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

Laurie Eastwood

Laurie Eastwood is a self-taught artist born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is her belief that given the right environment and encouragement, we all possess an innate ability and desire to create.

Coming from an artistic family that encouraged creativity and curiosity, Eastwood originally worked selling advertising in the art industry, before she realized that she most desired to be on the creative end of art production. In 1990 Eastwood left her job to pursue her aspiration to create an art form to enrich life. This desire led her to the process of hand tinting black and white photographs with special oil paints. It is an old technique that was created before photography was sophisticated enough to be developed with color film.

Eastwood is thrilled by watching the transformation of a black and white to a color print as her paints add fine detail and warmth to the photograph. Her first images were fruit and vegetables photographed against natural surroundings such as brick, wood and slate. She has since added flowers, landscapes and architectural images.

"Many of the photographic backgrounds are in my home which is situated at the base of Mt Diablo in Northern California. I feel the result is an elegant image, subtle in color and textures, richly detailed and slightly nostalgic. I hope to evoke an old-world European look with recognizable images and romantic beauty."

Very shortly after experimenting in her medium, Eastwood found accounts with Restoration Hardware, Macy's, Neiman Marcus, Eddie Bauer Homestores, Domain and numerous other stores. Her art is of a high standing in the retail gift industry where it is distributed nationwide.

Eastwood worked for a while as a partner in her sister's framed print business, before she created her own business, J. Christopher Prints, named after her children Jaime and Christopher.

Mona Shafer Edwards

Mona Shafer Edwards is a freelance illustrator specializing in Fashion and Courtroom Illustration. She is a native of Los Angeles, California, and was one of the youngest graduates of the Art Center College of Design, where she completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honors. She is co-author on eight books on Fashion for HarperCollins Publishers, New York, and just completed a book for Prentice Hall (Simon and Schuster).

Her practical trade experience includes teaching at UCLA and Trade-Tech, L.A., in the areas of fashion sketching for advertising, and guest lecturer at University of South Carolina and several area high schools.

Mona has illustrated children's books and has done artwork for major department stores and manufacturers, and regularly donates her artwork to various charities.

Her courtroom illustrations for ABC News have been seen worldwide, and many of her drawings have been featured in foreign print publications. In the nearly twenty years of sketching in the courtroom, she has witnessed hundreds of high profile trials from Richard Ramirez and the McMartin Preschool cases to Rodney King and OJ Simpson. Her colorful and emotional drawings are in many private collections in the U.S. and abroad.

Mona lives in the hills of Los Angeles with her husband, a business attorney, their two children, two gold retrievers and, at the moment, 28 birds.

Georg Dionysius Ehret

Georg Dionysius Ehret, born in Germany in 1710, acquired a reputation during his life as one of the foremost botanical painters of his - and perhaps any - age. Upon the death of Ehret's father, the very young Georg was apprenticed to a gardener for three years. Much of his youth was spent as a gardener, although he spent that time practicing his drawings. Soon, acquired patrons and was earning a living by creating superlative drawings of flora all across Europe, working and traveling in Germany, France, Holland and finally in England, where he settled.

Among his most important works are those he painted for the Swedish botanist Linnaeus, who originated the classification of plants used today. Ehret was also employed illustrating various works (including travel books) and painting specimens for private collections. He also painted porcelain commercially.

Ehret's work is all the more impressive when one considers that the range of colors available during his lifetime was miniscule. His watercolors, both on vellum and on paper, are delicate and cannot be constantly displayed in public galleries, but fine collections are kept in London at the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Natural History Museum and in the Royal collections at Windsor. Ehret died in 1770.

Lazlo Emmerich

Lazlo Emmerich was born near Hanover, Germany in 1940. His father was killed in the Second World War, so his family moved to Delft, Netherlands, where he lived and was schooled from the age of five. His talent for painting was discovered at an early age. As a result, in his teens, he was able to embark on an apprenticeship with the noted Flemish painter Otto Van't Sant.

Despite the many distractions in his early adulthood; writing Beat poetry in the 1950's, fomenting revolution as a left wing radical in the 1960's and flirting with large scale steel structure in the 1970's, a mature and personal style of painting eventually emerged. Subtlety, stark imagery, earthy colors, and distressed paint surfaces began to mark his work and continue to this day.

On the meaning of individual works of art he is silent, saying only, "We are all, in an existential sense, alone, but we can find purity and beauty and even enrichment in that aloneness no matter how bleak or desolate it may seem."

Mr. Emmerich divides his time between his winter studio in Bandung, Indonesia and his summer home near Amsterdam.

Susana England

Susana England is a collage painter who describes herself as a romantic spirit with a rich eye for color. She studied painting and music at the University of California, where she embarked on creative experiment in photography, wearable art garment design, hand made paper collage and music performance. Memorably, she played the harp at the Berkeley Jazz Festival with Miles Davis and Gil Evans. A continuing artist in visual media, England has sold many of her designs to private and corporate collections across the United States.

Fascinated by transient tokens of varying eras, England's collages draw together mementos of times past, such as opera tickets, postcards and letters to evoke the nostalgia of old world travel to great cities. The assemblages are tinted with the dreamy hues of watercolors, adding subtle atmosphere to each suggested place. The discovery of beautiful sights and ephemera on her travels has inspired England's designs with dreams of journeying to all the romantic destinations of Europe.

England has participated in numerous exhibitions across California, and in Florida, New Mexico and Washington; several times appearing as the specially featured artist. Her work is displayed in many corporate collections, including Kaiser Permenente in Northern California, USDA: Ames, Iowa, Amco Corporate Collection, Tulsa, Oklahoma and Stanford Medical School, California.

Currently England designs a hand made greeting card line from her studio in Northern California.

Maria Eva

Named after her grandmother, Maria Eva was born in San Diego, California. Ever since adolescence she has fervently pursued two passions - ballet and painting. A naturally talented artist, Maria began by painting landscapes of the surrounding countryside. At the age of 18, she enrolled in the prestigious fine arts program at the University of Southern California, where her talent flourished.

