Francisco De Zurbarán | Vita ed Opere

Zurbarán ⟨tℎurbℎaràn⟩, Francisco (1598-1664) fu l'artista che meglio seppe rappresentare la religiosità controriformista della Chiesa spagnola del 17° secolo.

Profondamente religioso, Z. rimase personalità singolare e appartata.

Nella sua vasta produzione di soggetti sacri, le figure assurgono a simboli di intensa spiritualità (dipinti per il convento di S. Pablo el Real di Siviglia, commissionatigli nel 1626, ora sparsi in chiese e musei della città; serie delle sante, 1639-45, in vari musei europei).

Nella fase finale della sua attività si dedicò alla natura morta, che rese in modi estremamente moderni.

Vincent Van Gogh | The Potato Eaters, 1885

"The Potato Eaters" (Dutch: De Aardappeleters) is an oil painting by Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh painted in April 1885 in Nuenen, Netherlands.

It is in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. The original oil sketch of the painting is at the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, and he also made lithographs of the image, which are held in collections including the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

The painting is considered to be one of Van Gogh's masterpieces.

Vincent Van Gogh | The Potato Eaters, 1885 | Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Judith Bridgland, 1962 | Landscape painter

Judith Bridgland was born in Australia, and trained in Glasgow, Scotland where she now lives and works. She graduated from Glasgow University in 1984 with a Masters degree with Honours in Fine Art.

Judith creates paintings very much in the Scottish colourist tradition. Her art works are bold, exuberant and vibrantly joyful landscapes.

Working in oils, her paintings use bold, vigorous, rhythmical strokes of impasto paint combined with delicate brushwork.

This gives an exciting texture to the paint surface along with a sense of abstraction, which reflects nature’s contrasts and delicate harmonies. However, whilst the work is very painterly, it also has a strong sense of place.

Ute Herrmann, 1969 | Romantic / Impressionist garden

German painter Ute Herrman was born in Cologne.

1986/1988 - Technical College for Design, Rheinbach;

1988/1990 - Graduate College for Design and Graphic Design, Rheinbach;

1990/1992 - Studied at the Rhine-Sieg Academy of Art, Dipl.- Graphic Designer;

1992 - Training in Portrait and Life Drawings;

Since 1992 - Independent Freelancer;

1993 - First stays in Paris and in the artist town of Carmel, California;

Andrey Remnev (Russian painter, 1962)

Nato e cresciuto ad Yakhroma, nei pressi di Mosca, Andrey Remnev è sempre stato attratto dalla pittura della natura, persone, città e paesaggi. Si è laureato alla Scuola d’Arte di Mosca nel 1983.

È il direttore artistico e membro della giuria dell’International Youth Festival “Russin Spring” (Bavaria 2012, Barcellona 2013, Paris 2014).

Membro onorario dell’International Academy of Culture and Art, svolge attività di docenza presso il Surikov’s Moscow State Art Institute.

Fortemente ispirato dai movimenti artistici russi del 15°, 17° e 18° secolo, nonché dalla pittura medievale di icone, i dipinti di Andrey Remnev sono interpretazioni ostentate e stranamente ipnotiche.

Nonostante il riferimento alla pittura medievale, c'è unasottile, tocco contemporaneo nelle opere di Andrey attraverso gli elementi più surreali che sono inclusi.

.

Pierre Auguste Cot | Biografia ed Opere

Pierre Auguste Cot (1837-1883) è stato un pittore Francese che ha vissuto 46 anni.

Auguste Cot studiò dapprima nella Scuola di Belle arti di Tolosa, quindi a Parigi, dove fu allievo di Léon Cogniet, di Alexandre Cabanel e di William-Adolphe Bouguereau.

Debuttò con successo al Salon del 1863 e, dal 1870 in poi, la sua popolarità crebbe rapidamente.

Godette della protezione del suo maestro Bouguereau, con il quale lavorò, ed, in particolare, di quella dello scultore Francisque Duret, di cui sposò la figlia.

Paul Gauguin | Natura morta con manghi, 1893

"Natura morta con manghi" fu probabilmente eseguito a Tahiti, durante il primo viaggio del pittore Francese Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) nell'isola nel 1891-93, anche se Georges Wildenstein suggerisce che potrebbe risalire alla sua seconda visita nei Mari del Sud, intorno al 1896.

