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Following are brief biographies of some of the artists at Art Find.

Carl Frederic Aagaard

Carl Frederic Aagaard was a Danish artist. He was born in Odense, Denmark, in 1833.

Aagaard studied art with his brother, who became well-known for his glass engraving. On completing his studies, Aagaard worked with an artist named Hilker, a decorative painter, and the pair collaborated on works at several universities and other public monuments.

Aagaard's decorative painting became very well known in Denmark, and he was commissioned to paint the chapel of King Christian IV. During this time he worked with the landscape painter, Peter-Kristian Skoovgaard, and was impressed upon to spend more time painting on canvas. He exhibited for the first time in 1857.

Aagaard traveled a great deal to expand his artistic experience, including trips to Switzerland, Germany and Italy, where he was inspired in particular by the Lake Como region. He died in 1895, anchored in his position as one of Denmark's greatest painters.

Berenice Abbott

Photographer Berenice Abbott was born in Springford, Ohio, in 1898. After graduating from Ohio State University, she moved to New York City to study journalism, but eventually decided on sculpture and painting.

In 1921 Abbott moved to Paris to study with sculptor Emile Bourdelle. She also worked with surrealist photographer, Man Ray (1923-25), before opening a studio of her own in Paris. She photographed the leading artists in France and had her first exhibition at the Au Sacre du Printemps Gallery in 1926.

Abbott returned to the United States in 1929 and launched a project to photograph New York. In 1935 she managed to secure financing for this project from the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and its Federal Art Project.

In 1936 Abbott joined with Paul Strand to establish the Photo League. Its initial purpose was to provide the radical press with photographs of trade union activities and political protests. Later the group decided to organize local projects where members concentrated on photographing working class communities.

Abbott's photographs of New York appeared in the exhibition, Changing New York, at the Museum of the City in 1937. A book, Changing New York, was published in 1939. She is also published a Guide to Better Photography (1941). In the late 1950s Abbott began to take photographs that illustrated the laws of physics. Berenice Abbott died in 1991.

Peter Adams

Award-winning photographer Peter Adams was born in London in 1959. He was an only child and lost both his parents whilst quite young, which encouraged him at an early age towards a life of travel and independence.

Inspired originally towards a photographic career by the National Geographic magazine and by his admiration for the work of great photographers like Ansel Adams, Peter Adams took a job as photographer's assistant after completing his education, before going solo. He has received no official training.

He is best known today for his landscape and travel work, and indeed was voted Travel Photographer of the Year in 2003. He has won several other awards, including the Nikon Photo International Contest.

Away from the camera, his hobbies include mountain-biking, motorcycling and swimming.

Lesley Aggar

Lesley Aggar is a leading British female photographer. She studied photography in Sydney, Australia where she graduated with a degree in Black & White Photography.

Lesley now lives on the South Coast of England, where she works on a wide range of photographic projects - from editorial to commercial work.

But most of all, Aggar is a fine-art photographer who specializes in images of people and places.

Hamilton Aguiar

Hamilton Aguiar was born in Brazil 1965. His first interest for fine art started in his youth, when he did his first drawings.

In 1987, Hamilton began exploring different painting techniques, working with faux finish and decorative painting. Using gold and silver leaf on wood panel and on canvas he developed an artistic application that inspired him to combine different textures to create an incredible body of work. The illumination of light reflecting upon the surface allows the viewer to delve into the depth of the imagery. The composition of the works is inspired by the natural surroundings of the Hamptons landscapes, emphasizing winter with the monochromatic content.

Hamilton has a God-given gift to "create", and by absorbing his surroundings he creates his vision of uncontrollable beauty.

Catherine Aguilar

Four young female designers – Emily Holyfield, Janie Markham, Jacqui Hearn and Catherine Aguilar form 'Amaiua' a creative collective aiming to create new and exciting artwork. The abstract range they have created exclusively for IKEA has aimed to simulate the simple screen-printing process. Tissue paper was used as its veil like quality meant the overlapping of colors created new, unexpected hues. They drew upon natural forms and landscapes for inspiration and used color and space in their purest forms. All three designers used the same technique and have successfully created a series of artworks, which work independently and as a complete collection.

Craig Alan

Craig Alan's inspirations translate into an art that holds the viewer. The basic quality of his art, like nature, is a full range of texture - the fabric that defines a content of subtle tension and intrinsic beauty.

Craig Alan's talents lay undiscovered until his second year of college when they found a vehicle for expression via his first formal art class.

From the beginning, Craig gained recognition for his work. He was honored by having his work included among the finalists in Mobile University's most prestigious exhibition. Finally, at graduation, he was recognized for academic excellence. Leaving college, he traveled in search of the perfect fly-cast and that personal challenge found in each new rock climbing experience. Looking forward, he intends to continue his travels - enlarging his personal experience of both the unpopulated wilderness and the canyons of our society.

Ultimately, the goal of his journey is to reach back to his ancestral roots by returning to England and Scotland, and to come to understand the art that reflects his rich heritage. Yet his journey has a focus beyond the experience. Craig intends to earn his MA in studio studies, help others achieve the experience of creating, and have his own studio where his energy can be free to cross the mediums of expression.

Henry Alken

A keen huntsman, Henry Alken painted what he loved best: hunting and coaching scenes. The most famous of the Alken family of painters, Henry was born in London in 1785. When viewing his paintings, it is easy to see how they reflect his true knowledge of hunting. Whether during the hunt or after a much-deserved victory, Alken brings the excitement and vigor of this age-old sport to life on canvas. He was a prolific artist who was quite well known in his day, and worked up until the end of his life in 1851.

Joy Alldredge

Joy Alldredge is an artist whose work is simple in it's nature and possesses a primitive innocence. For over 20 years, she has brought happiness and joy to hundreds of thousands of people.

Alldredge spent her childhood days in Carmi, Illinois and graduated from Asbury College with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Christian Education and worked in this area for several years.

Traveling throughout the US, Joy has competed in juried national and international exhibits. She is recognized as a very creative artist and is sensitive to the creations of God.

Mel Allen

Mel Allen was born in Oldham, England, in 1965 and studied photography at Blackpool and Fylde College. In 1987 he moved to London where he became a photographers assistant. He discovered by working with landscape and location photographers such as Pete Seaward, a love of working outdoors while endeavoring to capture every detail of the landscape with his camera.

While continuing to build up his portfolio of location photographs, Mel works for numerous design and PR clients, shooting for advertising campaigns and company reports.

Doris Allison

Doris Allison was raised in Toronto, where she completed her post-secondary education at Ryerson University, majoring in Psychology. Now an international artist, her work is shown and sold from Europe to Australia. She has been teaching the art of watercolor for over five years, with her students enjoying her expressive and emotional approach to painting.

Doris began to paint with oil, following in the footsteps of her mother, an accomplished oil painter. Through the years, she started experimenting with different mediums and has thoroughly enjoyed watercolor. She finds it to be a more expressive and emotional medium as it tends to have a life of it's own. She states, "When painting with watercolor, sometimes the medium takes on it's own identity, if you allow it. The paint doesn't just stay where you put it."

Continuing with her experimentation, Allison is constantly re-inventing herself and her paintings.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema

Born in Dronryp, Holland in 1836, Lawrence Alma-Tadema completed his art studies at the Antwerp Academy before settling in London in 1870.

His output was prolific, generally of historical genre scenes, and each piece was always numbered with Roman numerals, from his first painting to his last (number 408), which was painted two months before his death in 1912. His first picture painted in London was Opus LXXXVI, "From An Absent One".

Alma-Tadema painted Greek and Roman subjects set in scenes of remarkable archaeological and architectural accuracy. They also contained an exquisite rendering of marble, silver, gold, bronze and silks. In 1906, he was awarded the Royal Gold Medal by the Royal Institute of British Architects for his promotion of architecture in painting.

Alma-Tadema's love of architecture was also reflected in his St. John's Wood home in London, which was designed in the style of a Pompeiian villa.

Knighted for his contribution to the art world, Alma-Tadema was elected to the Royal Academy in 1879 and received the Order of Merit in 1905. During his lifetime, Alma-Tadema was universally acknowledged for his great artistic ability and, together with Frederic Leighton, was one of the giants of Victorian society. However, his work went out of fashion soon after his death and his reputation has only recently recovered to the extent that his paintings now fetch amongst the highest prices paid for any nineteenth century artist.

Sebastian Alterera

Sebastian Alterera was born in 1964 in New York City. Although his family was financially strapped, Alterera's mother supplemented their income by selling her amateur sculpture around Greenwich Village. This dedication to her artwork - despite the expense of materials and the lack of adequate free time to pursue her craft - impressed Alterera at a young age. He began joining her when she would sell her artwork on sidewalks and to galleries, and soon began sketching figures himself, well before the age of ten.

At fifteen, Alterera's father unexpectedly passed away. The loss greatly impacted Alterera, both emotionally and practically: his mother chose to move the family across the country to San Francisco to be with her parents. From this new sadness and solitude, Alterera quickly retreated into his art, which began to reflect the influence of nature on the human mind. The architecture, mountains and ocean in and around San Francisco became an infinite source of inspiration. When the time came, Alterera was accepted into the BFA program at the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, Florida. His talent was recognized immediately, earning him the Best of Ringling Award two years in a row. Upon graduating from Ringling, Alterera entered the MFA program at the Savannah College of Art and Design. After receiving his MFA there in 1992, he embarked on further studies in Naples, Italy.

Alterera's painting thrived in Naples, inspired by the culture and heritage of that region. Focusing mostly on figure painting, Alterera introduced several alternative methods of painting into his work - such as drip-painting and thick collage. After spending several years in Italy, Alterera returned to the U.S., and made a home in Atlanta.

Alterera's work has evolved dramatically over the years. Although he still prefers to work with the human figure, he has moved on from realistic figures to dynamic, figurative abstracts that reflect the natural colors and organic lines inspiring much of his work. These abstract pieces are unique in that they avoid the cold and austere mood that is prevalent in so much abstract work. Alterera's abstract art, with its deep texture and earth tones, seems to live and breathe emotion almost as much as his figuratives.

Alterera's art has been pursued by corporate and private collectors all across the United States.

Gail Altschuler

Gail Altschuler was born and raised in South Africa. She draws inspiration for her art from diverse sources: from jazz music and ceramic tiles to fabrics from Africa and Asia. The colors reminiscent of her homeland along with the Bauhaus principle she learned from Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam continue to have strong and lasting influences on her work.

Focusing on elements of her work, Gail is interested in exploring the power of colors and patterns. The intense colors she uses throughout her paintings are woven together to create moods and atmospheres that relate to her experiences in Africa, Europe, and the United Kingdom.

For the last several years, Gail has also been using the theme of the ‘weave' in her work, utilizing it as a symbol of order and chance, harmony and integration. Her paintings are abstract yet they also reflect landscapes and cityscapes.

Gail's pieces appear on a variety of mediums including canvas, serigraphs, mono-prints, and acid-free, hand-made papers from Italy and France. As a result, her work is collected by various collectors worldwide.

Jocelyne Anderson-Tapp

Born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, Jocelyne Anderson-Tapp took a devoted interest in art at an early age. She has drawn and painted for most of her life and has strongly pursued a career as an artist ever since an early age.

Jocelyne believes in living life to the fullest and taking chances whenever and wherever they appear. It is because of this belief that she has experienced many of her successes as an artist.

Motivated by curiosity and an eagerness to try new things, Jocelyne has explored a variety of art fields. Her formal training includes studies at the British Columbia Institute of Technology for Digital Animation and Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design for 2D Design. She above all uses the concepts developed while studying Character Design to create her dramatic figuratives.