Maria spent her junior year of college in Cortona, Italy. There, she studied the Italian masters concurrently with contemporary artists and art forms, broadening her knowledge and fortifying her confidence as an artist. Her studies also put her in contact with an artistic and personal mentor, Judy Jones a professor who still acts as a strong influence and motivation for all of Maria's work. Maria returned to California for her senior year to complete her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, graduating magna cum laude.

Maria presently lives in Atlanta, Georgia, where she has recently exhibited her work at the renowned Nexus Contemporary Art Center. While she misses the Pacific Ocean, she nonetheless finds great inspiration in the vast landscapes of the southeastern United States.

Macduff Everton

Macduff Everton gives a sense of place, whether portraits of individuals or portraits of a landscape. An early champion of his work, Andy Grudberg wrote, "Macduff Everton updates travel photography in the same way that Ansel Adams updated 19th century photography of the West. He captures strange and eloquent moments in which time, and the world, seem to stand still."

He is a contributing editor at National Geographic Traveler, and his many editorial clients include Conde Nast Traveler, Life, LA Times Magazine, NY Times Magazine, Town & Country, and House & Garden. His work is in the collections of many public and private institutions, including the Bibliotheque Nationale, Brooklyn Museum, British Museum, Museum of Modern Art, and Musee de L'Elysee.

Everton often teams up with his wife, Mary Heebner, an abstract painter and writer. Their two very different visions of a place often inform each other's work. They recently collaborated on the classic publication ‘The Western Horizon.'

Everton exhibits his photos nationally and internationally. He is represented by Janet Borden Gallery, NYC.

Maria Fabre

Maria Fabre was born in St. Cugat, Barcelona, Spain in 1975. From an early age Fabre was interested in becoming an artist. Her earliest formal art influence was the artistic high school she attended in Sabadell. She graduated from the University of Barcelona in 1998 with a B.A. in Art.

Maria is an active young woman who divides her time between creating new art, taking care of her newborn baby son, working with her gallery and teaching art.

Fabre is primarily interested in working with structure and texture. The architectural aspects of composition are important to her in her efforts to communicate a sense of space and openness.

Fabre mixes her techniques and media, and works from very small to oversized originals. Her works are collected by Dox Consulting in Barcelona, SBS in Barcelona, and Ramon Grau Publicity Agency.

Deborah Falls

Textile designer Deborah Falls graphically depicts flowers and plants on hand woven silk. Her studio has a magnificent mountain view that makes it hard not to just sit, stare and daydream.

Deborah received her degree in fine arts in printmaking from Skidmore College and has completed graduate studies in fabric design at East Carolina University and in printmaking at San Diego State University. She has designed and produced fabrics for the interior design trade for many years, and her fabric lines are carried in designer showrooms in Los Angeles, San Diego, Dallas and Palm Beach. Her New England design line was launched in 1996 and now appears in many New England design shops.

Deborah's technique for making her hand-painted fabrics is as unique as the finished products themselves. She cuts paper stencils to create the line necessary for each piece, then uses both an airbrush and traditional brushes to apply color onto hand woven Indian silks. Then the fabric is steamed, making the brilliant colors permanent.

When she is not in the studio, Deborah plays hockey in a local women's league, rides her horses, works on the house she and her family are building, and gardens. Yearly trips abroad give her ideas for her upcoming fabric projects.

Henri Fantin-Latour

Henri Fantin-Latour grew up in Paris where he studied painting with his father and later worked in the studio of Lecoq de Boisbaudran, but it was the masters in the Louvre that really formed Fantin's taste. He spent years diligently studying and copying the works of Delacroix, Hals, Rubens and the Venetians.

Although friendly with contemporary painters and writers, Fantin gradually withdrew from this active society to paint group portraits and still lifes in his own conservative style. His method of handling paint produced an overall effect of mysterious distance, nearly photographic in its realistic rendering of texture and color. In 1862 Fantin's first experimentation with lithography led him to express his love of music in romantic, imaginative operatic scenes from Wagner, Berlioz and Schumann.

Penny Feder

Penny Feder was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1949. She received her Bachelor's degree in Art Education at C.E. Post College, New York in 1971 and her Masters in Printmaking in I975.O What has always been unique about Penny's work, especially her work in the monotype, pastel, etching and woodcut media, is her wonderful play of color, movement and pattern.

Penny's artwork has been exhibited throughout the United States and Europe winning numerous awards and accolades. Her work is represented in a number of museums including the Brooklyn Museum of Art, National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institute, and the Museum Duren, Germany. Penny works and lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Frederic Flanet

Between heaven and earth, between color and light, Frederic Flanet's paintings are more a research on the purity of the landscape, the flow of time, and the precise representation of a person with a strong visual sense. Not trying to reproduce but rather to become saturated with a place or with a region. Born in Poissy in 1963 in Yvelines. Autocidact, Frederic Flanet is a member of the House of the Artists in Paris since 1992.

Bart Forbes

The competitive spirit, challenge, traditions and excitement of sport are epitomized in the oil and watercolor renderings of renowned American painter and illustrator Bart Forbes (1939-).

Forbes is a sought-after sports artist, working out of his studio in the Texas home he shares with his wife and two children. Having won 60 Awards of Excellence from the New York Society of Illustrators, he has been commissioned many times over by Sports Illustrated, Time magazine, Eastman Kodak, Pepsi-Cola, American Airlines and ABC Television. Named the 1986 Sports Artist of the Year by the U.S. Sports Academy, Forbes was selected by the Olympic Committee as the official artist for the 1988 Summer Olympics. The artist has designed over 20 commemorative postage stamps, including the Lou Gehrig and Jesse Owens commemoratives, "The Olympians" and the "America the Beautiful" series as well as commemorative posters for the Boston and New York Marathons, Indianapolis 500, America's Cup and 1994 Winter Olympics.

Although accomplished in rendering all sports, Forbes is perhaps best known for his golfing images and acclaimed for his portraits of history's thirty greatest golfers. Having done theme paintings for a variety of PGA and Seniors tournaments, Forbes recently completed the theme art for the 1994 Pebble Beach Pro-Am for the second consecutive year.

Forbes's works are in the collections of such notables as former Presidents George Bush and Jimmy Carter, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, as well as Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicholas, the National Football League and The Smithsonian Institution.

