365 Postcards for Ants by Lorraine Loots.

Click here to watch embedded video.

‘Postcards for Ants’ is an ongoing painting project by Cape Town artist Lorraine Loots who has created a miniature painting every single day since January 1, 2013. At first her subjects stemmed from her own imagination but as the project gained followers from Tumblr, people took the opportunity to book dates that were special to them to commission a personal painting. Every day, Loots posted the completed picture online, and unsold pieces could be reserved by commenting on the picture. The artist works with paint brushes and pencils to render superbly detailed paintings the size of a small coin. In January 2014, all 365 pieces were exhibited in Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa, after which they were distributed to the owners.

After the first year, Loots relaunched the project in a second phase inspired by Cape Town’s designation as World Design Capital 2014. On her website you can “reserve” a future painting (it’s all booked up for this year), and she’s also printed five limited edition postcards for each day. We have our bets on a 2015 miniature project!

Visit the archive of 2013’s paintings on the artist Tumblr site.

[Video courtesy of Gareth Pon. Images courtesy of Lorraine Loots.]