Anderson-Tapp currently works from her home studio in Vancouver. There she continues to explore different mediums and a diverse range of subjects.

Barbara Appleyard

Barbara Appleyard was born and raised in rural northern New Jersey, instilling a deep appreciation for simple, peaceful country life.

After raising her two children and moving to New Hampshire, where she and her husband currently make their home, she is fulfilling her life-long dream of being able to devote most of her time to painting. With oil paints her selected medium, Barbara paints four to six hours each day, creating scenes from her imagination rather than painting specific places.

A self-taught artist in the true Folk tradition, she paints what she knows and loves best: country scenes with children and animals frolicking, people working their farms surrounded by stone walls, barns, covered bridges, hills and ponds, coastal harbors. Paying meticulous attention to line, form, detail and color, her paintings exude a sense of joy and represent cherished memories of her life growing up in the country.

Having won several awards, Barbara widely exhibits her paintings in New England galleries and at art shows in both New Jersey and New England.

Gilles Archambault

Gilles Archambault was born in Montreal. He has painted for over twenty years and is one of the founding members of "The Canadian Watercolor Society". A skilled illustrator, Archambault created the original Harfang des Neiges wine label and has produced over 80 book covers, most of which were for Les Editions Libre Expression, in Montreal.

A myriad of art books and magazines have both published and discussed his work. He has numerous signed limited edition prints. Archambault's artwork has been exhibited exclusively in Canada, United States, Europe and Saudi Arabia. Readers Digest twice selected his paintings to illustrate the cover of the magazine.

Currently, the work of Gilles Archambault reflects mainly his love of the South of France, where he travels almost every year; depicting the numerous aspects of the light and colors of the region.

Joe Anna Arnett

Born in Jacksonville, Texas, Joe Anna Arnett knew she knew would spend her life as an artist. There was never a doubt, only a detour and even that was in commercial art.

Arnett graduated from the University of Texas, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, then moved to New York and eventually became a Senior Art Director for Young & Rubicam Advertising, working on such accounts as Merrill Lynch and People Magazine. In New York, she continued her studies in fine arts at the Art Student's League.

In 1984, Arnett moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico. In 1985, she married artist James Asher and they began their adventures of travel and painting throughout the world.

She has exhibited at the Albuquerque Museum of Fine Arts; the Colorado Historical Society becoming a Master at the Artists of America Show in 1997; the Tucson Museum of Fine Arts; the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma; the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts; the Cincinnati Museum Center; and, Art Asia in Hong Kong. She has participated in the Prix de West invitational Exhibition at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum since 1996.

Arnett has been featured in the International Herald Tribune, Southwest Art, Western Art Digest, the Artists Magazine, Australian Artists Magazine, and the North Light books - Painting with Passion, The Best of Flower Painting, and The Best of Flower Painting II. She has written articles for American Arts Quarterly, and ART Ideas, as well as numerous articles for The Artist's Magazine, including their Art Clinic column. In 1999, she judged The Artist's Magazine's National Still Life competition and was the cover artist for their May 2002 issue on flower painting.

She authored the North Light Book "Painting Sumptuous Vegetables, Fruits and Flowers in Oil," which was published in 1998. The book went into the second printing as well as a Chinese language edition in 1999.

In recent years, Arnett has enjoyed sharing her love of painting and the techniques she has acquired with students in workshops around the United States as well as Canada, Italy and France and in Martinique. One of her favorite quotes about her teaching experience is, "Nothing is truly yours until you give it away."

Working from life, either on location or from the flowers in her own garden, Arnett presents her subjects with passion and reverence for the Creator of the originals.

Natalie Arnold

Natalie Arnold was raised in Bedfordshire, north of London, England. A book of Old Masters which she bought as a child and looked through often was her earliest art influence. She was fascinated by the paintings of Bosch, Durer, and de Vinci. She later became interested in the work of Marc Chagall, admiring his use of strong colors and magical realism. His portrayal of animals in paintings exerted a creative influence over Arnold's work. Other influences include Munch, Duffy, Matisse and other less well-known naïve artists.

Arnold attended Bedford College in England and received an Art Foundation Diploma. She received a BA with honors in Interior Architecture from the University of Central England.

On why she became an artist, Arnold says, "I have always been an artist. I love the fact that art has no boundaries and anything is possible. I can also learn a great deal about the world through the history and the future of art, and this is my preferred way to make discoveries about my own or other cultures."

Arnold prefers to work at night, sometimes listening to talk radio, sometimes listening to music - whatever helps the creative flow. She is never entirely sure how a painting will turn out. She is simply inspired one day, does the research, and when she begins to put the ideas on paper "the picture seems to paint itself."

Arnold says that different viewers see many different things in her work. Some have a particular favorite that reminds them of a place they've been to or other elements they can relate to personally. Arnold describes her work as atmospheric, humorous and magical. "I think people also like the naïve illustrative style of my work," says Arnold. "It may take them back to the mystery of being a child again."

Arnold's work appears in several collections and with various private clients. She has exhibited in various local galleries and restaurants in London and Brighton.

Peter Arnold

Peter Arnold's artistic talents have taken him on extraordinary assignments to all corners of the world. His world- renowned photography features flowers to fashion models, indigenous people to celebrities, and landscapes to wildlife. Peter spent his formative years in England. He studied fashion photography and traveled around the world throughout his education and early years of work.

Peter's personal interest in horticulture led to an intensive study of tulips. His large format book on the subject is stunningly beautiful and thoroughly researched. His photographs are bold and detailed, with dimension and clarity. The prints exhibit technical excellence with artistic style and color. Peter Arnold is currently working on books featuring flowering spring bulbs, the great American Southwest, and Buddhism in Southeast Asia. He divides his time between England, America and Thailand.

Augusta Asberry

Augusta Asberry's love of art was evident when, as a student at Sacred Heart Grammar School in Lake Charles, L.A., she would draw pictures during class instead of completing her assignments. Her earliest influences began in the 1930s with first grade readers, children's books, paper dolls, and magazine illustrations. In high school, the source of influence shifted to her high school teachers, and all of the books she could get her hands on; and in college she fell under the spell of artists Paul Klee, Monet and Miró.

Augusta began college at San Francisco Junior College in 1949. She later attended San Francisco State, but left to get married and raise her family. In the early 1950s she attended nursing school, and subsequently worked as a nurse for 38 years. In the 1960s, Augusta returned to college at Peralta College in Oakland, CA, where she took classes in fashion design, fashion illustration and basic design. She began her professional career as a landscape painter in 1971. She later moved to Bremerton, WA with her family, where she began creating an historical documentation of old houses and farms in pastels. This mode of expression continued until 1992 when she created her first African Dancers.

Asberry has this to say about her Dancers: "When I created my first Dancers they were patterned after the crude figures found on the rocks and cave walls of Africa. My own animated style has evolved but it is still inspired by the spirits of the Ancestral Artists.

The Dancers are clothed in my original fabric and costume designs. Ten years ago I began an on-going independent study of African fabrics and designs and how they related to celebrations of the African rituals and dance. As a result of this study my Dancers have taken on a life of their own but they do not stray far from the basic concepts of African Art and Design.

My favorite concept is ‘the arrangement of elements'. The non-uniform variation of traditional designs remains off balance, yet it is pleasing. Their method of staggering motifs on cloth, and the juxtaposition of color and line can be compared to the offbeat phrasing in music and dance. I use this ‘off-beat' concept in my paintings by not establishing a focal point. This is like my Ancestor would say ‘hearing a beat that is never sounded.' An illusion of motion is created as your eye travels from one point to another seeking that elusive focal point. Just as an individual personalizes his or her garment to distinguish it from others, so does the African Artist who creates the cloth. Variations in traditional design give each piece a singular character and make it personal to the one who produces it.

It is my hope that the spirits of the Ancestors will walk with me as I showcase my own 'off-beat' cloth."

Augusta's studio is home-based, and her work schedule is arranged just like a job away from home. A very disciplined artist, she creates 8 hours a day, with time off for lunch and breaks.

Augusta Asberry's work appears in many collections throughout the United States.

Augusta has been told that her work is a "mood-lifter". Her viewers say they enjoy her work for it's simplicity and lack of hidden messages. They see the Dancers in their bright, beautiful colors and want to join the dance. "My paintings constantly dance around in my head; they even wake me at 4:00 AM. They are all but finished in my head before they hit the paper. What I like about creating art is that I get to do what no one else can do. I alone get to interpret my ideas, visions and dreams and then present them on paper. To me this is the ultimate rush."

John James Audubon

1785–1851, American ornithologist, b. Les Cayes, Santo Domingo (now Haiti). The son of a French naval officer and a Creole woman, he was educated in France and in 1803 came to the Audubon estate, "Mill Grove," near Philadelphia. There he spent much time observing birds and making the first American bird-banding experiments. In 1808 he married Lucy Bakewell, whose faith and support were factors in his eventual success. Between 1808 and 1820 he lived mostly in Kentucky, frequently changing his occupation and neglecting his business to carry on his bird observations.

He began painting portraits for a livelihood and descended the Mississippi to New Orleans, where for a time he taught drawing. From 1823 to 1828 his wife conducted a private school, in which he taught for a short time, in West Feliciana parish, La. In 1826 he went to Great Britain in search of a publisher and subscribers for his bird drawings, meeting with favorable response in Edinburgh and London. The Birds of America, in elephant folio size, was published in parts between 1827 and 1838, with engravings by Robert Havell,Jr. The accompanying text, called the Ornithological Biography (5 vol., 1831–39), was prepared largely in Edinburgh in collaboration with the Scottish naturalist William MacGillivray, who was responsible for its more scientific information. Extracts from Audubon's contributions, edited in 1926 by F. H. Herrick as Delineations of American Scenery and Character, reveal his stylistic qualities and furnish many pictures of American frontier life. Audubon worked on a smaller edition of his great work and also, in collaboration with John Bachman, began The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, which was completed by his sons Victor Gifford Audubon and John Woodhouse Audubon (plates, 30 parts, 1842–45; text, 3 vol., 1846–54).

During these years his home was on the Hudson River in the northern part of Manhattan island. While his drawings and paintings of bird life may not wholly satisfy both the critical artist and the meticulous scientist, their achievement in both areas is considerable. They remain one of the great achievements of American intellectual history and have gained wide popularity, having been reprinted many times.

Charlene Audrey

Charlene Audrey was raised in the Eastern Township of Quebec, Canada, and continues to live there. While still very young she became passionate about art. This passion led to her career as an artist.

The beauty of the countryside that surrounds her has had a great influence on her work. She is greatly inspired by motifs, decorative art and her love of life and nature. She composes with the graceful transparency of watercolors and the energy of acrylics. She is constantly trying new techniques while continuing to embrace the traditional.

No matter what she does, Charlene Audrey transposes her enthusiasm into a vibrant and colorful poetry for the eyes.

Augustine

Joseph Augustine Grassia, one of the founders of Phoenix Art Group, grew up in a New Jersey suburb, thirty miles outside of New York in the 1950's and 60's. He describes the experience as typically New York and typically Italian. Inspired towards a creative career at a young age by his Aunt Mickey and, later, by his business partner, Grassia's art education was interrupted by the war in Vietnam but eventually completed, allowing him to pursue a highly successful career in the world of painting and photography.

He's interested in a wide range of places - from New York City on one hand, to the great outdoors with dramatic vistas, cliffs, oceans and forests. Says Augustine, "One of the hardest things to learn in life is to live in the present moment".