Katherine Fortson

"The dance with my Muse is most graceful as I seek to make obvious that which may be missed...To reveal hidden treasures that cannot be discovered with eyes. Our joyful rhythm is found in heart, our spirited tempo is found in Soul. With paintbrush in my hand...and essence in theirs ...we dance. I imagine I will paint a lifetime."

Katherine Fortson is a Georgia native, born in Americus. Her paintings have sold successfully for twelve years in Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, California and New York.

In 1980 and 1981, Fortson attended the Atlanta College of Art and Design Summer Workshops for Outstanding Georgia High School Artists. She received a Scholarship Award for the Atlanta College of Art and Design, attended the Ringling School of Art and Design from 1982-1984; the Portfolio Center from 1984-1986, and majored in Fine Arts at UGA/Georgia State from 1986-1987.

Since launching into her career as an artist, Fortson has received numerous awards and media reviews for her works, and has exhibited widely throughout the Southern United States.

Charlotte Foust

As an only child born to creative parents (her mother sewed and her father painted realistic oils), Charlotte Foust developed a keen imagination and a desire to connect with others through self-expression. She is attracted to the ability of art to be both a highly charged internal process and a medium for sharing the resulting energy with strangers.

Known for her love of texture and color, Foust's heightened tactile sense allows her to trust a line or brushstroke to guide the direction of the work. As a result, both her abstract and figurative work lend themselves to both decorative and emotional impact.

Foust tends to work in cycles. She will often work on a series of paintings until completion and then take a brief sabbatical.

Early in her art career Foust was awarded a Regional Artist Grant for Emerging Artists. Her mixed media abstract and figurative paintings have won both awards and collectors alike. Foust holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Nina Francis

Snips of fabric, scissors and a sewing machine. These are the tools of Nina Francis' trade. She uses them to piece and embroider collages of everyday things - from tubs and sinks to flowers and birds - into images with a magical quality uniquely her own. Nina frequently uses contrasts in her work. "I enjoy mixing embroidery from an old handkerchief that I found at a flea market with embroidery or collage from new materials . . ."

Born in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, Nina has loved art from the time she was a child. "A new box of crayons, colored pencils, magic markers or watercolors was my idea of heaven."

Nina studied business and printing at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. She had a career in product development at a major greeting card company and studied art as a hobby at first, later taking evening classes at the Kansas City Art Institute. "After exhausting the nighttime possibilities . . . I decided to pursue my art degree full time." Nina moved to Baltimore where she received a Bachelor in Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art.

Richard Franklin

Born in 1961 in Fort Belvoir,Virginia, Richard Franklin lived and studied in Europe, the Middle East, and throughout the United States. Having graduated from International University High School in Watford, England, Franklin attended Brigham Young University and the Colorado Institute of Art. He learned the art of oil painting studying with master artists in Saudi Arabia.

Franklin began his art career as a commercial artist. Between 1987 and 1989 he taught illustration art at the Phoenix Institute of Technology.

In March 1990, Franklin spend one year studying in the museums of Europe, Belgium, Holland, France and Germany. He received intense studies of the old masters' techniques by working directly in museums from the original paintings of Rembrandt, Van Dyke, Vermeer, Monet, and many others. The aesthetics of the Old Masters impressed him a great deal and he continued the classic tradition in his work, meticulously combining the technique of the Old Masters with his own contemporary sensibility to create unique works. I was trying to understand their sense of composition, color and portrayal of the human spirit. I find also that the effects of age add a richness and translucence that even they did not foresee, and which I try to reproduce.

Franklin's beautiful treatment of the human figure draws from the religious, mythological and secular visions of the past. To his compositions he added visuals elements of a more modern style. The result is his unique aesthetic, and perhaps the hope that the ideal of beauty sought by the Old Masters still exists in today's world.

Francois Fressinier

Francois Fressinier was born in Cognac, France in 1968. He attributes much of his passion for the human figure to the fact that both of his parents were professional portrait photographers. He studied advertising and fine art at the Ecole Brassart Technique et Privee in Tours, near Paris. He also received a strong academic training in art from his father, to whom he gives credit for teaching him not to paint, but to see. That unique sight, colored with an esteem for the expressive linear drawing of Egon Schiele, has evolved into a personal style that is fluid, truly lovely, and classical in nature. It is his mastery of light and shadow and the delicate economy of his line which call to mind the exquisite conte drawings of Leonardo or sketches done by Ingres or Raphael. He even states his favorite time in history as being In a time period where time, speed and productivity were not the number one occupation of our days.

Fressinier loves to travel, and finds nature a constant source of joy and self-renewal. Like many artists who came before him, he works from a place of deep religious conviction. Art, for me, is a prayer, he explains. A way to thank and glorify God. I consider myself a mediator between God and the Brush.

Jon Friedman

A painter of photographically realistic landscapes and nature scenes, Jon R. Friedman's work has been viewed all across the United States. Acclaimed in exhibitions, appreciated in public collections and requested by public commission, Friedman's oils and acrylics are riveting and compelling.

Friedman's work has been honored through several grants, awards, and public commissions throughout his career. His work is displayed in mural and sculpture form at the Nathan Cummings Foundation in New York; he was granted a Residency Grant at the Ossabaw Island Project in Georgia; and he was a University Scholar for Princeton University.

Jon has held solo exhibitions in New York, Washington D.C., Chicago, and Santa Monica, California. His work is displayed in such prominent corporate collections as American Telegraph & Telephone, the National Academy of Sciences in Washington D.C., the American Broadcasting Company in New York, and Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceuticals.

Also numerous in length is the list of group shows in which Jon has participated. Recently, he was featured for three years in the Brendan Walter Gallery in Santa Monica, California; participated in the For the Birds show at the Charles A. Wustum Museum of Fine Arts in Racine, Wisconsin, and has shown his work in the Uptown Gallery in New York City.

Friedman's education is varied, having won a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from Princeton University in addition to his studies and degrees at the Corcoran Museum School, the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, and the Cranbrook Academy of Art.

Martha Newton Furman

A vintage dressmaker's form adorned with antique postcards, French ribbons and flowing calligraphy greets visitors to Martha Newton Furman's sunny California studio. One wall beautifully journals her travels, both actual and virtual. Another showcases intricately detailed botanical studies. A painting on a tile fragment appears to be part of a centuries-old fresco. "I love the patina of time that gives objects their unique character, and I am fascinated with exploring ways to replicate those effects."

