Micro artist David A. Lindon recreated 3 Van Goghs inside a watch
Late at night while most everyone in the coastal English town of Bournemouth is sleeping, David A. Lindon sits in front of a microscope making the tiniest of artworks. His creations are so minuscule and precise, he steadies his hands by only moving them between his own heartbeats.
One twitch — or worse, something as disastrous as a sneeze — and his latest painting or sculpture could disappear into the fibers of his carpet or be lost forever in the jumble of tools on his desk.
“If you cough or breathe too hard or open the window, the art could blow away,” he said.
A few years ago, at least one piece of artwork became lodged inside Lindon’s nose, never to be seen again.
“I inhaled it by accident, and poof. It was gone,” he said. “To do what I do, you practically have to work yourself into a trance. I guess you could say that I must be mad.”
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Lindon, 54, makes a living as a micro artist, specializing in pieces so small that they need to be viewed through a microscope.
He started out putting each of his tiny masterpieces inside the eye of a needle or on top of a pin. His latest work is rotating as a wearable miniature art gallery inside a watch.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Van Gogh Museum in the Netherlands last month, Lindon collaborated with Edward Hammond, the founder of Hammond Galleries in the United Kingdom, to re-create three of Vincent van Gogh’s most famous paintings — “Starry Night,” “Sunflowers” and “Self-Portrait” in micro form. Lindon placed the artworks on a precision component called a tourbillon inside an Archer Zeroo Time T4 mechanical wristwatch. The project took him six months.
The watch with the microscopic Van Goghs is now on view at Hammond Galleries, valued at $190,000.
The paintings are made with micro pigments from fine white porcelain and rare black moissanite, and the frames are made of 24-karat gold, Lindon said, adding that the canvas and other specific materials are a closely guarded secret.
Lindon has three other pieces on display in New York this summer at an exhibition called “Small Is Beautiful,” and he said he’s next hoping to showcase the world’s smallest zoo.
“I’ve created 24 art pieces of animals — everything from tigers and giraffes to birds and insects,” said Lindon, noting that some of his friends and family in Bournemouth now call him “Microangelo.”
“What I do doesn’t take up much space, but it’s very, very hard to do,” he said. “It takes hundreds of hours, but seeing the look of wonder on everyone’s faces makes it all worthwhile.”
“I’m literally creating something from almost nothing,” he said.
Lindon, a former engineer who once worked in the aircraft industry, said he developed a fascination for ultra small-scale art after watching a TV special in the U.K. about artists who enjoyed creating diminutive works.
In 2019, he said he decided to create a few of his own pieces and spent months working on his painstaking technique. His first piece was a wee Dalmatian that he made for his daughter, Abigail. It measured about a half of a millimeter long, and was crafted from materials that included porcelain, nylon, carbon fiber and precious metals.
“She suggested that I put it online, so I posted it on Facebook and Instagram,” he said. “When people went nuts over it, I knew I must be on to something.”
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Lindon experimented with materials such as carpet fibers and crushed micro pigments, and he developed his own small tools, including a blade made from a hypodermic needle with a diamond fragment on the tip, and brushes made with fibers from silkworms.
“People ask me, ‘Do you paint with the leg of a fly? But I actually use micro hooks and shovels that I’m constantly remaking,” he said. “When you’re working on such a small scale, everything is extremely delicate.”
His work is reminiscent of the famed micro artist Willard Wigan, who for decades has painted with materials such as human eyelashes, and has won two Guinness World Records for the tiniest art made by a human hand. Other micro artists — including Hasan Kale, who paints on a grain of rice, as well as almond slivers, and Salavat Fidai, who makes sculptures on the tip of a pencil — have gained notoriety for their talents in the world of tiny art.
Lindon said he usually works late at night so vibrations from traffic won’t disturb his concentration or cause his art to tremble under the microscope.
“One mistake and it’s gone,” he said.
He twice tried to finish a portrait of singer Amy Winehouse and lost the piece both times, Lindon said.
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“The first time, I crushed her in my fingers,” he said. “And the second time, she was pulled away by static electricity. I was on my hands and knees, trying to find her in the middle of the night with a flashlight. I believe she’s still somewhere in the carpet.”
His most frustrating loss was a mini reproduction of Pablo Picasso’s “Weeping Woman,” Lindon said.
“She has lots of color and is very angular with lots of straight lines,” he said. “Basically, she’s a jigsaw. Earlier this year, I got three-quarters of the way through this complicated piece when my fingers suddenly twitched and I ripped the painting apart.”
“I could have cried, but I carried on,” Lindon added. “I worked through my anguish and spent hours and hours putting her back together.”
He said that mishaps happen less frequently now that he has taught himself to control his heartbeat by slowing down his breathing and relaxing.
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“I breathe slowly and it helps to steady my hands,” Lindon said. “I now paint between heartbeats, which is quite an amazing thing and has taken me a year to do. I also squeeze my fingers together really hard to control my tools.”
He said he avoids all stimulants and coffee.
“I’m in tune with my pulse and my heartbeat,” he said.
His nanoscopic works now include everything from Snoopy on his doghouse to reproductions of Andy Warhol’s silk-screen painting of Marilyn Monroe and Banksy’s “Love Rat.”
Six of his pieces, including his versions of Edvard Munch’s “The Scream,” and Johannes Vermeer’s “Girl With a Pearl Earring,” were sold in 2021 for a total of about $115,000.
Lindon carefully installs each piece inside a glass dome equipped with a microscopic lens.
“I strive to make everything as close to the original as possible,” he said, adding that it usually takes a month or two to complete each piece.
Now that the Van Gogh watch is finished, he said he has plans to put Picasso, Warhol and Salvador Dali inside wearable timepieces.
“It’s monumental art on a microscopic scale,” he said.
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