Ispirato dal lussureggiante ambiente che lo circonda, "Natura morta con manghi" incarna la ricerca per tutta la vita dell'artista del primitivo e mostra la stessa vivacità ed atmosfera sensuale e la tavolozza luminosa e calda che caratterizzava i suoi celebri paesaggi tahitiani e dipinti di figure. | © Sotheby's

Zinaida Serebriakova (1884-1967)

Zinaida Yevgenyevna Serebriakova / Зинаи́да Евге́ньевна Серебряко́ва was the first female Russian painter of distinction, as a master of portrait, genre scenes from the life of peasantry.

She was born near Kharkov into one of Russia's most refined and artistic families. In 1900 she entered the art school founded by Princess M. K. Tenisheva.

Serebriakova studied under Repin in 1901 and Braz between 1903-1905.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo | Animal Studies | Austrian National Library

Gli studi di Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1527-1593)🎨 su figure di animali, uccelli e piante datati 1553, sono stati recentemente scoperti negli album delle biblioteche ed i musei di Vienna, Dresda e Bologna.

Ulteriori studi sono datati 1562, anno del suo arrivo a Vienna.

Come dimostrano questi primi disegni, la sua attività come un illustratore di esemplari naturali era un prerequisito essenziale per la creazione delle sue teste composite delle "Quattro Stagioni"🎨 ed i "Quattro elementi🎨".

Giuseppe Arcimboldo🎨 è stato un pittore Italiano del periodo Manierista🎨, noto soprattutto per le "Teste Composte", ritratti burleschi eseguiti combinando tra loro, in una sorta di trompe-l'œil, oggetti od elementi dello stesso genere (prodotti ortofrutticoli, pesci, uccelli, libri, ecc.) collegati metaforicamente al soggetto rappresentato, in modo da sublimare il ritratto stesso.

Paris Bordone (Italian, 1500-1571)

Pàris Paschalinus Bordón, od anche Pàris Bordone (Treviso, 5 luglio 1500 – Venezia, 19 gennaio 1571), è stato un pittore Italiano della Repubblica di Venezia del Rinascimento, che lavorò anche insieme a Tiziano, pur caratterizzandosi per una impostazione più marcatamente manierista ed un vigore che lasciava trasparire la sua formazione provinciale.

Paris Bordon nacque a Treviso, ma si trasferì a Venezia già nella tarda adolescenza. Nel capoluogo veneto studiò brevemente e in modo alquanto infelice (secondo il Vasari) con Tiziano. Vasari potrebbe aver incontrato Bordon da vecchio.

Miguel Ángel Avataneo (Argentine painter, 1962)

Miguel Ángel Avataneo è nato in San Cristobal, Pcia de Santa Fe, Argentina ed il suo amore per la forma pura del classicismo è stato alimentato dal suo precoce interesse per i maestri italiani: Corregio, Giorgione (1478-1510), Raffaello (1483-1520) e Tiziano (1488/90-1576).

Fu anche fortemente influenzato dai dipinti francesi della fine del XVIII secolo di David, Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) e Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780-1867).

Drew Darcy (British painter, 1976)

Artista, Cantante e Cantautore, Drew Darcy ha forgiato una carriera di successo come artista figurativo contemporaneo, pubblicato dalla principale casa editrice britannica, Washington Green Fine Art.

Drew Darcy lavora principalmente con l'olio. Vive e lavora nel suo studio nel Worcestershire, in Inghilterra.

Ha collezionisti da ogni angolo del globo e ha forgiato una carriera di successo come artista figurativo e contemporaneo in tutto il mondo.

Combina anche i suoi talenti artistici con la sua musica, come cantautore e designer internazionale.

Pierre de Clausade | Biografia ed Opere

Pierre de Clausade (1910-1976) è stato un pittore premiato Francese del XX secolo.

Nato a Parigi nel 1910, Clausade era contemporaneo di Picasso, Braque e Matisse, ed i suoi dipinti di nuvole hanno una qualità e unicità innegabili.

Nel 1943 tiene la sua prima mostra a Parigi che si rivela un grande successo.

Victor Wang (Chinese painter, 1956)

Victor Sheng Wang è un pittore Cinese / Americano e professore di arti all'Università di Fontbonne.