Martha has loved drawing for as long as she can remember. "My family fostered my interest in the arts. Due largely to the influence of my sisters, who were very good at drawing, art became a family affair. Be it photography, dancing, drawing, painting, lettering or design, they encouraged me to explore, practice and simply create," says Martha. Martha pursued her interest formally at the University of Florida where she received a degree in Graphic Design.

Martha's art is a study in technique and media. Her diverse style is enlivened by equally diverse sources of inspiration, from European decorative arts and the natural world to pop culture and foreign travel. Whether the subject is classic, whimsical, sentimental, modern, eclectic or elegant, Martha gives it her own signature style.

"I like to think that people can always expect something that is comfortable as well as surprising and exciting from my work. Connecting with people through my art is an honor and an invigorating experience for me as an artist," she says.

Carmen Galofre

Carmen Galofre was born on November 13, 1959 in Rochester, Minnesota where her parents, both natives of Barcelona, were living during five years while her father, a surgeon, worked at the Mayo Clinic.

In 1962, Carmen returned with her family to Barcelona, Spain where they would live until 1974. From the age of five, Carmen would spend her days drawing and painting, always earning her best scholastic marks in Art, Sculpture and Sports. She has also worked in pottery since age 8. In 1972, Carmen and her family relocated to a small town on the coast of Barcelona province named Cabrera de Mar.

Carmen rented a space in a large old attic on Barcelona's Diputación Street in 1984, which she converted to a work studio and living space.

She spent time in 1985 as a drawing instructor at an art academy located on Via Augusta Street. This same year, she was selected as one of the two students from each Spanish University to receive the Beca de Pintura de Paisaje de Segovia (Landscape painting of Segovia scholarship), and she attended the University of Barcelona. Upon completion of the program, an exhibition was held to show the work produced by the scholarship winners. Carmen was awarded the Gold Medal and decided to travel with the money earned from her award.

In September of 1985, Carmen traveled to Rome where she spent a month painting and then on to Florence where she would spend another month painting and familiarizing herself with the Italian Renaissance. In November, she continued onwards to India, a country and culture that had attracted her since her childhood. There Carmen spent two months traveling and painting her impressions of the country. She was deeply impressed by the mysticism of the people and by the colors, smells and light of India.

Carmen returned to Spain in 1986, where she taught drawing and painting in her studio on Diputación Street in Barcelona. She continued to teach classes later at the art academy on Aragón de Barcelona Street and at the Academia Bonaplata, and finally from 1988-1991 taught at her own academy, situation on Giralt el Pellicer Street, near the cathedral and in the middle of the Gothic neighborhood in Barcelona.

Using Istanbul as her starting point, Carmen traveled throughout Turkey in 1990, painting as she went. She was most impressed by the small villages in the interior of the country and Capadocia. The following year she made her first trip to Morocco to spend two weeks painting in the desert and a few days in Marrakech.

In October of 1993, she made her second trip to Morocco, this time beginning in Barcelona and traveling by car. Once in Morocco, Carmen spent one month painting in the south of the country, a trip she would repeat again in 1999. In addition, Carmen directed a painting seminar in Menorca all during the summers of 1993 through 1996.

Jennifer Garant

Jennifer Garant's work expresses the exuberance and joy found in a life lived to the fullest. "I can't imagine my life without an instrument to paint with or a surface to mark," she says. "I'm always curious as to what my next painting will be and where it will take me."

Born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Jennifer's artistic career began at the age of three when she started sketching on her closet walls with black markers. These initial endeavors were inspired by her mother. "Everything that she touched she transformed into something of beauty," Jennifer muses. Her art soon came out of the closet with the help of paper and other supplies from her parents. In second grade she won her first poster competition, which was just the beginning of her career as an award-winning artist.

Jennifer began her formal art education in 1977 at the College of Marin near San Francisco, then continued her studies at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in Calgary, Alberta. Afterward she entered and won competitions and began her career as a full-time artist.

Jennifer rises very early to start painting, a habit she maintains from when her two grown sons were young. She and her husband Tadd share a studio and paint all day in each other's company. When they need a break, they loosen up with an energetic game of ping pong. Then back to the easels to play with more paint. Whether using watercolor or acrylic, Jennifer is always experimenting with imagery and materials.

Recently Jennifer and Tadd moved their studio from western British Colombia to Bloomington, Indiana. Travels take them on studio vacations to New Orleans where Jennifer has enjoyed painting for the last twenty years. The food and aesthetic of New Orleans are inspirations for the characters who people her paintings.

Jennifer's work has been commissioned by collectors around the world, from public and private organizations to corporations and celebrities, and has been shown and collected by galleries throughout the U.S. and Canada. Her signature chefs have been distributed world-wide on a wide variety of licensed products for the home.

Marina Gilboa

Marina Drasnin Gilboa was raised in Los Angeles, California where her earliest art influence came from her architect parents. Marina is one of five children, all of whom are artists, architects, photographers, or combinations of these.

Marina received her B.F.A. from Tufts University and attended four years at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School.

She received a diploma in Civilization and Language Studies from the Sorbonne in Paris, France.

Marina's professional experience includes figure skater, interior designer, event and wedding coordinator, designer of wearable art, window designer, and colorization consultant for the Walt Disney Company. Marina was also a member of the art and production design department for the Academy Award nominated film, "The Grifters".

At present, Marina is Partner/Vice President of On a Shoestring, Inc, where she produces and creates all artwork. Marina has a card line with Chronicle Books, in addition to the "Marina Collection" with the Winn Devon Art Group.

When asked what it is she loves about art, Marina replied, "It reflects nature and lets one express themselves in unique mediums." She hopes her artwork communicates joy, beauty, serenity, and whimsy to her viewers.

Susan Gillette

Susan Gillette was born in Youngstown, Ohio, and grew up in New York state where she lived until she moved to the Southwest in 1991. Ms. Gillette received a BFA in printmaking from SUNY at Purchase, New York, and a Master's degree from the School of Visual Arts, New York City, New York.

