Miniatures, reference works, and writing

One of the works at the Stanley Cursiter exhibition I saw at the National Gallery of Scotland this week was a collection of miniatures he had painted. According to the gallery website, Cursiter, who served as keeper, and later director, of the gallery, painted “miniature watercolour copies of 297 paintings in the collection”. The miniatures were a visual aid – a tool, a reference – used for planning displays. When I visited the exhibition, there were two people who were especially fascinated by the miniatures, looking to see what paintings they could recognise. There was so much in the room I didn’t spend too much time with the miniatures, but they did leave an impression.This has me thinking about what the writing equivalent of this is. One concept that comes to mind is that I use the search feature on my website to help me find prior works that I can link to in a current post, or to see if I have explored an idea in the past. In a way, I am looking at the works in miniature: I am…