Wang è nato a Qiqihar, in Cina dove ha completato il liceo, eccellendo nella creatività visiva.

Fu confinato con la forza dalla Rivoluzione Culturale maoista nella regione più settentrionale della Manciuria a coltivare campi di girasole per due anni e mezzo, dopodiché fu ammesso all'Accademia di Belle Arti Lu Xun (Shenyang, provincia di Liaoning) dove si laureò nel 1983.

Parmigianino (1503-1540) | La Vita e le Opere

Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola, detto il Parmigianino, è stato un pittore Italiano, fondamentale esponente della corrente manierista e della pittura emiliana in generale. Il soprannome, oltre che dalle origini, gli derivò dalla corporatura minuta e l'aspetto gentile.

Figura tra le più originali del manierismo italiano nella sua versione settentrionale, l'artista esercitò una profonda influenza anche sull'arte francese del cinquecento. Influenzato nelle primissime opere dal Correggio, il Parmigianino cominciò a staccarsi dallo stile del maestro fin dalla sua prima commissione importante, gli affreschi in alcune cappelle di S. Giovanni Evangelista a Parma (1521-24), con la contrapposizione marcata di forme e colori.

Michelangelo | Il ragazzo accovacciato, 1530-1534

Il genio del Rinascimento Michelangelo fu un eccezionale architetto e poeta, nonché il creatore dei celebri affreschi nella Cappella Sistina del Vaticano.

Ma la sua vocazione principale era senza dubbio la scultura.

La concezione dell'opera dell'Ermitage è connessa con l'opera di Michelangelo sulla Cappella Medicea - il sepolcro della famiglia dei sovrani di Firenze.

Egisto Lancerotto (1847-1916) | Genre painter

Egisto Lancerotto è stato un pittore Italiano.

Egisto Lancerotto trascose la sua infanzia a Noale fino al 1853, quando il padre Giuseppe, impiegato dell'Impero Asburgico nel Distretto di Noale, fu costretto a trasferirsi a Venezia per motivi di lavoro.

Questo cambiamento fu motivato dalla soppressione del distretto, in seguito alle vicende legate all'attività del patriota risorgimentale Pietro Fortunato Calvi nativo di questo Comune (che sarà poi ripreso da Egisto in uno dei quadri della collezione comunale).

Jusepe de Ribera / Lo Spagnoletto (1591-1652)

Jusepe de Ribera è stato un pittore Spagnolo, uno dei massimi protagonisti della pittura napoletana ed europea del XVII secolo nonché uno dei più rilevanti pittori seguaci del filone del caravaggismo napoletano, da cui derivò una peculiare corrente pittorica di cui fu il promotore, il tenebrismo, che vedeva una esasperata rappresentazione della realtà, violenta e brutale, accentuata da particolari epidermici, anatomici e psichici nei personaggi raffigurati.

Il suo stile, che nel tempo si evolve verso un classicismo neoveneto, fu modello e punto di riferimento per i pittori partenopei coevi e di generazioni successive, segnando in maniera indelebile tutta la pittura napoletana del Seicento.

Gaudenzio Ferrari (Italian painter, 1471-1546)

Gaudenzio Ferrari was born to Franchino Ferrari at Valduggia in the Valsesia in the Duchy of Milan. Valduggia is now in the Province of Vercelli in Piedmont. He is said to have first learned the art of painting at Vercelli from Gerolamo Giovenone.

He subsequently studied in Milan, in the school of the Cathedral artisan Giovanni Stefano Scotti, and perhaps alongside Bernardino Luini. Circa 1504 he proceeded to Florence. It was once thought that he later moved to Rome. He died in Milan.

Michelle Torrez (American painter, 1956)

Torrez believes that the greatest influences on her work were the circumstances of her childhood and teenage years: "My life has influenced me to look deeper to find the beauty and humanity in people and places. Even at an early age, I knew I was an artist".

Known for her color work, Michelle Torrez does expressionistic oil paintings of figures that are intended to communicate the beauty of unlikely emotion, movement and life.

Born in Denver, Colorado, Torrez is the oldest of four children from a working class family.

Wilfred Jenkins (British Victorian painter, 1857-1936)

Wilfred Bosworth Jenkins was a little known Victorian artist whose work is, according to the Dictionary of British Artists, now beginning to arouse interest as he painted moonlit street and dock scenes in the style of J. Atkinson Grimshaw🎨.