Augustine has carried his fascination with the unique and unusual into a wide range of multi-media artwork, including printmaking in oriental and art deco styles, as well as design of remarkable frames that are unsurpassed for their whimsy, innovation and theatrical flair. But photography stands out as one of Augustine's great loves, inspiring him to launch Cappagi, a new line of photographic art for the Phoenix Art Group in 1996. He is particularly well known for the photographic art he has created, and these creations are now held by collectors all over the world.

Michael J. Austin

Michael J. Austin was born in London in 1959. He was a professional comic book artist and illustrator for many years. He worked on many well-known magazines, newspapers and comics (especially ‘Judge Dredd' and ‘2000AD'), and was Features Artist for the Sunday Times from 1982-86. He left to pursue his desire to concentrate entirely upon fine art painting and in 1996 held his first solo exhibition, at the Park Walk Gallery in London. Since this successful debut, he continues to hold regular sell out shows in London and has also achieved representation at notable international gallery's including the Eleanor Ettinger Gallery in New York and the Everard Read Gallery in South Africa.

Although he is often known for somewhat obliquely changing his subject matter (a much loved theme is animals) he always finds his way back to the human form, believing that to capture the body and personality in paint, is one of the most elusive, challenging and vital forms of artistic expression.

In 2003, HRH The Prince of Wales commissioned Austin to paint the animals, and specifically the rare breeds, that roam his Highgrove Estate. Later in 2003 he was again invited to accompany The Prince of Wales on a tour of India and Oman to document the tour in paintings.

Austin now lives in Exeter, Devon.

Roy Avis

Roy Avis was born in Greenwich, England to an artistic family. He trained at Camberwell College of Arts and worked for many years as a successful London illustrator supplying most top London agencies.

Avis enjoys the challenge of experimenting with a range of subjects, techniques and mediums, which helps pique his interest in developing new and creative avenues in which to express his ideas. He is unbelievably versatile, producing work in most media including watercolor, oils and acrylics, pastel, crayon and pencil. He has also recently complemented these traditional skills by using a digital graphics tablet and painting software.

He can adapt his skills to almost any style and subject matter, and can produce stunning work for any commission. His previous commissions have included advertising, book illustration, posters, specially commissioned paintings, murals and visual interpretations.

Roya Azim

Roya Azim was born in September 1964 in the rural city of Tehran, Iran. The daughter of a well-off military general, Roya and her family had the opportunity to move to Atlanta's Dobbins Air Force base in 1979. In the American system, Roya was raised with a broad liberal arts education. At the college level, she complemented the humanistic study of art history and literature with the practical skills of business administration. She excelled in both areas.

Although discouraged by family and friends, art became a central focus in Roya's life when she began working as an apprentice and assistant Babak Emanuel, a renowned artist sharing her Persian heritage. At first she learned only fundamental artistic techniques with Emanuel, and much of her time was spent in an administrative role. However, her natural and unique talent became quickly self-evident, and her title was changed to Artistic Assistant. After five years of working with Emanuel, Roya decided to focus exclusively on developing her own style.

As a beginning, Roya has chosen to explore the theme of golf in several of the series she has produce thus far. The sport represents much of the American customs that simultaneously fascinate her - such as masculinity, wealth, nature, recreation, and competition. The sport also provides a source of identification for Roya, as it displays the same nuances as many of her own cultural traditions. Moreover, the meticulous skill and diligence found in this leisure activity are mirrored in Roya's own approach to her work. Like the sport of golf, Roya's images indicate that a precision of detail and an attention to form are as important as the easy grace and melodious balance of the overall composition.

Although Roya's series have been only recently exhibited, her works have already been enthusiastically collected by several private and public institutions across the country.

Nancy Azneer

Nancy Azneer is an award winning artist. Her art is a combination of rich color, bold design, and beautifully executed presentation. Azneer's favorite subjects are wildlife and florals because of their strong personalities. Her mastery of watercolor, gouache and acrylic allow her to render each painting in the medium best suited to the subject. Exploring the boundaries of color and form, Nancy's dramatic images persuade the viewer's eye to witness the precise detail of each element. Azneer believes there should be passion in all forms of creativity, whether it is art or other creative endeavors.

Azneer is also an experienced web designer and developer. She possesses a unique combination of artistic, writing and technical talents allowing her to design, write and build a site from concept to finish - a blend rarely found in one person. "My paintings come from the heart; my web work is more pragmatic and is a blend of design, technical skills and great content."

Azneer's paintings have been featured in several national magazines and numerous local publications. Her artwork is collected internationally. work is She is past-president of the Escondido Art Association, and currently a member of the Thousand Oaks Art Association. Azneer's education includes degrees in Graphics (University of Akron, Ohio), Journalism (Kent State University) and certificates in web design and development.

David Bailey

Born in London in 1938, David Bailey has always maintained a close attachment to London's East End and its community.

Much of his trend-setting art appeared in Vogue in the '60s. Initially it was photojournalism and portraiture which Bailey found attractive, but his desire to break down the stuffy conventions of British photography thrust him into the limelight along with Terence Donovan and Brian Duffy. Together they pulled British Vogue out of the shadow of its American counterpart and became an integral part of London's "Pop Culture." Bailey's photographs of Jean Shrimpton, his favored model and cohort for three years, were on the cover of the first ever newspaper color supplement in 1962.

For more than thirty years Bailey has worked with the most glamorous of clients and models worldwide, continuing his search for spontaneous gesture in dynamic photographs.

Ken Bailey

Cats and dogs are fantastic subjects. While they appeal to people who appreciate the graphic form and historical connotation, they also attract animal lovers who share an emotional connection. Ken Bailey uses cats and dogs as subject matter in his work for several reasons. He enjoys the variety of breeds from a technical standpoint, and finds them versatile subjects. However, his goal is not to paint a representational portrait, but to portray a deeper emotional connection that makes people laugh- reminding them of a loved friend.

In general, Bailey creates his work in three structures. The first is reminiscent of a vintage poster where the dog is the primary character. These pieces evoke the feeling of vintage advertising, and involve wit and humor. The second form contains the elements of dog dreams and fantasies. Usually two-part works, one section is representational of the animal while the other shows it doing something fantastic or unusual. Connected by thought bubbles, it is clear that the animal is dreaming of the extraordinary fantasy. The third structure is free form-depicting the dog by showing it in an act that summarizes his personality.

Born in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1953, Ken Bailey has painted most of his life and attended the University of Utah. In addition to being an artist, he has owned Bailey Nelson Gallery of Seattle, WA since 1987.

Dennis Barloga

Dennis Barloga's experience with photography began in 1966, when, as a Peace Corps member, he received the gift of a camera to document his time in the Polynesian islands of Tonga. He was immediately fascinated by the challenge. Upon his return to the United States, he began to study commercial photography at San Francisco City College. Even before his studies were over he was offered freelance commercial work in news, public relations and portraiture. Although his successes quickly mounted, so did a sense of something lacking.

In 1973 Barloga turned toward quieter, more expressive, non-commercial work. His new approach, concerned mostly with nature's moods, colors, designs, and forms, formed a body of work which is now collected on five continents and throughout the United States, and has appeared nationally in books, magazines and calendars.

In 1979 Barloga opened the Dennis Barloga Gallery in San Francisco, California, which he ran until 1986. In that year Barloga took his first trip to Europe, and a new photographic interest was awakened by the architectural beauty he found there. Doors, windows, house fronts, storefronts, and café scenes all became new subject matter. "I was inspired to change my focus. I found that Europe's villages, with their charming, everyday details, spoke to me. I always wonder what it would be like to live on the other side of a particular door or window." During the past several years, he has continued to visit Europe to capture the quaintness of the villages on film, adding to his portfolio of images.

Evelyn Barnes

Evelyn Barnes has been exhibiting her fine art photography internationally since 1971. She is a master of the black and white craft, who specializes in gelatin silver prints, and unique, one of a kind hand-tainted gelatin, silver prints. Her subjects include landscapes, still lifes, and interiors.

Trained in fine art with a Bachelors degree from the University of Florida, Evelyn has devoted much of her professional life to instructing students in fine art and commercial photography. She has taught at such prestigious learning institutions as The Maine Photographic Workshops in Rockport, the Southeastern Center for the Arts, formerly in Atlanta, and the Portfolio Center in Atlanta, where she currently teaches. She does private tutoring, custom designed classes, and personal workshops internationally.

Evelyn has been honored with an NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) grant and a GCA (Georgia Council for the Arts) Individual Artist Grant during her long career. Her work is in private and corporate collections from Chicago to Miami. She has received numerous National awards and print commissions for her work.

Evelyn's images invite viewer participation and have been described as sensitive, introspective, pictorial images of an idealistic world.

Tracy Barnum

Raised in England, Africa and the Middle East, Tracy Barnum now makes her home in Houston, TX. These colorful beginnings exposed Tracy to a fascinating variety of cultures, all of which influenced her creatively. She grew up without television, which gave her ample time in which to hone her artistic skills.

Barnum feels her artistic career was inevitable, as she has been drawing since she could hold a pencil. Her third grade teacher told her parents she would most likely become a "commercial artist". "I feel like it's not really a choice," she comments. "It's something I have to do and it is a privilege to create and be able to share it with others."

Barnum feels that appreciation and love of art lie in the eye of the beholder, and that everyone has something to contribute. "For me, art is like a lot of things in life, there's always something new to learn so hopefully one's work is always evolving, changing, growing."

The artist paints whenever she can, and nearly always with music playing. She's not always in a creative mood when she sits down to work, but finds that if she sticks with it she soon slips into the right frame of mind. She feels that her work communicates her appreciation of nature's beauty, and her ability to capture it and frame it in a creative setting.

Barnum received most of her education in England.

Sarah Battle

Sarah Battle graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1991 having completed a MA course in printmaking. While she was still studying in 1987 Sarah joined First Eleven Studio, the London-based textile design group, creating fashion and furnishing designs for a worldwide market. She continues to do so, employing printmaking and collage techniques.

Over the last few years she has become increasingly involved in designs for stationery as well as textiles. Sarah's unique imagery includes figures, animals, birds and landscapes.

Sharon Beals

Photographer Sharon Beals was born in Seattle, Washington in 1945. Having served an apprenticeship in photography, Sharon moved to San Francisco in 1979 where she began her commercial photography career. It was during this time that her personal work became increasingly dominated by pictures of cats and dogs. Since her childhood, Sharon has always had a great affection for animals. The artist herself admits, ‘I am over the top over animals. In my next life I'll have an ark.' Sharon has also been greatly inspired by the book ‘Ernie' by Tony Mendoza, which she claims gave photographers the ‘permission to make art out of photographing cats.'

In her own series of books which include ‘What Dogs Do' and ‘What Cats Are,' Sharon's true artistic capability is displayed. The photographs delight in capturing the charming aspects of our beloved pets, in ways that everyone can relate to and appreciate.

Romare Bearden

The work of Romare Bearden embodies the black experience in 20th-century America. The influences which inspired Bearden throughout his lifetime were many and varied. He grew up in New York during the Harlem Renaissance in a household regularly visited by jazz greats like Duke Ellington and Fats Waller. He went on to make his name in the art world, showing his works with Robert Motherwell, William Baziotes and Carl Holty in the 1940s; he had a career in songwriting in the 1950s but then turned almost exclusively to creating collages, his inspiration being music, Southern life and black culture.

