Lorraine Loots is an artist based in Cape Town who wrapped a highly successful project called 365 Paintings for Ants at the end of 2013. as you can guess from the title, Lorraine painted a tiny painting every day for 365 days and, well, you have hopefully seen that scene which explains the name.  she posted a painting every day on Tumblr and Instagram (where you can browse all 365 paintings in the archive). most of the time the subject stemmed from her own imagination, but as it gained momentum people booked dates that were special to them and commissioned paintings, like this portrait of Ron Swanson painted for a couple who got engaged after an episode of Parks and Recreation.

i enjoyed seeing such a talented person’s dedication to her work being celebrated in local blogs and magazines, and all over social media, and i wondered what Lorraine was going to do when she had finished. well, she’s not stopping. 365 Postcards for Ants is the next phase of the project, celebrating Cape Town in honour of it being the 2014 World Design Capital.

be sure to read this wonderful interview by Lior Phillips to learn more about Lorraine and her work. you can follow the new project on her Instagram & Tumblr and you can also book a painting if you’d like to own one of these tiny delights.

paintings c/o Lorraine Loots. video by Gareth Pon. photographs by Frances Marais for MBLife.