As with the latter his works, often moonscapes, are incredibly atmospheric depicting a gothic view of Victorian England that inspires as many people today as in Jenkins’s own lifetime.

Alda Merini: "Non mettermi accanto a chi si lamenta.."

Alda Merini by Paolo Vecchio

Non mettermi accanto a chi si lamenta

senza mai alzare lo sguardo,

a chi non sa dire grazie,

a chi non sa accorgersi più di un tramonto.

Chiudo gli occhi, mi scosto un passo.

Carol Cavalaris (?-2020)

Carol Cavalaris ha vissuto nel mezzo di una foresta nell'alto paese del Colorado.

Era la bellezza selvaggia dell'ambiente circostante che ha ispirato i suoi dipinti digitali di fauna selvatica e natura.

Carol espone il suo lavoro in diverse gallerie del Colorado, tra cui la Grace Gallery nel famoso quartiere artistico di Santa Fe Avenue a Denver.

Era è un artista professionista freelance, specializzata in dipinti di animali selvatici, floreali ed animali domestici.

Artista raffinata, Carol Cavalaris celebrava l'unicità di ogni essere vivente con il suo ampio corpus di lavori realizzati con tecniche miste.

Gianni Bellini (Italian painter, 1965)

Gianni Bellini è nato a Carmignano (PO) nel 1965. Autodidatta, fin da giovanissimo, ha dimostrato una particolare attitudine per la pittura: a soli quindici anni ha cominciato a partecipare a numerose rassegne estemporanee, a mostre personali e collettive in varie città, conseguendo, ovunque, numerosi attestati di stima e primi premi.

Fra le mostre più importanti in cui egli è stato protagonista, è doveroso segnalare l'"Esposizione Internazionale" al Palazzo degli Affari di Firenze (1991-1992), quella al "Jacob Javits Center" di New York, al Museo Nazionale di Stoccolma e a quello di Budapest.

Nel 1992 ha affrescato l’arcata principale della facciata della chiesa di San Pietro a Seano, presso Carmignano.

Shusaku Takaoka, 1977 | Pop Surrealist graphic designer

Japanese🎨 graphic designer Shusaku Takaoka reimagines pop culture and art in a funny and sometimes macabre way.

The artist is inspired by our modern society to juxtapose visuals who form a funny set and sometimes denouncing aspects of an ultra-consumer and over-connected world.

Using famous faces like Mona Lisa🎨, Van Gogh🎨, and Vermeer’s "Girl with a Pearl Earring"🎨, Takaoka merges them onto bodies sporting the latest fashions. The playful project gives a whole new meaning to these painted characters, who now look incredibly modern.

Serge Marshennikov, 1971

Serge Marshennikov was born in Ufa, Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia. His grandfather was the general manager of a horse breeding company, his father, an electrical engineer and his mother was in pre-school education.

Freom the earliest of times, Serge was always drawing, painting and sculpting from any material he could land his hands on.

His Mother encouraged Serge to study and from early childhood and he had a succession of private teachers and art studies he attended. After receiving a number of awards for his children’s watercolor and pastel paintings, Serge decided to become a professional painter.

In 1995 he finished the Ufa Art College and then continued education at one of the most prestigious art academies in the world, The Repin Academy of Fine Art in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Vincent Van Gogh: "I put my heart and soul into my work, and I have lost my mind in the process"..

▻ There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.

▻ The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore.

▻ I put my heart and soul into my work, and I have lost my mind in the process.

▻ Ho messo il cuore e l'anima nel mio lavoro, e ho perso la testa nel processo.

▻ It is looking at things for a long time that ripens you and gives you a deeper meaning.

▻ I would rather die of passion than of boredom.

▻ If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.

▻ I don’t know anything with certainty, but seeing the stars makes me dream.

Albert Einstein: "La creatività è contagiosa. Trasmettila!"

▻ La logica ti porta da A a B. L'immaginazione ti porta ovunque!
▻ La creatività è contagiosa. Trasmettila!
▻ L'arte è l'espressione del pensiero più profondo nel modo più semplice.
▻ L'immaginazione è più importante della conoscenza. La conoscenza è limitata, l'immaginazione abbraccia il mondo.
▻ Per perdere la testa, bisogna averne una!