Bearden's technique was time-consuming, yet effective. He created his collages on masonite boards which were laid flat on a work table surrounded by scraps of paper, various oils and temperas, inks, synthetic polymer paints and brushes. Romare Bearden presented black life on a grand and epic scale in a style that was vibrant and poignant. He was also the recipient of the Medal of the State of North Carolina and the National Medal of the Arts.

Piet Bekaert

It is through his unique treatment of light that artist Piet Bekaert achieves his most remarkable images. His magnificent use of light produces paintings which are pristine, lush and mysterious. "Each object in the universe 'takes the light' in its own unique way. And it is that way in which each thing reflects light that transforms object into subject," asserts Bekaert.

Always fascinated with the "peculiar light of the veiled sun" of his native Belgium, Bekaert captures it in his paintings, transforming his subjects, investing them with significance far beyond their simplicity. Similarly, he uses the subdued mist to create enchanting paintings which are classically graceful and suffused with mystique, as well as a tough, artistic integrity. Bekaert is the recipient of the 1976 West Flanders Painting Award, as well as the 1967 Knokke Award.

Fara Bell

Flowers are clearly Fara Bell's source of inspiration. A fresh bouquet adorns her worktable each day and her flower gardens are in easy view of her studio windows. When not busy painting flowers at home, she loves to travel to places with wonderful gardens and especially loves Holland for just that reason.

A native of Tehran, Fara spent her formative years in Iran, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and France and then settled in the United States. She studied art in both Shiraz and California.

Fara creates her stunning florals using oil and acrylic on paper and canvas. She describes her style as a "mixture of realism, impressionism and abstract." She is a master of form and design, creating a wonderful flow of color in her paintings. Her versatility of color composition allows for a wide range of treatments to her flowers.

Andrea Beloff

Born on the East Coast and raised in Brazil and Argentina by Argentine parents, Andrea Beloff returned to the United States for a college education at the University of California at Santa Barbara. This is where she first became intrigued with the art of traditional Japanese papermaking. To further her education and ambitious horizons, she went to Italy to attend the Academia di Belle Arti in Venice, where she studied under the painter Emilio Vedova.

Always open to enriching her life and art, Beloff studied under Hiromi Katayama, a Japanese artist and papermaker dedicated to preserving the traditional papermaking techniques of his ancestors. Beloff's handmade paper collages are made from Japanese bark called kozo that is beaten, individually dyed and formed into unique sheets that are then pressed and set out to dry. The unlimited variety of paper samples and textures she creates makes for the individuality of each piece of her art.

Beloff hopes to convey a simple, uplifting message with her works—the basic essence of happiness and fulfillment. She fills each creation with her enthusiasm for life, in the hope that the work will be inspiring and pleasurable to those who view it.

Beloff exhibits her artwork at galleries and outdoor shows throughout the Southwest and California. Most recently, her work has been chosen as the poster art for the annual Sausalito Art Festival in the Bay Area.

Richard Berenholtz

Richard Berenholtz received a master's degree in architecture from Columbia University in 1974 and subsequently worked as a designer with I. M. Pei.

During that time his hobby of photography became a passion leading to three one-man shows in New York galleries. In 1984, Berenholtz left architecture to pursue a full-time career as a commercial photographer.

In the past 17 years he has had three photography books published: ‘Manhattan Architecture,' ‘Inside New York' and ‘Panoramic New York.' He has produced what he considers to be one of the most comprehensive collections of photographs of New York.

Bernsen/Tunick

Leslie Bernsen and Connie Tunick began doing collaborative work when attending a printmaking class at a community college in January 1998. Each had been in the class for several semesters and each was seeking a unique approach to printmaking.

Both women had been working as professional artists for many years. Leslie's background is in textile design, while Connie's is in art education. Leslie Bernsen works on large canvases, painting in acrylics and often incorporating collage into her work. Connie Tunick's paintings are water media and the theme is frequently nature oriented. Both artists use mixed media freely, and are able to change direction. They both enjoy experimental art and are continually expanding and developing their styles and creative visions.

The collaboration was a learning process, and the resulting art is different than either artist's work. It is unusual for two artists to work together. Because Leslie and Connie were enthusiastic with the collaborative art work, in July 1998 they decided to buy a press and open their own studio in Newbury Park, California. The studio is aptly called A Double Vision.

Andre Bertounesque

Andre Bertounesque's richly painted landscapes are romantic without being sentimental, balancing the serenity of a dream with the radiance of a very tangible summer day. His painting gently reconciles man with nature, often portraying the revealing effect of natural light on a scene which would otherwise be overlooked: the corner porch, bend of a path in the deep woods, reclusive garden house.

Born in France, Bertounesque arrived in Canada in 1955 and has maintained home and studio in Quebec ever since. Although his interest in drawing began as a child, the self-taught artist had a hundred other vocations before settling down as a painter in 1963. An avid traveler, his first series of paintings focused on the beaches of coastal Florida before concentrating on the distinct aspects of Canadian landscape.

Since the early 1980s, Bertounesque has participated in several gallery exhibitions in both Canada and the United States, receiving considerable press attention. His painting is collected by several prestigious North American private and corporate collections including: Diversy Corp., Sabex, Boucherville, Information BFG, Gilles Messier Associates, Scotia Bank, Imperial Oil, Quevillon Inc., Gestion informatique Oka, IBM Canada and Air Canada.

Carolyn Biggio

Born in Columbus, Ohio in 1958, Carolyn Biggio grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Her formal schooling earned her a Bachelor of Sciences degree; but she later took up studies in art with Henry Hensche at the Cape School of Art. Other classes with his followers deepened her commitment, and her career path shifted to painting.

Ms. Biggio's paintings are pure light and color, primarily of still life. The thick impasto paint is laid on with a palette knife to create intense masses of color; shadows are equally vibrant, creating dimension with brilliant shifts in hue and value, rather than just local color.

Ms. Biggio has exhibited her work nationally, receiving numerous awards.

Alan Blaustein

Alan Blaustein is a photographer with a singular focus.

For the past twelve years, he has worked on a photographic series of public benches and their surroundings. His images evoke a contemplative mood, a sense of tranquility and timelessness, while the benches themselves suggest community and social interaction. He has traveled extensively in the United States and Europe in search of the right settings. He says taking pictures of benches is easier in Europe than in America. In Europe, "the bench materials are more sculpted, more ornate. And you'll find a church from the 15th century in the background. In America, everything seems so new."

His original photographs are printed on watercolor paper using processes dating from the late 1800s, and are often painstakingly hand-tinted with watercolor pigments which offer much more subtlety and diversity than standard photographic dyes. This process has translated well to the poster format, giving them an antique feel.

Blaustein's first job was as an art director for Bloomingdale's in New York. Eventually, Bloomingdale's published a book of his photographs. He holds MFA and BFA degrees in photography and film from the Academy of Art College in San Francisco, California where he is an instructor, and the Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York. His work has been exhibited throughout the United States, including in the San Francisco International Airport. Chronicle Books of San Francisco has also published his bench photographs in a 1996 calendar.

Karl Blossfeldt

Karl Blossfeldt was a photographer in fin-de-siécle Berlin. Blossfeldt's photographs are devoted entirely to plant features: leaves, buds, seed pods, tendrils and twigs; drawing focus from their sinuous forms.

In 1899, Blossfeldt began teaching design at the School of Decorative Arts in Berlin. Blossfeldt would meticulously arrange his specimens against stark backgrounds and magnify them in the studio, before using them as models to teach drawing to his design students.

In 1928, the popularity of the publication ‘Urformen der Kunst' containing Blossfeldt's photographs confirmed his status throughout the Western world.

Marti Bofarull

Marti Bofarull was born into a family of artists at the Molins de Rei in Barcelona, Spain in 1965. His grandmother, painter Carmen Sala, was his most important teacher. Carmen gave Bofarull his first lessons in the different techniques of painting, composition and perspective.

At the age of 16, Bofarull attended the Massano School of Barcelona, where he specialized in painting. He also learned the arts of serigraphy, photography and engraving, all of which helped him expand his creative horizons.

Between 1988 and 1994, Bofarull operated an art school in Molins de Rei, where he taught painting. At the same time, he continued to participate in award exhibitions in several different cities. Bofarull participated in many juried art shows, winning more than 50. From 1995, Bofarull had exhibitions in numerous galleries, including la Galeria Tuset de Barcelona, Galeria Andreu Picó de Palma de Mallorca, Galeria Artnau de Girona, Galeria Terraferma de Lleida, Sala Arimany de Tarragona, Galeria Aitor Urdangarín de Vitoria, Galeria Sokoa de Madrid, Sala Braulio de Castellón Galeria Sánchez de Valéncia, and Galeria Euroarte de Lisboa.

Bofarull also participated in numerous international Art Fairs, including Feria Internacional Artexpo de Barcelona, Feria Internacional Euroart '98 de Geneva, Feria Internacional MAC 21 de Marbella, and Feria Interart '98 de València.

Marcus Bohne

Marcus Bohne was born and raised in El Paso, Texas. His earliest art influence came from the goofy but venerable Mad Magazine, particularly the movie parodies that were drawn by comic artist Mort Drucker. The young Marc was so impressed by Drucker's ability to make drawing lifelike that he spent hours and hours trying to imitate his comics.

In 1975 Bohne received an A.A. degree from Columbia College in Columbia, MO, and in 1975 he went on to earn his B.F.A., also from Columbia. When asked why he became an artist, Bohne says that he's always enjoyed doing it, "so I made the decision to do what I enjoyed doing."

Bohne was also asked what he loves about art, and his reply, like his art, is honest and original: "I am not sure that I do love art in general. I do love doing what I do, but most of what is considered art is not of much interest to me. It serves a particular function in my life, and I enjoy and appreciate that function. It is my outlet for a type of expression, it satisfies my need to generate something that defines me. It allows me to explore and express internal responses to my world that would take many pages of text. To me it is like being a writer, only the picture is worth many thousand words."

Says the artist about his work habits: "They are all bad. I get to the studio late and procrastinate. If it wasn't for occasional bursts of unexplained motivation, I'd never get anything done."

Some of Bohne's exhibitions include the Munson Gallery in Santa Fe, NM; the Kimzey Miller Gallery in Seattle, WA; Chaparral Fine Art in Bozeman, MT; The Albuquerque Museum in Albuquerque, NM; Jack Dennis' Wyoming Gallery in Jackson, WY; the Whatcom Museum in Bellingham, WA; The Fountainhead Gallery in Seattle, WA; Columbia College in Columbia, MO; and the Northern Colorado Artist Association in Ft. Collins, CO. Bill Gates of Seattle, WA and Bruce Rauner of Chicago, IL are two collectors of Bohne's work, but Bohne considers "anyone who buys one to be pretty special."

Pierre Bonnard

Pierre Bonnard was born in Fontenay-aux-Roses not far from Paris. He was a law student before transferring to the Beaux-Arts, and he later attended the Academie Julian. Bonnard's earliest works were theatrical sets, furniture decorations, screens, and posters, for he shared a studio with a theatrical producer. He also contributed regularly to periodicals and did illustrations for books.

He had his first exhibition of paintings in 1896. Bonnard, like Vuillard, with whom he was always closely linked, was an "intimist," a painter constantly delighted by the most ordinary objects and actions, to which he brought a constant freshness. Bonnard was attracted by the color of the Impressionists, but unlike them he was not so dazzled by color as to forget form and reality. He worked much more slowly, capturing on canvas his own rebellion against current styles of art and predetermined theories. Bonnard's palette is virtually a rainbow, with pearly flesh tones and shadows that range from pinks, blues, and golds to opaque grays or deep blues. His paintings transpose solids and transparencies, light and shade. They have an abstract structural quality that is both decorative and satisfying in its use of space, a style that foreshadows the works of Matisse.

