Margaret Hicks

Margaret Turner Hicks (September 28, 1923 – August 3, 2006) was a world-renowned producer and promoter of Miniature Art. Favoring representational art, Hicks painted landscapes and still lifes and the occasional portrait, using small brushes and a magnifying glass to achieve a high level of detail in paintings that were often just 2 to 4 inches wide. Hicks often lectured on Miniature Art and was President of the Miniature Painters, Sculptors and Gravers Society of Washington from 1983 to 1988. In 1993 she published a miniature book on the topic — measuring just 2 7/8 by 2 5/8 inches — called Art in Miniature. As a collector of miniature books, Hicks "felt it would make a lot of sense" to do a miniature book on art in miniature. The book covers small-scale painting, sculpture, and engraving. All proceeds from the book went to a scholarship program for Washington DC high school students planning to study art. Hicks' paintings and other artwork were exhibited in Washington and Baltimore, London, Japan, and at the U.S. Embassy in Gambia. Several of her pieces were among the more than 500 works in an international exhibition of miniature art she helped organize at the Smithsonian Institution's S. Dillon Ripley Center in 2004.