Frédéric Blaimont, 1949 | Genre painter

Living in South West France, Frédéric Blaimont exhibits mainly in galleries in France and Europe.

Blaimont studied at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Paris and at the l'École d’Art Graphique (Kunstgewerbeschule) of Basel, Switzerland, in the early 70s.

Through his characters, Fréderic Blaimont translates real life in a tender yet uncompromising manner.

Lucien-Victor Guirand de Scevola (Symbolist painter, 1871-1950)

Lucien-Victor Guirand de Scévola was a French painter🎨. He is known for his pioneering leadership of the Camoufleurs (the French Camouflage Department) in World War I.

De Scévola was a student of Fernand Cormon and Pierre Dupuis at the École des beaux-arts de Paris.

De Scévola was a pastellist, remarkable for his silky, velvety and smooth style.

"Making his only aesthetic concern accuracy of the most naked kind" (E. Benézit), he left an extensive body of work including scenes of alcoves, landscapes, flowers and society portraits.

Felix Mas (Spanish painter, 1935)

Felix Mas considers himself a traditionalist, obsessed with form and color, creating images that celebrate femininity and luminous beauty of the female form.

Mas uses his paintbrush to convey emotion. It is his gift. Born in Barcelona, he trained at both the Artes y Oficios and the Escuela Superior de San Jorge, then furthered his artistic education with extensive travels throughout Europe and the United States, eventually returning to his native Barcelona to work.

For Mas, painting implies color, emotion and impression. His works, he says, are “infinite”.

Ernest Hébert (1817-1908) | Academic painter

Antoine Auguste Ernest Hébert was a French🎨 academic painter.

Ernest Hébert was born into the era of Romanticism, and began his career just as Realism was emerging.

The young man from Grenoble had been expected to take up his father's profession as a notary. Lessons with his private teacher, Benjamin Rolland, a pupil of David and curator at the Musée de Grenoble, revealed his early talent.

After a classical training at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he won the Grand Prix de Rome🎨 for History Painting, he found fame with "La Mal'aria🎨" at the 1850 Salon🎨.

Vincent van Gogh | Starry Night Over the Rhone, 1888 | Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Vincent van Gogh | Starry Night Over the Rhone, 1888

"The sight of the stars always makes me dream in as simple a way as the black spots on the map, representing towns and villages, make me dream.

Why, I say to myself, should the spots of light in the firmament be less accessible to us than the black spots on the map of France?

Just as we take the train to go to Tarascon or Rouen, we take death to go to a star’, wrote Vincent to his brother Theo in 1888.

Vincent Van Gogh | The Starry Night | Saint Rémy, June 1889 | MoMa

Vincent Van Gogh | The Starry Night | Saint Rémy, June 1889 | MoMa - Museum of Modern Art, New York

"The Starry Night" is probably Vincent van Gogh🎨's most famous painting. Instantly recognizable because of its unique style, this work has been the subject of poetry, fiction, CD-ROMs as well as the well known song "Vincent" or "Starry, Starry Night" by Don McLean.

While there's no denying the popularity of Starry Night, it's also interesting to note that there is very little known about Vincent's own feelings toward his work. This is mainly due to the fact that he only mentions it in his letters🎨 to Theo twice (Letters 595 and 607), and then only in passing.

In his correspondence with his brother, Vincent would often discuss specific works in great detail, but not so in the case of "Starry Night".

Why?

It's difficult to say.

Zahi Issa (Siria, 1962)

Zahi Issa è nato ad Aleppo, Siria Zahi Issa è stato scoperto come pittore a soli 15 anni dal padre Giacobbe, maestro internazionale, Jack Issa (che ha dato permesso ad artisti del calibro di Joseph Anna conosciuto insieme a Barbera come autore di famosi cartoon) di apprendere con la grafica del disegno, i primi rudimenti della tavolozza.

Il surrealismo delle sue opere ha girato il mondo con recensioni di famosi critici e storici dell'arte.

Gustave Jean Jacquet (Parigi, 1846-1909)

Gustave Jacquet è stato un pittore Francese.

Gustave Jean Jacquet è noto come il pittore dei ritratti femminili e, molto meno, di scene storiche. Fu allievo di William Bouguereau, e debuttò al "Salon" del 1865.