Fernando Botero

Fernando Botero's satirical portraits of political, military and religious figures, musicians and royalty are portrayed as rotund and motionless, taking on the character of human still-life. Humorous in nature at first glance, Botero's paintings are more often than not social commentary with political overtones.

Born in Medellin, Colombia, Botero moved to Bogota in 1951 and had his first international show at the Leo Matiz Gal. Leaving for Madrid in 1952, he studied at the San Fernando Academy and, from 1953 until 1955, studied fresco technique and art history in Florence which has influenced his painting ever since. Returning to Colombia, he exhibited at the Biblioteca Nacional in Bogota and began teaching at the School of Fine Arts of the National University; the same year, he spent time in Mexico studying the political murals of Rivera and Orozco, whose influence is evident in his political perspective.

Botero's visit to the United States in the late 1950s prompted a return to live and work in New York for ten years beginning in 1960. Although Abstract Expressionism interested him, he sought his primary inspiration from the Italian Renaissance. During this period he began to experiment with creating volume in his paintings by expanding the figures and compressing the space around them, a quality which he continues to explore whether painting imaginary group portraits or parodies on the work of famous masters.

Widely exhibited in Europe and North and South America, Botero has received numerous awards including the First Intercol at the Museum of Modern Art in Bogota, and is included in major museums worldwide. Since the early 1970s, Botero has divided his time between Paris, Madrid and Medellin.

Jessie Arms Botke

Jessie Arms Botke once described herself as a decorative artist with a flair for birds Born in Chicago in 1883, she studied at Chicago's Art Institute and in 1911, Jessie moved to New York to pursue her artistic career. There, she worked in interior design and also created tapestries, friezes, and murals. One such mural sent her to the Bronx Zoo to sketch where she was fascinated by the form of a peacock. From then on, birds became her specialty.

With their rich plumage and realistic renderings, Botke's birds are brought to life amongst flowers, gardens, and still-life settings. The artist's work evokes decorative elegance and style and her romance with the winged species is immediately obvious to the viewer.

After years of painting in Paris and Holland, Jessie Arms Botke settled on a farm in southern California where she worked until her death in 1971.

Sandro Botticelli

Born Alessandro di Filipepi in Florence, Botticelli began studying painting in the studio of Fra Filippo Lippi. Like Lippi, Botticelli was accomplished at both frescoes and panel paintings. The artist's paintings reflect a thorough knowledge of Classical works and were revered for their combination of contemporary Florentine style and Classical prototypes.

Throughout his lifetime, Botticelli was held in high esteem and enjoyed the patronage of the powerful Medici court, the ruling family of Florence. The Medici interests in Platonic philosophy and Classical themes provided an opportunity for Botticelli to explore mythological subjects as well as traditional religious themes. The artist's innovative interpretations of both religious and mythological subjects reflect a level of sophistication that far exceeded his peers.

One of Botticelli's most innovative contributions was depicting his subjects, whether religious or mythological, in the contemporary costume of the Florentine court. His famed Birth of Venus, defined by the artist's expressive, lyrical line, set the standard for Renaissance beauty. While overshadowed by Leonardo and Michelangelo, Botticelli is credited with many of the stylistic innovations that presage the startling developments of the High Renaissance.

After the Renaissance, Botticelli's reputation languished until his work was rediscovered in the late 19th century. It has since enjoyed a resurgence in popularity and has claimed a prominent place in museums worldwide.

William Adolphe Bouguereau

Born in La Rochelle, France, William Adolphe Bouguereau began his studies in 1838 with Louis Sage, a student of renowned Romantic painter Ingres. After moving to Bordeaux in 1842, the artist attended the Cole Municipale de Dessin et de Peinture in Bordeaux.

Bouguereau gained local acclaim as a talented portrait painter before going to Paris in 1846 to attend Cole des Beaux Arts, noted for its traditional academic approach to painting. In 1850 Bougereau was awarded the coveted Prix de Rome and spent four years at the Villa Medici studying Classical and Renaissance masterpieces. The potent influence of Classical works is readily apparent in works dating after this period.

Bouguereau blended classical poses and subject matter with his own romanticized realism rendered in the highly finished style that would come to characterize his paintings. During the 1870s Bouguereau's focus shifted from historical and genre scenes to lighter, lyrical mythological subjects. Highly regarded by his contemporaries, Bouguereau was awarded numerous state commissions and, at the height of his career, taught at the Academie Julian and the Cole des Beaux Arts.

Throughout his lifetime, Bouguereau staunchly defended the academic tradition of painting and was viewed as an obstructionist by the new generation of painters who were experimenting with Impressionism. While immensely popular during his lifetime, Bouguereau's reputation suffered with the advent of the modernists who viewed his work as mediocre and overly sentimental. Recent exhibitions have focused attention on the contribution of mid-19th century artists and Bouguereau's work has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity.

Georges Braque

Braque, Georges , 1882–1963, French painter. He joined the artists involved in developing fauvism in 1905, and at l'Estaque c. 1909 he was profoundly influenced by Cézanne. He met Picasso, and the two simultaneously explored form and structure with results that led to the development of cubism. In works such as the monumental Nude (1907–8; Cuttoli Coll., Paris) Braque exemplified the analytical phase of the movement with his keen sense of structure and orderly method of decomposing an object. In 1911 he introduced typographical letters into his canvases and soon began working in collage.

After World War I, in which he was badly wounded, Braque veered away from the angularity of early cubism and developed a more graceful, curvilinear style, predominantly painting still life. His works showed restraint and subtlety both in design and color (e.g., The Table, Pulitzer Coll., St. Louis). Braque is represented in leading galleries in Europe and the United States.

Bill Brauer

Bill Brauer has studied and utilized the concepts and techniques of Renaissance masters while adding a distinctly modern edge to each painting. The work is more about shape and placement than story telling. A single light source allows him to plan and control light and dark patterns in each piece. His female figures are provocatively situated into these design elements becoming the narrators of each piece.

Based on mythological themes, dancing and beauty, Brauer paints as if hypnotized or haunted by his own muse. Sometimes seen as controversial Brauer's women can be viewed as contemplative, erotic and on occasion objectified. Painted in warm earthy colors that cast a glow over each woman, they appear sensual and inviting to the viewer. Brauer feels the art of sensuality is falling by the wayside. He does not necessarily want his subjects to be sexy, but instead sees them as just "natural, beautiful women" but with an air of mystery.

Born in New York, artist Bill Brauer started his career as an illustrator and print maker. Upon moving to Northern Vermont over thirty years ago, Brauer found that printmaking limited the size and color of his work so he began to work with oil paints. He has taught at several colleges and schools throughout Vermont and has been a driving force in advocating for artists in the area. His work has been exhibited in numerous shows over the last thirty-two years including the Brooklyn Museum and the Southern Vermont Art Center.

Carl Brenders

The artistic visions of Carl Brenders reflect his respect for nature. His precise and lively paintings capture the extreme realism of the birds, mammals and habitats he depicts. Brenders paints every detail of his wildlife images - feathers, hair, leaves or pine thorns - until, he says, "they get into my skin."

Brenders was born near Antwerp, Belgium, and has drawn since childhood. He studied at the Fine Arts Academy in Antwerp and later at Berchem. He has produced wildlife illustrations for a series of books entitled The Secret Life of Animals. His artwork is regularly exhibited in the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum's prestigious Birds in Art and Wildlife in Art shows.

The wildlife images of Brenders' art are first created from pencil sketches; from these sketches his mixed media paintings of watercolor and gouache are completed with a technique he has developed during the last 25 years. His paintings, which encompass every intricacy of nature, devote equal attention to the detail of the wildlife subject and its habitat as well as to the mood created by the light. His art is the subject of the critically acclaimed book, Wildlife: The Nature Paintings of Carl Brenders, published by Harry N. Abrams in association with Mill Pond Press.

Brenders' art enjoys international acclaim. He is widely collected in North America, France, Germany, Japan, Spain, Holland, Argentina and in his native Belgium. Brenders combines his dreams, his senses, his imagination and his strict attention to anatomical perfection to make his paintings. He says, "Nature is already beautiful, already perfect. That is why I paint the way I do with so much detail and so much realism - I want to capture that perfection."

Janet Brignola-Tava

Janet Brignola-Tava began her illustrious art career after graduating with a painting degree from the School of Visual Arts, and further study at the Fashion Institute of Technology and Parsons School of Design in New York City. She was hired by the prestigious Karl Mann Studio where she ran the Orientalia painting department for 12 years and created works for such clients as the South African Embassy, the Saudi Arabian Embassy, and Tavern on the Green Restaurant in New York.

While working at Karl Mann Studios, Janet learned and perfected decorative painting techniques adapting ancient Chinese designs for contemporary use.She created hand-painted wallpapers, textiles and murals, and received awards for her innovative work.

In 1987 she opened Tava Studios, continuing in the fine and decorative art tradition of Karl Mann Studios after that firm closed. Her home and studio, in a historic Victorian house, have the same elegant beauty as her artwork.

Fresh flowers reach toward the high ceilings and scent the rooms filled with antique furniture, restored mouldings and paintings by both Janet and her husband Eugene who is also an accomplished artist.

Janet works in acrylics and oils to produce art for galleries, museums, design firms and licensing. Often she is found climbing scaffolds to paint murals on ceilings and walls in the renowned historic buildings of the United States. She accepted a recent commission to restore the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. "A dream come true," she says.

Private collectors of Janet's paintings include actors Robert Redford, Jane Seymour, and the late jazz great Dizzy Gillespie. Her work has been featured widely in such publications as The New York Times, House and Garden, Architectural Digest, Metropolitan Homes, and House Beautiful.

Janet is a decorative painting consultant to leading paint manufacturer Benjamin Moore & Co. and has lectured at Lincoln Center on the use of art and design in the home.

Janet and Eugene live in northern New Jersey and escape to upstate New York to paint and relax along the Hudson River. Their daughter Alexandria joins them between college terms and brings her many musical talents to this already artistic home.

Romero Britto

Through his vibrant colors, playful themes and hard edged compositions, Romero Britto captures the attention of both youthful spirits and educated art collectors. It is this unique talent which has established Britto an artistic entity in South Florida, as well as granted him a significant presence in the US, Europe and Asia.

In a multitude of mediums and endless themes, Britto's art provides a glimpse of his personal life experiences. Easily recognized, Britto's work is unmistakably modern, bold and colorful. His style often combines the artistic technique of Pop art with the intricate compositional quality of Cubism. In an effort which brings his work to the masses, Britto constantly reinterprets the meaning of art and its role in contemporary life.

The natural inclination for Britto to express himself visually became apparent to those around him at a very young age. He often painted images from his active imagination on scraps of cardboard and newspapers in his hometown of Recife, Brazil. In 1987, Britto traveled to the United States to challenge his talents among other pop art heavyweights. Since then, he has gained entrance to art exhibitions such as FIAC Paris, Art Salon Hong Kong and numerous world tours. As well, his work has captivated corporate collectors like Pepsi Cola International, ABSOLUT Vodka, Apple Computers and Movado.

To date, Romero Britto continues to fulfill his dreams with an inexhaustible momentum. Britto maintains that "Art is too important not to share." He often dedicates his time and talent to worthwhile international organizations, such as St. Jude's, the American Red Cross and Best Buddies. His paintings grace the collections of heads of state, European nobility, and superstars of athletic, entertainment and business worlds. As well, over a hundred galleries throughout the world proudly represent Romero Britto.