Working for seven years with accomplished woodcut artist, Antonio Frasconi of South America, monoprint Maker, Mauricio Lansanski, lithographer, Murray Zimiles, and master etcher, Rimer Cardillo did much to extend Ms. Gillette's vision and influence her work.

Her family has been a powerful, supportive force that has nurtured her creativity. She credits much of her imagery to the influence of her parents; her father is a sculptor and her mother is a poet. Creativity runs in the family as her siblings are also very talented artists. Her brother John is a gifted cartoonist, and another brother, Robert, is an accomplished potter.

Ms. Gillette currently resides in the Southwest and enjoys "anything outdoors". She travels the world to pursue her favorite sports: sailing, mountain climbing, rappelling, biking and skiing.

Julia Gilmore

Julia Gilmore's artistic vision can be attributed to the juxtaposition of her rural roots and a sophisticated urban background. Raised in a small New Hampshire town, Julia migrated north to Montreal where she completed a Fine Arts degree at Concordia University.

She flourished in the Montreal art scene, staging several successful solo art shows as well as participating in prestigious group exhibitions.

When asked what inspires her, she says, "Everything, particularly everyday objects that are generally overlooked or taken for granted." She brings her subjects to life by applying vibrant oils to canvas, often using palette knives. Julia paints at home. "I need to be in the middle of everything, surrounded by my family, so I usually work in the kitchen where I can stir the soup, chat with my son or practice jazz tunes with my husband."

Music and performing have also been important to her. For many years, she has contributed her unique sense of style to the alternative music scene.

Today, Julia manages to combine her family, her art and a jazz combo. She makes her home outside Toronto with her husband and musical partner Danny and their son Adam Roy.

Susan Eby Glass

Susan Eby Glass was born in Virginia and grew up in Pennsylvania, but has made Vermont her home for the past 11 years. Her parents loved to travel and took the family on trips to England, Mexico, Quebec, Costa Rica, and the American West.

Glass has enjoyed drawing and painting since she was a child. She earned a BA in Art with a focus on sculpture and painting from Goshen College in Indiana. "Though I studied art in college, I always thought I would be a writer when I grew up. Song lyrics, poetry, essays and novels feed my imagination. After college I wanted to paint, but I didn't get motivated until I visited Charleston, the home of Bloomsbury painters Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant in Sussex, England. Every surface of the house – walls, doors, furnishings and floors – is painted decoratively. I realized that I was afraid of making a bad painting. I saw that you have to dive in and sometimes like what you do, and sometimes not. The beauty is that you can always go back and try again – and that sometimes things surface that you didn't know were there."

Given her diverse interests, it is not surprising that writers and musicians are nearly as influential to her as other visual artists. Says Glass, "I usually listen to Irish music while painting, but also love jazz, folk and vocal music. The poets Billy Collins and Mary Oliver create wordscapes that I try to capture visually, and the design work of textile designers Anna French and Tricia Guild push me to think about how I use color and new ways to interpret classic imagery." She has always admired the technique of Carl Larsson, John Singer Sargeant and Edward Hopper.

Today she lives with her husband and daughter in a tiny passive-solar home with a west-facing view of the Green Mountains. "We have slowly turned our meadow into a permaculture garden of herbs, fruit trees, perennials and vegetables, all intermingled. It's ongoing and satisfying work that requires similar creative thought to painting – lots of thinking about colors, textures and shapes and how they go together."

Glass's studio is in a small saltbox barn full of books, clippings, fabrics and photographs. Her technique is experimental, combining collaged elements on canvas or board with paint. She uses hand-cut shapes to stamp into wet paint and achieves the textures she desires using both a palette knife and brush. She enjoys an active career in design with a home accessories business, but finds painting a natural complement.

Alfred Gockel

Alfred Alexander Gockel was born in Ludinghausen, Germany in 1952. From his earliest days on, he was fascinated by the magic of colors on paper. This talent and enthusiasm resulted in the release of this first art work by a German publisher at the age of 8. After he graduated from high school, he commenced his studies at the Polytechnic Academy in Munster in 1973. His main emphasis was typography, graphic design and advertising. He graduated in 1977, and in the following years he was active as a freelance artist, designer and lecturer of typography and graphic design at the Polytechnic Academy in Munster. In 1981 his work of art had developed so strongly, that he had to stop with all additional activities and become a full-time artist. This was the beginning of a long and successful career. In 1983 he and his wife Ingrid founded an art publishing company; Avant Art, today a top ranked player in the abstract segment of the market, with customers in more than 50 countries worldwide.

The bright colors and the graceful motion of his characters mark Alfred's compositions. This is a perfect reflection of his appearance and inner-self. His hyperactivity is the basis for the large number of different projects he has fulfilled, and his striving for perfection results in the highest quality for each and every one. The competitive nature of his character has led him to an accomplished career, and after 22 years he still gets inspired by society. His creations keep improving, stimulated by a large number of fans, that also keeps increasing. The few spare hours this hasty life gives him, he plays tennis, walks in the German forests with his two dogs, or jumps on two Harley Davidsons with his wife, and drives to their favorite spot at the island Sylt.

Ted Goerschner

Raised in both New Jersey and New England, Ted Goerschner's earliest art influence was an 8th grade art teacher. She was an exchange teacher from Australia who opened the young student's eyes to his artistic talent, and gave him the push he needed.

Goerschner's grandfather was an artist, so "I guess if runs in the family. I never wanted to be anything else. I tried other things; they never worked." Goerschner loves the freedom of being an artist, and the people and the places that he is able to visit.

Fulfillment for him is the happiness he is able to bring to others with his special talent. The artist hopes his work "gives joy to the viewer. I feel art should lift up the spirit, not drag it down-TV takes care of that." Years of studies, observations, challenges, successes and lessons permeate the walls of his studio, a telling picture of an artist's lifelong commitment to perfection - transferring nature onto canvas.

The artist attended the Art Student's League in New York; the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Art, New Jersey; and the University of Florida in Tampa, FL. His work appears in numerous publications, has won many distinguished awards, and appears in many public and private collections, including the Holiday Inn Corporate Collection, the Mr. Kevin Costner Collection, and the Household Finance Corporate Collection.