Con lo pseudonimo di "Jacquet" illustrò alcune opere umoristiche, in particolare edite da Félix Juven.

Jacquet visse a Parigi cambiando sovente indirizzo.

Infatti, dal 1865-1866, abitò in rue Desbordes-Valmore; dal 1867-1874 fu al 22 di rue Saint Ferdinand, nel 1875 e 1876, si spostò in Avenue Montaigne, dal 1877-1883 in rue de Prony e infine, dal 1884 al 92° di Avenue de Wagram.

Jacques Prévert | Breakfast / Prima colazione...

Anne Christine Roda🎨

Lui ha messo

Il caffè nella tazza

Lui ha messo

Il latte nel caffè

Lui ha messo

Lo zucchero nel caffellatte

Ha girato

Il cucchiaino

Ha bevuto il caffellatte

Ha posato la tazza

Senza parlarmi

Edgar Allan Poe / Remi Labarre | My spells.. / I miei incantesimi.., 1848

To Marie Louise (Shew), 1848

Not long ago, the writer of these lines,

In the mad pride of intellectuality,

Maintained "the power of words"- denied that ever

A thought arose within the human brain

Beyond the utterance of the human tongue:

And now, as if in mockery of that boast,

Two words-two foreign soft dissyllables-

Italian tones, made only to be murmured

By angels dreaming in the moonlit "dew

That hangs like chains of pearl on Hermon hill,"-

Have stirred from out the abysses of his heart,

Unthought-like thoughts that are the souls of thought,

Richer, far wider, far diviner visions

Than even the seraph harper, Israfel,

(Who has "the sweetest voice of all God’s creatures")

Could hope to utter. And I!

Valentine Cameron Prinsep (1838-1904)

Indian-born British painter Valentine Cameron Prinsep, often known as Val Princep,was a British painter of the Pre-Raphaelite school.

Prinsep's major paintings were "Miriam watching the infant Moses" (exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1867), "A Venetian lover" (1868), "Bacchus and Ariadne" (1869), "News from abroad" (1871), "The linen gatherers" (1876), "The gleaners" and "A minuet".

In 1877, Prinsep returned to India and painted a huge picture of the Delhi Durbar. It was a commission from Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton, the Viceroy of India.

Laimonas Šmergelis (Lithuanian, 1972)

Born in Utena, Lithuania Laimonas Šmergelis is a very talented artist, with many paintings full of vivid colors, surreal elements and great portraits. Laimonas was inspired from Picasso and Gustav Klimt..

1985 - Utena Children Arts School.

1989 - repeatedly graduated from Utena Children Arts School.

1995 - Siauliai Pedagogical University, Bachelor Degree in Arts and Crafts.

1997 - Siauliai Pedagogical University, Master’s Degree in Humanitarian Sciences, Fine Arts Studies.

Worked as arts teacher in a primary school. Since 2003 organizes courses in Utena Region Association for Disabled.Organized about 20 personal exhibitions. Since 1990 participates in group exhibitions (about 40 exhibitions).

Iman Maleki (Iranian, 1976)

Iman Maleki was born in Tehran. He has been fascinated by the art of painting since he was a child. At the age of 15, he started to learn painting under the mastery of his first and only teacher - Morteza Katouzian - who is the greatest realist painter of Iran.

Meanwhile, he began to paint professionally. In 1999 he graduated in Graphic Design from the Art University of Tehran. Since 1998, he has participated in several exhibitions.

In the year 2000, he got married and in the following year he established ARA Painting Studio and started to teach painting, considering classical and traditional values.

Ghiannis Ritsos / Christian Schloe | Un albero

Quell'albero era cresciuto nella parte superiore del giardino,

alto, solitario, slanciato - la sua altezza

tradiva forse un'idea segreta d'intrusione. Non diede mai

fiori né frutti, solo un'ombra lunga che divideva in due il giardino

e una misura inapplicabile agli altri alberi, carichi e curvi.

Marcos Damascena (Brazilian painter, 1981)

Born in Poções Bahia, Marcos Damascena settled in St. Paul, where he began his artistic career, studying with the great names in figurative art.

Made with the design of the live model and teacher Luis Alberto, the Paulista Association of Fine Arts, then studied with the master Abraham Jorge Esteves: color theory and anatomy of animals, especially horses.