Alice Dalton Brown

As a contemporary Realist using the medium of either oil on canvas or pastel on paper, Dalton Brown achieves beautifully detailed scenes of airy domestic views, breezy porch settings and dappled seascapes which inspire a romantic, meditative mood. Her light-filled interiors and fresh landscapes contain strong graphic compositions which divide space with broad planes of color, to which she adds her distinct Realist detail to highlight the subject matter. She completes her major paintings in her New York studio, working from her en plein air studies and collaged photographs. Dalton Brown is able to portray an acute sense of time and place in her work by her masterful rendering of light and shadow.

Born in Pennsylvania, Dalton Brown studied art at the prestigious Académie Julian in Paris, and graduated from Oberlin College in Ohio. Since 1975, she has shown her works in numerous solo and selected group exhibitions across the U.S. Her works are included in scores of museums and private and corporate collections, amongst them the American Express Company, Commerce Bancshares, Inc., Harpo, Inc., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Tampa Museum of Art, Florida.

David Carter Brown

The work of artist and designer David Carter Brown is rooted in the rich tradition of American Folk Art. Inspired by this artistic legacy, David re-explores classic American imagery in his paintings and designs, retaining a sense of past and adding his own unique point of view.

In his artwork and home furnishings collections, David creates designs that reflect his passion for authentic country imagery. By combining classic patterns and motifs with his timeless images, he forms his own unique view of American country design. Ranging in subject matter from the historical to the whimsical, David's artwork celebrates the past. Working in traditional materials, he combines age-old techniques, imbuing his work with the textures and patina of antiques. His paintings are taken from scenes of a romanticized world, with which he creates his own personal vision of an idealized America.

Born in New York City, David, after attending Parsons School of Design, began his career producing handcrafted and hand-painted designs in the Folk Art tradition. Since then he has produced many licensed collections in wall coverings, china, and accessories, all in the country style. Working from his studio in the rolling hills of Millbrook, New York, David is constantly inspired by his rural surroundings, rich in the traditions of farming and American country life.

Guy Buffet

I am not trying, says Guy Buffet, "to convey a message in my work. Instead, each painting is an invitation to a world where my dreams and fantasies become reality." Since he sold his first watercolor at the age of thirteen to an American tourist who was visiting the Buffet family restaurant in Paris, that reality has included, among other things, landscapes of Polynesia, dreamscapes of Hawaii, several battalions of quirky French culinary workers, historical scenes of the French Revolution, and a few dour Scotsmen on wind-blasted moors unaccountably trying to play golf. His sublime sense of the burlesque is unparalleled and infectious.

Buffet's father was sixty-three years old when his son was born in 1943 and died before Guy was a teenager. For his twelfth birthday Guy's mother gave him a set of paints and brushes, which he passionately put to use. In 1957 he and his mother moved to a town in Provence near the Mediterranean port of Toulon, where she enrolled him in the Beaux Arts de Toulon Art School. The following year he began to study advanced painting at L'Academie de Peinture de la Ville de Paris, and his studies continued there until he was drafted into the French Navy in 1961.

While serving on the cruiser De Grasse as gunner's mate, Buffet had his first one-man show. Organized by the Mayor of Papeete, Tahiti at the Gallerie Mourareau, the show was a sellout. As the cruiser made calls on other ports in the Pacific, Guy continued his one-man shows. In this way, a certain young French sailor began to make a name for himself in the world of international art. Today he is world famous for his whimsical humor.

Considerations of space preclude mentioning more than a fraction of Guy Buffet's artistic accomplishments. He has assembled countless one-man shows in literally every part of the globe and served as official artist for numerous advertising campaigns, including Champagne Perrier-Jouet, Absolut Vodka, Aloha Airlines, and the Tour De France. His works are displayed in several museums, including La Musée de la Monnaie in Paris, the Museum of the French Navy in Toulon, the Honolulu Academy of Art, and the John Deere Museum. They are part of more than twenty corporate collections, including Seagrams, IBM, Bank of America, Grand Marnier, Westin Hotels, and American Isuzu Motors. His art has been chosen by thousands of private collectors, among whom are Maurice Chevalierk, Jackie Stewart, Rory Calhoun, Kirk Douglas, Rod Stewart, John Harrison, Edgar Bronfman, John McVay, Charles Feeney, Van Cliburn, Paul Bocuse, Wolfgang Puck, and the former American Vice-President Dan Quayle.

"Art should be something to enjoy and help you forget your worries. I invite the viewer to share my experience; I take you into my world like a guest into my home. I want you to be comfortable and relaxed. When people take a painting of mine into their home because it makes them happy and they like it, it has accomplished its purpose."

Sir Edward Burne-Jones

Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833-1898) is renowned as the leading painter, designer and book illustrator of the Aesthetic Movement, characterized as the second generation of Pre-Raphaelites, and a pivotal figure in late 19th century British art.

A relative latecomer to the Pre-Raphaelite movement, Burne-Jones studied at Oxford where he first discovered the movement which, in 1856, prompted him to seek out Rossetti, by whom his style was influenced; however, the Pre-Raphaelite group had begun to wane four years earlier. Burne-Jones was impacted by classical and Renaissance art during visits to Italy in 1859 and 1862 and, although his primary themes deal with romance, chivalry, courtly love, the pursuit of beauty and battles between good and evil, his painting style has Renaissance features. However, Burne-Jones' painting has a mysterious and distinctly detached quality unique to his work.

As a partner in Morris and Company with his friend William Morris, Burne-Jones designed stained glass, tapestries and tiles which appear as decorative elements in his increasingly stylized paintings of the same period. Beginning in 1865, his work became more reminiscent of the High Renaissance painters, taking on a decidedly formal and decorative style.

Although he often worked on paintings for several years, Burne-Jones was both prolific and, during a forty year career, was sought after for commissions, producing numerous large paintings, stained glass designs and manuscript illustrations respected both in England and in Europe.

Ron Burns

Ron Burns was born and raised in Ohio, and graduated from Ohio State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Visual Communications. In 1977, he moved to Los Angeles and into the world of corporate design, working on corporate identity programs and annual reports for clients such as Blue Cross, Dick Clark Productions and Xerox.

As a release from the pressures of the business world, Ron began to paint animals he photographed in animal shelters. In 1992, he put his house up for sale and found that many prospective buyers were more interested in the art on his walls than in his house. This was how his career as a fine artist began.

Burns' interpretations of four-legged critters are anything but the expected. He tweaks tradition with his use of bold, overlapping colors and prominent brush stokes to transform otherwise commonplace subject matter. His paintings portray the animals' distinct personalities. "There's usually a spark, something in their eyes," Burns says, "That's what I try to catch as I paint. I don't want to show just a colorful dog or cat, but a personality."

He continues to make a point of visiting the local animal shelters while on the road to appear at a showing or to meet with gallery owners. There he photographs homeless animals which later become the subjects of his paintings. Part of the profits from his paintings are then given to the shelter. He only does this with shelters that do not destroy animals.

He currently lives in Arizona with his wife and their three dogs and two cats.

Marysia Burr

Born in 1956 in the southern Polish city of Wadowice, Marysia Burr began her study of art at the Bielsko-Biala High School of Fine Arts, from which she graduate Magna Cum Laude. She then moved to Warsaw and entered the Polish Academy of Fine Arts where she majored in Graphic Arts with special emphasis on painting and drawing.

Her early art experience was greatly impacted by association and study with two of Poland's outstanding artists: Henryk Stazewski, whose abstract painting focused on the use of lines, light and color, and Eugeniuz Markowski, one of her Academy professors who shared with her not only his skill as a painter of realism and expressionism, but the energy and motivation that is so much a part of art. She was also impressed with American artists, most notably with the bold formal style of Dutch-born Willem de Koonig - one of America's preeminent Abstract Expressionists.

Marysia became a well-known artist in Warsaw and was the recipient of many prizes for her realistic portrayals of the human form, presented in oils, watercolors, and pencil. She graduated from the Academy with a Masters degree in art in 1981, and shortly thereafter emigrated to the United States.

After settling in southern California, Marysia's artistic focus changed from the portrayal of human figures to landscapes and nature forms, and increasingly incorporated light, color, and shapes in a continuous spiral of motion. She sought to resolve the intrinsic dichotomy between realistic and abstract art. This is apparent in both the color and composition of her paintings.

In her blending of these two conflicting approaches to art subjects, Marysia begins with a realistic approach to her subjects, choosing essentially unremarkable scenes and objects to paint. As the work progresses, she subtly introduces the counterpoint of some abstract shapes and colors, which release the painting from the confines of rigorous realism and allows the viewer's imagination to embrace not only the reality, but the dream as well. This is what makes her work so exciting and what makes her images remain in your mind long after you have left the gallery.

Marysia has shown her work across America and in Europe, having had one-woman shows in Los Angeles, Newport Beach, West Germany, and Poland. She has participated in more than 20 group exhibitions over the past ten years, including the Contemporary Artist's Exhibition in Seoul, South Korea. Among Marysia's professional achievements are the 1988 "Diploma of Excellence" for outstanding quality in oil painting, presented by the International Art Competition sponsored by Art Horizons in New York City, and in the same year, the "Diploma Di Merit" for her oil painting, "Skipping Stones", entered in the International Art Exhibition in Viterbo, Italy.

Marysia Burr has forged a very distinctive style be creating brilliant and expressive pieces. As her reputation grows, her work is expected to be a vital point of interest in museums, private collections, and art galleries throughout the world.

Terri Burris

Terri Burris developed her interest in art at an early age, under the magical guidance of a neighbor who became her first teacher. They spent many hours together, rooting Terri's visions in childhood inspiration for a lifetime. Bolstered in an extensive career in textile, graphic and ceramic design, she returned to her first and greatest love of painting, intertwining her love of nature, abstraction and design in each of her atmospheric pieces.

Terri paints from focused perspectives of the natural world, filtered and infused with memory and nostalgia. Her palettes emerge directly from her intimate observations of life's minute details. She is inspired by the Northern California coast, the character of the weather, faith, music and her family. Terri's stunning use of color creates subtle layers of imagery which are unique to each subject. The textured, moody and poetic pieces incorporate crystallized collage fragments to provoke each individual's own thoughts, feelings, memories and imagination.

Terri is a recipient of the Image-Ination Award and a selected artist of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Rental and Sales Gallery. She has exhibited at SKGallery in Venice, CA; Bergamot Station in Santa Monica, CA; Long Beach Arts in Long Beach, CA; Fred Segal in Santa Monica, CA; and Finegood Gallery in West Hills, CA. She studied at El Camino College and Palomar College in Southern California. She continues to create living memories with her husband and little boy in her native Los Angeles.

Gustave Caillebotte

French painter, art collector, and impresario who combined aspects of the academic and Impressionist styles in a unique synthesis.

Born into a wealthy family, Caillebotte (1848-1894) trained to be an engineer but became interested in painting and studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He met Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Claude Monet in 1874 and showed his works at the Impressionist exhibition of 1876 and its successors. Caillebotte became the chief organizer, promoter, and financial backer of the Impressionist exhibitions for the next six years, and he used his wealth to purchase works by Monet, Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Alfred Sisley, and Berthe Morisot.

