
You can buy Mini Moments individually, but they're designed to sit together as a collection. There are currently only 20 available. If you would like to hear about the next series of works, please subscribe to my Studio Notes Newsletter, where you will hear about them first.
I don’t think choosing art needs to begin with specialist knowledge. The important questions are often much simpler: does the work hold your attention, evoke a memory or make you feel something you would like to keep?
Giving original art
A small original painting can also become a meaningful gift.
Rather than choosing art purely because it matches someone’s home, it can be more personal to select a piece that recalls a place, journey, season or shared experience.
Because every Mini Moment is created individually, each one carries its own marks, textures and history. No two are exactly alike. When you select Send as a gift, I will gift-wrap the artwork and send it with a personalised card from you to a UK address of your choice.
Supporting an emerging artist
Choosing work by an emerging artist means becoming part of a creative practice while it is still developing.
That support isn’t limited to buying work. Visiting exhibitions, following an artist, sharing their work or joining their mailing list can all create opportunities and help a practice grow.
For me, support allows time for experimentation and for making work led by curiosity rather than trends. It gives new ideas the chance to develop into something larger.
Mini Moments may be small, but they hold many of the ideas that run throughout my practice: memory, landscape, emotion and the importance of noticing what might otherwise pass us by.
[Explore the Mini Moments collection]
About Mini Moments
Are Mini Moments original paintings?
Yes. Each Mini Moment is an individual mixed-media painting, not a print or reproduction.What size are they?
The visible artwork measures approximately 7.5 × 7.5cm. Each painting is double-mounted and presented in an 18 cm × 18 cm frame.Do they include a Certificate of Authenticity?
Yes. Each original comes with a signed Certificate of Authenticity.Where are they created?
I create the paintings in my North Yorkshire studio.Are Mini Moments suitable for someone beginning an art collection?
Their intimate scale and accessible price make them a natural starting point for someone choosing their first original artwork.Can they be given as gifts?
Yes. A unique original painting can make a personal gift for a Teacher’s/Medical staff/Mother’s Day thank you, birthday, anniversary, new home, or in memory of a meaningful place.
Mini Moments: A Collectible Art Series