Jeff Barson (American, 1966)

Barson was born in Logan, Utah. At the age of nine, his family moved to England where Barson attended Beechwood Park Preparatory School. Over the next years, Barson traveled extensively throughout Europe and was exposed to its great museums and fine artistic legacy.

He credits his early interests in Art and Literature to this move which provided an excellent education and inspiration for the creative young Barson. Barsons paintings have hung in galleries in New York, Boston and Los Angeles.

His limited edition prints are distributed nationally and have met with great enthusiasm from the press and public. U.S. Art Magazine named him one of six artists that will change the limited edition print market.

Dragan Ilic Di Vogo (Serbian painter, 1962)

"Boundaries of art have no shape, colour and smell; therefore, even if they existed, we would not be able to know that we have stepped on them. If you seek art, you may find it in everything around you. Mainly in style, since man is style. I find the man to be the most perfect work of art, shaped and painted by the Creator himself.

The art is always one and the same, though it may be more or less present at a particular moment and in particular place. The art does not progress or regress, it only goes through transformations. The consciousness about art does not progress either, although we wish it would. The need for art does not grow or decrease.

Thanks to God, art is constant, while we are the ones who change, appear and disappear. Cheers!" - Dragan Ilic Di Vogo.

Z.L. Feng, 1954 | Landscape / Figurative / Watercolor painter

Growing up in Shanghai, Feng began painting at age seven and never stopped, experimenting with different mediums, including pastel, oil, and egg tempera, before choosing his favorite, watercolor.

"With watercolor you cannot cover your mistakes, so you must know what you are doing", he says.

He finds inspiration for his lovely landscapes in the countryside of the New River Valley: "Usually I go around - to the river, the forest, the lake – to try and find interesting compositions".

Those familiar with Feng’s art are also captivated by his portraits of the people of Tibet, Native Americans of New Mexico, Southern farmers, and others.

Chen Yongle (Chinese painter, 1954)

Chen Yongle was born in the Yunan Province of China. He is currently the President of the Yunnan Research Institute of Fine Art, and is a member of various art organisations and committees including the Chinese Artists Association, the Chinese Graphic Artists Association, and the Association of the Artists of Chinese Craft and Art.

He is among the few contemporary Chinese printmakers who can claim a series of international exhibitions.

William Whitaker Jr. | Figurative painter

William Whitaker Jr. (1943-2018) was one of the most respected living classical-realist figure artists in the Western United States.

Whitaker describes his training as being "Most influenced by the academicians of the last century for their craftsmanship, by the impressionists for their color and life, and by the abstract expressionists for their boldness".

He earned a BA from the University of Utah where Alvin Gittins was his mentor and later studied at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles.

Stanislav Aristov / Станислав Аристов, 1982 | Flame art

Russian🎨 photographer Stanislav Aristov / Станислав Аристов, better known by his moniker Pol Tergejst is an artist from Ekaterinburk, in Russia, who decided "to play with fire", literally. He uses flame shapes to create some kind of flame-shape paintings, he composes different images of them. All this involves a lot of photographing.

Aristo made a splendid series of images with matches between 2010 and 2013. It's after taking part in a themed "line of life" photo contest from Formula foto that the idea of using lighted matches came to him.

The "stroke of genius" or as Stanislav said himself: "it's not the first idea with one things that shows another things :)" reminds us all the poetry that has fire in the collective unconscious. Thanks to Stanislav for giving us some of his time answering our questions and for sharing with us his work.

Niccolò Paganini by Johann Peter Lyser

Johann Peter Lyser

(German engraver, journalist, critic, miscellaneous writer; caricaturist,1804-1870)

about Paganini from the magazine "Originalien", 1830

Niccolò Paganini | Cartoon Drawing by Johann Peter Lyser

"Paganini is an Italian artist, and an Italian artist will be never sad or misanthrope. If he become that, it is the end of the art. In the character of Paganini there is nothing exalted.

His heart bits with a strong joy of living, it is attached to this land and to all it has to offer. However great the passion for his art is, he does despise nothing, not even things of little importance if they offer enjoyment […].

Paganini is one of the strangest, indeed baroque and certainly greatest phenomena, that cross land for over a century, but there is nothing mysterious about him. He his not like the stormy sea, but he is like the quiet lake.