A member of the Miniature Art Society of Florida (MASF) since 2022 and Vice President of MASF since 2024, Dr. Larry Kay has exhibited paintings in the 2023, 2024 and 2025 MASF Annual International Miniature Arts Exhibitions – winning 2nd prize in 2023 (marine category) and 1st prize in 2024 (floral & botanical category). His paintings were also shown in the 2024 MPSGS 91st Annual Exhibition of Fine Art in Miniature and in the June 2024 Plen Air Salon Art Competition, where he was selected as a “Top 100 Finalist”.

 

Pursuing photography since college, Dr. Kay is always looking for the unusual angle, special lighting or a dramatic composition. This led to experimentation with small-scale watercolor painting – first plein air on backpacking trips or camping adventures, and in more recent years using his own photographs as inspiration. Partly fueled by the detail required by medicine, Dr. Kay has concentrated on miniature painting because he “sees and appreciates the tiny intricacies of life and of the creation around us”. For him, miniature painting celebrates the details overlooked in the bustle of our busy lives. 

 

In addition to painting, Dr. Kay creates shell mosaics inspired by morning walks along the beaches of Florida’s Honeymoon Island State Park, near where he has lived since 2016. In his words: “I always love to get something for free, so picking up shells and interesting fragments of shells became a habit. That gave me the idea of using the fragments like mosaic pieces to create 3-dimensional ‘paintings’. Of course, it was only a matter of time until I combined watercolor painting and shell mosaics, as you can see from some of the art pieces”.