Kristy Goggio

Kristy Goggio admits she has had a passion for art since her days of crayons and coloring books. Eventually this interest led her to the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts.

Kristy's artistic voyage began when she opened a frame shop in Milawaukee. "This was a wonderful opportunity to learn about the art industry and keep current with trends. I was exposed to many styles, techniques and subject matter and had the opportunity to really study color."

With encouragement and support from her husband, Kristy now devotes herself to creating art full-time, fulfilling a long-time dream. "I can attribute my artistic accomplishments to him. He encouraged me to follow my true passion and become a full-time artist." A light-filled studio was added to their home, providing her with an inspiring place to do just that.

Kristy works with acrylic paints, bases and collage. "I often will incorporate hand-made and decorative papers, textiles, gold, silver or copper leaf, nail or tacks. Actually anything that is two or three dimensional is fair game!"

She lives in a small village in Wisconsin with her husband E.C. and his daughters. In their free time, they enjoy traveling to places "off the beaten path" and spending time at their lake home with friends and family.

Ed Goldstein

Ed Goldstein's passion is to capture the soul and character of his subjects, whether they are people, landscapes, hand tools or botanicals. He uses traditional photographic techniques to bring them to life in his hand-made prints.

He travels across the back roads of the United States in a 1956 Chevrolet pickup, searching and photographing objects to become a part of our collective memory. Along the way, he has rescued antique cameras, obscure lenses, large-format enlargers, and other photographic tools from obsolete studios and abandoned darkrooms. These give his work a distinctive visual spirit impossible to duplicate with digital photography.

Born and raised in the west, Ed Goldstein studied photography on the streets of Los Angeles and in the studios of New York. His works have been exhibited throughout the West in museums and galleries and have been acquired by photography collectors and curators of fine art museums worldwide.

Jan Gordon

Paris, a city that has inspired and nurtured artists for centuries, holds special meaning for Jan Gordon. It was here that she discovered her love of photography and found both her passion and her profession. "I loved the immediate gratification in terms of an image and a design of space according to my eye. It was at this time that I started creating art."

She also discovered a city that provided ample subject matter for her over the years. Jan later moved back to Paris, eventually sharing her time between there and Los Angeles. Inspired by Paris' many wonders, Jan's photographs capture the essence and uniqueness of this magnificent city.

Jan uses a 35mm Canon EOS for city shooting and a Hassalblad or Sinar in the studio. Her favorite technique is black and white, saturated with many tones.

Jan and her husband spend half the year in California and the other in New York so that they can be with their children. When not busy working, Jan enjoys skiing and tennis, Broadway musicals and art shows, and traveling to new places.

Peter Graham

Peter Graham was born in Glasgow in 1959 and attended the Glasgow School of Art, graduating in 1980. He worked for several years as a film editor for the BBC before turning to painting full time in 1986. A year spent in Singapore as The British Council Artist-in-residence at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts was followed by a series of prominent solo and group exhibitions in London, Scotland and New York. This established Peter's reputation as one of Britain's most gifted and original modern colorists.

His work is often related to the Modern Scottish School, but Peter has a flamboyant style which is unique - detailed brushwork combined with looser, fluid strokes - creating vibrant contrasts of pure color, line and tone. Peter spends the summer months in the French Riviera. In the winter, from his Cambridge studio, he creates his stunning still life compositions with color acting as the dominating theme, but also reflecting the heightened sense of atmosphere and passion that comes directly from the beauty of the Mediterranean.

Alicia Grau

Born in Barcelona, Spain in 1955, Alicia Grau began her artistic training at a young age, attending La Escuela de Artes y Oficios. After graduation, she started her professional career.

Her work is carefully considered and constructed, with successive layers of color; each contributes to the overall masterful composition.

Ms. Grau has shown her paintings in both group and solo shows, many in Barcelona galleries. Her art has also brought her a number of awards and international recognition.

Abbott Fuller Graves

New England artist Abbott Fuller Graves (1859-1936), divided his studies between Boston and Paris. He studied practical design at Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a teenager, followed by numerous trips to France where he studied with individual painters. In 1890 he started a teaching position at the Cowles School of Art in Boston. During this time he traveled often to Kennebunkport, Maine where he owned a house.

Graves is best known for his paintings of gardens and doorways. His works, mostly in oil, depict New England, Paris, Holland, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. Throughout his life Graves exhibited regularly in one-man shows and received high honors in juried exhibits. He was a social and well-loved man who was greatly influenced by extensive world travel and both classical and impressionist painters.

Guercino

Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (1591-1666), better known as Il Guercino, was one of the most brilliant draftsman of his age. Born in Cento, near Ferrara, Italy, Guercino drew on a variety of northern Italian sources for his work, including Lodovico Carracci and Venetian paintings. Guercino's paintings are characterized by dramatic lighting, strong color, and broad, vigorous brushwork.

Jean Guichard

Jean Guichard first encountered the force of the high seas during his National Service with the French Navy in 1970 when he discovered the inspirational coastlines of the great north, Newfoundland, Iceland, Greenland and the Baltic Sea.

Memories of his family in Brittany inspired Guichard to research into the lives of the forgotten lighthouse keepers who risk life and limb to guide ships through the treacherous coastal waters. The awe-inspiring power of the sea and the fortitude of both lighthouse and keeper is consummately captured in Guichard's astounding "Phares dans la Tempête" series of photographs.

Karen Gutowsky

Karen Gutowsky's illustration career began with the impending birth of her daughter. The prospect of designing a child's room led to her first poster series, "Train" and "Sailboat." Her paintings are fun and fanciful, depicting children's toys and favorite playthings in bright, primary colors.

Gutowsky is currently one of the principals of a large design firm in Seattle, Washington. Her design career has ranged from publications to graphic design and she has also served as art director for national magazines including "Inside Chicago" and "Washington."

Lin Haak

Raised in Portland, Oregon, Lin Haak's earliest art influence was "An artist who lived across the street. I loved him. I was 10..."

Haak became an artist when she realized she "had to". She's never been able to stop doing art. "Except for family, nothing else has ever mattered to me," she says.

When asked what she loves about art, Haak says that she loves painting as meditation. She loves the smell of the paint, and she loves telling a story with her hands. She works best when she has a deadline, and sometimes paints every day for weeks at a time.