Caillebotte was an artist of remarkable abilities, but his posthumous reputation languished because most of his paintings remained in the hands of his family and were neither exhibited nor reproduced until the second half of the 20th century. His early paintings feature the broad new boulevards and modern apartment blocks created by Baron Haussmann for Paris in the 1850s and '60s. The iron bridge depicted in "Le Pont de l'Europe" typifies this interest in the modern urban environment, while "Floor-Scrapers" (1875) is a realistic scene of urban craftsmen busily at work. Caillebotte's masterpiece, "Paris Street; Rainy Day" (1877; Art Institute of Chicago), uses bold perspective to create a monumental portrait of a Paris intersection on a rainy day. Caillebotte also painted portraits and figure studies, boating scenes and rural landscapes, and decorative studies of flowers. He tended to use brighter colors and heavier brushwork in his later works.

Caillebotte's originality lay in his attempt to combine the careful drawing and modeling and exact tonal values advocated by the academy with the vivid colors, bold perspectives, keen sense of natural light, and unpretentious subject matter of the Impressionists. Caillebotte's posthumous bequest of his art collection to the French government was accepted only reluctantly by the state. When the Caillebotte Room opened at the Luxembourg Palace in 1897, it was the first exhibition of Impressionist paintings ever to be displayed in a French museum.

Mary Calkins

Mary Calkins began studies in 1971, but left to pursue other directions. She returned to the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston seventeen years later. This renewed commitment resulted in her BFA in Painting in 1994. During this time, Ms. Calkins developed an interest in Native American culture, which in 1992 led to a year of study at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Since completing her formal training, Ms. Calkins has pursued painting and printmaking full time. She combines techniques and approaches for unusual results; one of her favorites in the incorporation of collage in her work. The resulting images are rich with texture, color and environmental and historical influences.

Ms. Calkins' work is non-representational, allowing individual responses and interpretation. Her paintings have been featured in a number of shows.

Betsy Cameron

Betsy Cameron's first effort at creating a poster was in early 1987. It was a black and white photograph picturing two small children sitting on a beach looking out to sea. The simple, yet evocative poster, aptly named "Two Children," soared to the top of the Bruce McGaw Graphics' best seller list.

Betsy's imagery is simple, consisting mainly of children and landscapes. Gently drawing viewers into a world of contemplation, nostalgia and memories, her photographs appeal to both the young and old alike.

Betsy began her professional career as a fashion model with the Ford Model Agency in New York City. She appeared on the covers of leading women's and fashion magazines and worked with most of the world's finest photographers. After ten successful years, Betsy decided to make the transition from one side of the camera to the other. She took some test shots of two young models which, after they appeared in Life magazine, caused such a sensation that the first issue of Look magazine followed up with a four-page spread of the then-unknown models, Lisanne Falk and Brooke Shields.

Over the next several years, Betsy's photographs appeared in numerous magazines throughout the world. Then, in 1980, Betsy accepted an assignment from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees which was to forever change her view not only of photography, but of life. She spent three months in Cambodia photographing over 300 refugee children who had become separated from their families by the war. The photographs were published and sent to various camps on both sides of the Cambodian border in an effort to reunite the children with their relatives. The idea worked over 200 children were resettled with their families.

Betsy continues extensive fashion and portrait work and commercial assignments including corporate clients Radio City Music Hall, Dunkin' Donuts, Bufferin and Juicy Juice. Cameron's first book, "Little Angels," was published in 1993 by Villard Books.

James Campbell

James Campbell was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where the change in seasons in uniquely beautiful. Like his famous namesake, sociologist Joseph Campbell, artist James Campbell endorses the axiom follow your bliss. Whether it's hiking in the great outdoors or working at his easel, Campbell likes to feel the expansiveness of unlimited possibilities, and expresses this in his work with a bold, vibrant color palette and a complexity of imagery and detail that rivals any on the contemporary scene.

Campbell is a self-taught artist, believing that life's experience is the best teacher an artist can have. His creative influences are Keith Haring, Rembrandt, Picasso, Rauschenberg, Hartley and John Douglas. Campbell is intrigued by the time of folktales and myth. Artists are storytellers, creating legends and dreams.

Campbell enjoys dancing, comparative religion studies, skiing and hiking. Do what you love, the artist maintains, from dancing to putting paint on canvas, what you feel shows...if you feel joy, you want others to see it.

Pere Camps

Pere Camps was born in Sabadell, Barcelona in 1929. From a very early age, he decided to use his artistic skills to explore his great passion, landscapes. He attended the School of Applied Arts and Crafts in Barcelona, where he concentrated in sculpture. In 1949, he held his first exhibition at The Fine Arts Academy in Sabadell. Exhibits in Barcelona and Madrid soon followed. After a prolonged stay in Morocco, Camps took part in the country's National Exhibition of Fine Arts. His stint in Morocco was followed by a move to Paris, where he wed, and Costa Brava, where he finally settled. Soon his work was being widely exhibited Spain. By the late seventies, Camps had exhibited at prestigious galleries throughout Europe, and the U.N. Headquarters in Geneva.

Pere Camps is drawn to quiet, calm, and cool landscapes. He usually paints at dawn or dusk, which he believes offers the most beautiful light. His work embraces the sense of infinity afforded by large spaces, and he often loses track of where the landscape ends and he begins.

Dennis Carney

In 1985 Dennis Carney received an Advertising Art Degree from the University of North Texas. In Conjunction with earning his degree, he participated in an intense study of ceramics under the tutelage of Elmer Taylor. In addition, he furthered his study by enrolling in ceramic workshops under the instruction of Peter Volkons. The study of ceramics, in combination with the other artistic design talents involved in receiving his degree, was later combined into the current style original to Carney.

Carney evokes a sense of construction in his current work that reflects his background in design and ceramics. His architectural style combines with layering and molding techniques involved in working with clay. His paintings reflect a sense of progression and transformation combined with a delicate touch that leaves the viewer with a reminder of the continuous change and evolution that creates our reality.

Jane Carroll

Upon graduation from the School of Visual Arts in New York in 1979 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, Jane apprenticed for six years with Japanese and Korean masters painters, incorporating these techniques into her own style of painting. In 1986 she left New York, relocating to Las Angeles, beginning work as a freelance artist. Jane has been successfully selling her artwork ever since through galleries and major showrooms in Las Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, New York, and throughout the United States.

Ms. Carroll's work can be found in homes, collections and hotels across the U.S, including the Presidential and Vice Presidential suites of the Marriott in San Francisco, the Bel-Aire Hotel in Beverly Hills, the lobby of the Hawaii Hilton, and the lobby and room of the newest Disney Hotel in Orlando. Her paintings were also featured prominently in the set design of the major television series Dynasty. Major galleries displaying her work include Connoisseur Gallery, New York; Fidelity Fine Arts, Las Angeles; Echo and Associates, Los Angeles; Coburn & Schwartz, Los Angeles, and Dyversified Art, Rancho Palos Verdes, California.

Mixing realism with imagination, Jane's images evoke contemplation and a sense of peace amidst vibrant color. Her timeless eye for beauty in nature captures the hearts of many searching for fulfillment. Ms. Carroll's attention to detail and color describes locales where many souls have traveled, all from the perspective of one artist.

Jose Luis Castrillo

Jose Luis Castrillo was born on January 22, 1959 in the Barrio de la Macarena in Seville. By the young age of 6 he was driving his mother crazy drawing her picture on the patio wall of their house. By the age of 20 he was earning an income as a portrait painter. The portrait was his first contact with painting, and today is still the form of painting that gives him the most satisfaction and the most frustration.

At age 26, Castrillo attended the Santa Isabel de Hungria School of Fine Art in Seville where, over a two-year period, he acquired a great deal of experience with brushwork techniques and figure drawing. He was also enriched by his many contacts with the other students and master painters at the school. Castrillo's friendship with the celebrated Sevillian painter Joaquín Saenz played a significant role in his education as a painter, and increased his knowledge of the works of such Masters as Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, Renoir, and Velasquez above all.

In 1989 Castrillo married Trinidad Fernandez, a fellow painter, with whom he has enjoyed many collective exhibitions. Castrillo has also had numerous solo art exhibitions showcasing his landscapes, which feature many places and landmarks from his beloved Seville. Currently, Castrillo teaches painting classes to a very small, elite group of about twenty students, and does research in the field of New Age painting - the form of expression he uses at present in his paintings.

Rene Chavelle

Rene Chavelle was born in Brussels, Belgium in 1953. His first love was music, in particular the cello, which he studied as a child in Paris. Sketching, however, was his form of relaxation, and by the age of seventeen Chavelle was selling his sketches of Paris street scenes on the sidewalks of the left bank. His work became moderately well known and he participated in several group shows in Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, and Athens.

In 1983 Chavelle moved to Mykonos, Greece where he painted the great architecture and landscapes of Greece in oil on canvas. For a number of years he sold work from his own "Studio Chavelle" on the island.

Chavelle's technique varies but most often consists of thinly brushed oils over gessoed canvas. He occasionally works in heavy oils with classic brushwork, but most often the oil is finely and meticulously applied. As he mixes his paint with spirits rather than linseed oil and applies only a light coat of varnish, his canvases have a warm satin glow rather than a glossy finish.

Ann Christensen

Bold swipes of green and blue, textured depths and gentle worlds juxtaposed, tranquil and peaceful. These are the elements which make Ann Christensen's work so expressive and inspiring. A highly respected artist, Ann Christensen has been painting for almost two decades. Born on December 20, 1945 in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Ann attended college in Waterville, Maine and moved to Boston upon graduation in 1967. She continued to pursue her passion for the arts from 1978-81I while studying painting at Harvard University under Albert Alcalay. She gained much insight, inspiration and encouragement during these years and continued her formal art training at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston studying painting principally with Miroslav Antic and Gerry Bergstein.

Ann feels that by exploring the expressive use of color through her paintings based on the natural world, she has come to realize that combinations of color have the energetic capacity to heal and harmonize the human spirit. Ann's major influences are Cezanne, the Post-Impressionists, Matisse, and the Fauves, which is clearly evident in her work. Ann resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts and shows with various galleries in Boston and on Martha's Vineyard.

Hung Chu

Hung Chu was born in Suzhou, China in 1960. He began to practice Chinese calligraphy when he was twelve and painting at eighteen. He learned ink and brush painting from Xu-Siao Jing and Hu-Yang Mu, two well-known artists with a profound understanding of Chinese traditional painting.

He attended the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Art in China, obtaining a BA in 1987. He then taught Chinese painting at the Academy until he moved to Hong Kong in 1991. Hung Chu's genius was first recognized nationally during his second year at the Academy. He won third place in the national Chinese Painting Competition and the artwork was exhibited in the China Art Museum in Beijing. His creativity and unique implementation of ink and brush immediately drew the attention of professionals and critics alike.

During the next few years, Hung Chu received a number or national awards and has showcased his artwork in a number of national and international exhibitions and competitions. Along with academic recognition, he has patrons worldwide. In the past 10 years, he has held 19 solo exhibitions and over 30 group shows in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, China, the United States, Denmark, Germany and Japan.

Hung Chu currently resides in San Francisco, California, USA with his wife and young son.

Tan Chun

Tan Chun was born in Canton, China and developed an interest in art early in his childhood. He began his studies art in China and continued at the Art Student's League in New York after immigrating to America in 1974. The longtime exploration of both the American and Chinese arts has broadened his horizon and influenced Tan's personal philosophy. Thus, his delicate work is the combination of the essential qualities of traditional realism and contemporary painting techniques.

Many subjects inspire this widely traveled artist. Whether painting a landscape, seascape, still life or floral there is a preeminent reverence for the peace and beauty of the world of nature that is reflected in all of his paintings. Tan is constantly challenging himself by incorporating his personal observations, which result in an individual style, all his own. He is accomplished in a wide range of media, and incessantly challenges his mastery of watercolor, oil and printmaking. His paintings hang in numerous personal and corporate collections throughout the world. Tan resides in New Jersey with his lovely wife Anna and their two children.