Says Haak, "I try to live a slow life. I imagine the future with hope. My paintings are reflection and celebration. I think of them as stories I tell. I think of them as stories that were told to me."

She feels her work expresses a range of emotions and state-of-being: peace, whimsy, sadness, anger, joy, acceptance.

Predominantly a self-taught artist, Haak studied art at Portland State University for just over a year. Her works have been exhibited in numerous group and solo exhibitions in the Pacific Northwest, and appear in the collections of the U.S. Coast Guard and McCormick & Schmick Restaurants.

Marilyn Hageman

A Marilyn Hageman landscape conjures up the moment of a soft breeze on a summer day. She captures the sensation of movement, even in the seemingly still subjects of flowers and trees. At the age of three Marilyn began to paint horses, intrigued by their speed and motion. Now a painter of natural landscapes and botanicals, Marilyn still strives to capture the lyrical energy of the horses she drew in childhood. "I find it hard to categorize my work," Marilyn admits. Her brush strokes vary from loose and playful to concise. Reminiscent of her major artistic influences, Claude Monet and Mary Cassatt, Marilyn's florals are as representational as they are impressionistic.

In the 1980s Marilyn attended Colorado State University where she received both a bachelor's and master's degree in painting. Here she studied under Jim Dormer, a successful painter and printmaker, who remains her mentor today. "Jim's uncompromising and demanding teaching style brought out my confidence and ability as an artist. He still provides me with guidance and support."

Marilyn is represented by the Denver Art Company and her work is found in galleries and private collections in the United States. She resides in Golden, Colorado, with her husband Craig and two young children, Grant and Blake.

Rachael Hale

Rachael Hale is the youngest person in New Zealand to have received a Fellowship with the New Zealand Institute of Professional Photographers. However her most valuable qualification is her passion for the animals she works with; a characteristic which shines through in all of her pictures.

Her style is distinctive and inimitable; her creativity adored and her reputation as the world's foremost animal portrait photographer assured.

It would seem that Henry, Hale's pet dog is the embodiment of patience and calm as one of the world's most photographed pets! The Newfoundland debuted in Hale's 1999 calendar with Pipi the parrot, and the same image won that years gold at the New Zealand Institute of Professional Photography. "I love photographing Henry" Hale says. "Each time you can tell by his eyes he's thinking ‘oh no, not again'."

She is prone to saying "Enjoy my images, for I enjoyed making them!"

Hampton Hall

Hampton Hall was born in Iowa, but spent most of his life in the Southern California area where he now resides. As a young child, Hampton knew he was going to become an artist. He has spent 35 years developing his natural talent, working out of the same studio from the start of his career.

The artist's work has evolved from a highly contemporary style to a more traditional approach with a contemporary touch. He uses "ghost images" in subtle renderings to "veil" his thought process from the viewer. Being an intuitive painter, Mr. Hall loves to explore as he paints and encourages the viewer to do so as well. Beginning with rough thumbnail sketches, Mr. Hall enjoys watching his paintings evolve as he makes each aesthetic decision.

A world-renowned artist, Mr. Hall has been commissioned to paint some unusual projects including the grand staircase of the residential home of the Sultan of Brunei in London. He has also painted in the personal residences of many Saudi Arabian princes and other royals.

Mr. Hall is also well represented in private and corporate collections. Some of these include The Beverly Hills Hotel, Hotel Biltmore Santa Barbara, The Ritz Charlton Chicago, The Four Seasons Wailea, Hawaii, E.F. Hutton Corporation, Prudential Insurance Company, and the Sultan of Brunei residential homes in California and London.

Mr. Hall's work has been exhibited in major galleries and museums throughout the United States including Annex Gallery (San Diego, CA), Art and Architecture Tour (selected by L. A. County Museum of Art), Downey Museum (Downey, CA), Stedelijk Museum (Haarlem, Holland), Daytona Beach Museum of Arts (Dayton, FL) and Newport harbor Art Museum (Newport, CA).

J. Hall

J. Hall was born in Springfield, Illinois in 1963. Described by those who know him as a rare combination of left-brain-right-brain, Jay B. hall could just as easily have pursued his major at Beloit College and ended up a geologist. Instead, what he calls his wanton Midwestern curiosity about the rest of the country led him to look up from the ground and explore his passions for architecture, politics, biology, music, archaeology, photography and metal.

His ability to synthesize the sciences with the arts and incorporate his diverse passions into visual art has led to a wealth of self-discovery and a fascinating progression of work, including monoprints, mixed-media painting, constructions and whimsical kinetic sculptures. He derives his creative energy from experience, whether building houses in the White Mountains of New Hampshire or serving an apprenticeship to the master printer Robert Devoe, there is always something to be used in creation.

My basic creative ideal begins with a simple starting point, metaphorically, a structure, figure or phrase, Jay explains, then slowly, with the addition of color, texture and reflectance, I build a cluttered, but tight composition. The end result is merely a suggestion of three dimensions' hard edges...for me the creative process, as with all learning, is a series of incomplete exercises. I learn more by failure than by success.

Richard Hall

Richard Hall is the kind of artist who refuses to fit into a category. He works not only in the media of serigraphy, monoprinting, and etching, but he creates large wall reliefs and freestanding steel sculptures as well, and he paints in acrylics and in other media on large canvases. Some of his works display remarkable depth and antiquity, others possess a style both romantic and timeless, and still others are minimalist and ethereal. The single quality common to all of his works is that they are universally and enthusiastically sought.

Among Richard Hall's enthusiasts are many corporate and public collectors, including the Trump Taj Mahal and Trump Plaza (New York), Christies Contemporary Art (New York), Princess Cruise Ship Lines (Milano), Wardeh Gimtex (Saudi Arabia), Caesar's Lake Tahoe (Nevada), Hyatt Wiakalea (Hawaii), Hughes Aircraft Corporation Headquarters (San Diego), Sunland Development (San Diego), Arizona Commission for the Arts (Phoenix), Hyatt Regency (Denver), and the Brayton International Collection (High Point, South Carolina). While his exhibitions are too numerous to list fully, among the largest are Los Angeles Artexpo, New York Artexpo, Tokyo International Art Show, Miami International Art Exposition, Art Asia Hong Kong, Art Detour (Phoenix), and Designers' Showcase House.