Frederic E. Church

Born in 1826, by 1850 Frederic E. Church was the acknowledged master of landscape painting in the United States. A student of Thomas Cole, the leader of the Hudson River School, Church's paintings are replete with the details of the landscapes he painted, down to its most explicit characteristics.

Church's work assumes greater importance beyond it's artistic excellence when studied with the history of the U.S. Its grandeur echoes the century's collection belief in the new nation's manifest destiny, and Church eschewed European influence and study for that of the new hemisphere. He saw drama and heroism in the landscapes of the Americas.

Church died in 1900. Soon his work tended to disappear from the public's consciousness, despite a memorial exhibition at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1900. It took until 1945 for interest in Church and his fellow landscape painters to revive; today, his acknowledged mastery is as universal as it was during the 1860's, and his place in U.S. art history is secure.

Leslie Clark

Artist Leslie Clark travels widely and paints constantly, searching for new perspective and old wisdom. Lured by exotic cultures around the globe, she paints with the urgency of knowing they may soon be transformed by the intrusion of the modern world. Her subjects are alive and moving -- a Tuareg nomad astride his camel in the Sahara, a Bushman in a healing trance dance in the Kalahari, a Bhils tribal girl at a colorful marriage festival in India.

As Clark travels, watercolors and sketches are done on site providing inspiration for the works she creates back home in her studio. She uses various media--oil, watercolor, collage, acrylic, graphite, pastel, gold leaf, stenciling--whatever she feels will best convey the spirit of her subject. The painterly realism is evident in the drips and splashes on every canvas.

A fourth-generation Californian, she has always loved freedom and is driven by a sense of adventure. In her 30s, Clark returned to school and obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree from George Washington University. A twelve-month sojourn in the south of France, frequenting the cafes, beaches and hill villages of the Mediterranean, provided the inspiration for her first show -- in Monte Carlo. Since then, travel has been the inspiration for all her work. On a sailing trip near Greece someone invited her to Africa and she never completely returned. Since that first trip she has spent half of each year from one end of the continent to the other, dodging tribal wars and political unrest; looking for nomads and painting.

The success of her works on display worldwide and the desire to share her passion for these intriguing cultures is the impetus for opening her own gallery in Ojai, California, where her own paintings are shown alongside traditional arts of Africa. The cultures she has visited have so enriched her life, she hopes to repay some of this gift through the Nomad Foundation, a non profit organization dedicated to the preservation of cultural and artistic traditions in Africa.

Clark is not an impartial observer. She does not visit exotic cultures to document patterns of behavior or dress, but to make a human connection and interpret this in paint. "I want to experience a little of what they feel, the love of their environment and pride in their way of life. I have come to realize that, although I was initially drawn to them by our vast differences, I continue to be drawn to them because we are very much alike."

Michael Clark

Michael Clark grew up on the western coast of Scotland and now lives in London with his wife, Karen, and their two daughters, Nia and Madeleine. "Like most children I was always drawing," Michael recalls. "I can still remember the disappointment when we were not allowed to paint because one child in my class was always knocking over his water jar!"

After graduating from Edinburgh College of Art, Michael found himself creating computer graphics for the BBC in Glasgow. But computer graphics became dull and repetitive. He felt the increasing "lure of watercolor dragged across paper and the tangible excitement of materials from which computers had estranged me," and left the job to pursue painting for its own sake. In 1994 he began painting full time and formed an association with a fine art card publishing company in the same year. Michael loves good food, wine, gardens and sports, all evidenced by his unusual portrayals of these subjects in his extraordinary paintings. London provides unending artistic stimulation with galleries, lush gardens, beautiful flower shops and eclectic eateries.

Of technique, Michael admits, "I am a messy worker! Working from life, I start with a charcoal drawing. I then use large watercolor brushes, often on a wet surface, which keeps the painting lively and fresh."

Curiously, living in the very urban environment of London doesn't cramp his style. He makes a point of visiting one country house and garden each month in addition to weekly visits to Paula Pryke's flower shop in Islington.

Tim Coffey

Tim Coffey has been creating art for as long as he can remember. "I can remember coloring in a kids' coloring book as a child and discovering a combination of two colors, pink and maroon, that I found striking. Fortunately, my color sense has evolved since then."

Tim received his BFA from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth in 1992. His influences include a diverse group of artists, including Henri Rousseau, Van Gogh, and the impressionists. Tim works in acrylics and the subjects of his art, which he produces in his light-filled home studio, include still life and scenes of the New England countryside. While his artistic talents have advanced since that early start, Tim has maintained his ability to relate to children. He won a Golden Kite Honor Award for 1999 from the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators for the first book he illustrated, Red Berry Wool. He was also recognized with the American Bookseller's Association Pick of the Lists for Mabela the Clever. His interests have extended to writing; his first children's book as both author and illustrator, Christmas at the Top of the World, was published in 2003.

Whether focused on colorful artwork for children's books or luminous landscape and still life paintings, Tim's artwork invites people of all ages to enjoy the simple pleasures of life.

Jamie Cook

Jamie Cook was raised amid the rich history of the Deep South in Atlanta, Georgia. He began his formal art training at Georgia State University where he majored in Fine Art and Photography. During this time he met John McWilliams, a photography professor who encouraged him to explore his inherent talents. Following college he began his career as a professional advertising photographer. Cook was highly recognized for his photography during his many years in advertising. Regarded as one of the premier advertising photographers in the Southeast region, he was sought after for his conceptual studio still life and location photography. Boasting a list of high-profile clients including Cola-Cola, The Ritz Carlton Hotels and Wrangler Jeans, he has been awarded best photographer recognition by Adweek Magazine four times over the last several years.

Having formed an early enthusiasm for computers, Cook now combines his photography with digital imaging to create Fine Art Iris giclée prints. Cook has been heralded for creating a new approach to digitally enhanced photography. Donald Keyes, curator of Paintings at the Georgia Museum of Art wrote, Jamie Cook combines his artistic sensibility with his commercial work in a way that challenges the definition of art. The combination presents a powerful challenge to the viewer, whose basic concept of photography, not to mention art, is left shaken.

Like most artists, Cook loves the freedom his craft provides. Incorporating his love for travel he will shoot various places during his journeys in hopes of capturing the spirit of his subject. Upon returning to his studio he will spend time working on his computer manipulating the image to incorporate the feelings of the places he has visited. Often working antique, soft sepia tones, his images depict the serenity of the surroundings he has encountered. Drawing by the beauty and grandeur of a single object, whether a bridge, a fountain, a tunnel or a river, Cook will investigate all angles of the scene. This intense exploration has taught him to see things that others do not. Using a 35mm camera, Cook brings a unique perspective to these captivating landmarks. His peaceful compositions invite the viewer into a world where time ceases to exist and we are left to imagine for ourselves the circumstance that has brought us to this place.

Jamie Cook has participated in numerous shows and exhibitions including Explorations in Photographic Art & Technology by The Atlanta Photography Group, To See a World by the Georgia Museum of Art, at the University of Georgia and The Art of Photography by the Gwinnett Council for the Arts. He has also had the honor of being the recipient of numerous awards in many different categories from photography to advertising and film directing. Cook continues to explore various photographic techniques, captivating the world with his art and his imagination.

Debbie Cooper

Being raised in and spending 25 years in Hawaii, Debbie Cooper's heart has always been somewhere on a tropical island. Graduating from high school in Honolulu, Cooper moved to Maui for 18 years, where she graduated from college with an Associate of Arts degree and went on to become an award-winning photographer, and owner/operator of a beauty salon in Hawaii. Specializing in old Hawaiiana, she produced a line of greeting cards with verse in the Hawaiian language, which were introduced at The Bishop Museum in Honolulu.

In 1990 Cooper left Hawaii with her two small sons to relocate in Whitefish, Montana. Although she was within miles of Glacier National Park, Cooper felt like a fish out of water in this environment.

She met her husband Bruce in 1998. They soon married and began to take extended trips to Belize several times a year. Cooper was captivated by the Garifuna women and soon started to paint, thus enabling her to return to where her heart has always been. She now calls Caye Caulker home.

Cooper loves art because "it is not repetitive. Each painting is new and different. People always tell me my art makes them happy. It's all in the color!" Cooper says her colors bring back memories of trips to the Caribbean, and inspire people to talk about their Caribbean journeys with her.

Her art is sold throughout the country, showing in galleries in Montana, California and Belize. When asked if she had prominent collectors, Cooper replied, "Jimmy Buffet loves it!".

Jeff Cornell

A master of creating an intoxicating mood of peacefulness, Jeff Cornell reveals a figure in an instance of time, captured forever with subtlety and sensuality to the fore. Aided by the sheer simplicity of each composition, the result is tasteful and sophisticated. Using pastel, ‘the purest method of painting,' Cornell introduces refined color, often just traces, with his supreme touch.

In Cornell's own words, "the female form is of arresting beauty, there is no other thing I would care as much to portray through my work."

Cornell regularly exhibits in New York, Colorado and his home state of Florida, and his work is held in high esteem amongst a growing company of collectors in the USA and UK.

Heidi Coutu

Artist Heidi Coutu is most noted for her award winning English gardens and pastoral landscapes. Her paintings, characterized by their broad and energetic application of paint and brilliant use of color to create light, grace the collections of private homes, offices and corporations throughout the world.

Heidi received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Mount Holyoke College in 1979 and spent time as a professor at Norwich University teaching painting. During her successful career Heidi has participated in numerous international exhibitions and has touched the lives of many through her inspiring artwork.

Beth Crowder

The earliest art influence West Virginian artist Beth Crowder can remember is her childhood Little Golden Book, The Color Kittens. She says that being an artist is the best job in the world, and that she became an artist to get attention (but we're pretty sure talent and creative drive had something to do with it too).

Starting with a well-sanded surface, Crowder begins her soft pastel paintings with an underpainting of acrylics in the opposite, or complementary, color. For example, bright, from-the-tube red will form the base for green grass; a bright purple base will show through on a yellow tree. She then layers soft pastels over the acrylic painting. This method gives her works a deep, pointillist effect.

While Crowder's landscapes are of specific locations, to the viewer they could be reminiscent of almost anywhere. Crowder's landscapes have a universal look and appeal that evokes sensations of quiet places visited.

Crowder attended the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan, NY; and Friends World College. The message she strives to communicate through her art is, "Pay attention to what is around you!".

Crowder has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions, and is the recipient of two Governor Awards in the Juried Exhibition in West Virginia.

Her works are collected by the University of Charleston, Collection of West Virginia Women Artists; and in the Permanent Collection of the State of West Virginia.

Imogen Cunningham

Imogen Cunningham's photographic work is in museums and private collections around the world. Solo exhibitions, the first in the Brooklyn Museum and the Portland Art Museum in 1914, have continued to this day. Books, catalogues, and articles about her and her work are extensive. A 1988 Oscar-nominated film, ‘Portrait of Imogen,' made by her granddaughter, Meg Partridge, has won numerous awards in the United States and abroad and is in wide circulation.

Cunningham ordered her first camera from a correspondence school during her student years at the University of Washington. Her father, who had always encouraged her interest in the arts and literature, was dismayed at her determination to be a ‘dirty photographer.' Despite these feelings, he helped her build a darkroom in the family woodshed and equipped it with a candle-lit safelight. It was the f