Hall was born in 1952 in Bradford, Yorkshire, the industrial heart of northern England. He attended both the Sheffield College of Art and the Kingston-upon-Hull College of Art, receiving his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting in 1976. After earning his Master of Fine Arts from Sussex University, he left England for warmer climates, ending up in the Southwest United States where he pursued the arts of painting and sculpture. In addition to creating his own artwork, he has worked as an Art Director for the last few years, thereby affecting the careers of young artists under his tutelage and reaping the fulfilling rewards of close interaction with these artists. This has proven to be a catalyst for his own artwork, propelling it in new and wholly unexpected directions.

As a boy growing up in England, Hall spent many hours watching his grandfather create fine furniture. The man was a master craftsman, employing traditional tools and working methods handed down through generations. He passed on to me to joy of creating something unique. I carry on these traditions in my own work. Today as an adult, he views himself as actually building a painting, in perfect analogy to his grandfather building furniture. As I 'build' a painting or sculpture, it is often the actual working methods that I am most drawn to. As I learned to finish fine furniture with layer upon layer of polish and wax, so I now find myself working with layer upon layer of texture and color. This method of working triggers memories and feelings that I channel into my art, and it enables me to give form to my ideas.

Pamela Hanson

Born in London and schooled in Switzerland, Pamela Hanson attended university in America. It was in New York that she met the photographer Arthur Elgort, described by Hanson as her mentor.

Elgort persuaded Hanson to go to Paris where she finally got her first major photographic commissions, working for magazines including Per Lui, Marie Claire and Elle.

Her stylish photography has also been used as part of an advertising campaign for the fashion designer Joseph.

Paul Hargittai

Paul Hargittai is an internationally acknowledged textile designer and painter currently living in Paris. Born in Budapest, Hungary in 1923, he attended the Academy of Fine Arts. He became a graphic artist and textile designer, and also designed jewelry. He began working in Rome in 1948, where he organized an exhibition in the Circolo Artistico Internationale. Between 1948 and 1951 his work was on display permanently in Rome where he won several awards.

Anxious to discover the art world of New York City, he moved in 1951 and became involved in various fields, one of which was illustrating for T.S. Elliot's' books of poetry. Finally, settling on the lucrative trade of textile design, he opened the first independent textile design studio in New York in 1955. He was also teaching design at Columbia University. Hargittai liked New York very much, yet moved to Paris in 1993. His studio is in the heart of Paris where he gains much inspiration for his beautiful creations. He lives happily with his wife of many years.

Keith Haring

Initially viewed simply as a graffiti artist who used vacant advertising boards in the New York subway as his canvas in the early 1980s, Keith Haring (1959-1990) provoked debate on the street and within the exclusive art establishment with his radiant comic figures and increasingly political messages.

Arriving in New York in 1978 to study at the School of Visual Arts, Haring was inspired by the East Village club scene identified with punk and rap music, break dancing and graffiti as a public statement of personal expression. Working with remarkable speed and clarity, Haring's images convey a conspicuous energy in the brevity of his line, bold color relationships conveying his early interest in graphic design, and simplified figurative forms.

As he became prominent with the gallery and museum world, Haring provoked additional debate by purposely commercializing his own work, reproducing his signature figures on an array of products and opening his own retail stores including Wham Bam in Miami and the Pop Shop in New York. Success afforded him the opportunity to control his own market and remain independent, crucial to his vision of his work.

From 1985 until his death in 1990 from complications due to AIDS, Haring concentrated much of his extraordinary energy on visual political messages, particularly focusing on generating action and conveying the dangers and effects of AIDS.

Donna Harkins

When Donna describes her studio space, it is "comfortably cluttered with too many frames, canvases, books, supplies and props," which are words that could easily describe any space that has been occupied by the same person for over 25 years. That space for Donna is located in The Button Factory in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, a renovated 1895 factory which is now the home of several artists' studios. The floor to ceiling windows, the north light, her cat Hannah and being surrounded by other artists inspires her to paint, paint and paint some more. And paint she does - full time.

Donna received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of New Hampshire and a Master of Fine Art in painting from Ohio University. During her student days and for years afterwards, Donna was part of the art festival circuit painting portraits, sometimes up to 50 per day. She now devotes her time and effort to herself, full- time in her studio with occasional art shows thrown in for diversion. She can have as many as 20 canvases in process at the same time.

Donna paints with oils on wood and canvas using very traditional oil painting techniques. When she admires the work of a certain great artist, she will experiment with his or her style and technique and eventually incorporate it into her own style. This experimentation and devotion to a specific theme or style is what fuels her. "I'm interested in painting, that's all," says Donna.

Donna has won numerous awards for her artwork, most recently the Visual Artist of the Year for the 11th Annual Spotlight Awards by Seacoast Magazine.

Jim Harrington

Jim Harrington was born in 1944 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He and his family moved to San Diego in 1952. His artistic endeavors evolved as an architecture major at San Diego State and the University of California, Berkeley.

An early influence on Harrington was his father, a union labor leader. Observing the relationships between social conflict and artistic expression, and between design and functional materials, Harrington's art evolved with a growing sense of its role both culturally and aesthetically. His golf course renderings are but one facet of the breadth and diversity of his work.

Harrington's own artistic philosophy first awakened while studying the Dutch and Flemish masters' depictions of workers and common people. He felt that the responsibility of his profession is to stimulate social and artistic awareness and promote positive evolution. Harrington promoted the classical idea of artist as participant.

Harrington studied and worked with various cultures across the country, including southwest Native American, Alaskan Tlingit, farmers of the Midwest and rural Vermont, and city dwellers in Chicago and New York.

Settling in Illinois in 1985, Harrington worked with many corporate agencies, initiating programs to promote positive social change and community development, and programs to benefit the homeless. He had major shows of his paintings, textiles and sculptures at the Sindlin Gallery in New York City and Chicago's Phyllis Kind, Merrill Chase and AES Galleries. Other works are in the permanent collections of the Toronto Natural History Museum, the Virginia Museum of Fine Art, and the Taos Natural History Museum.

Maeve Harris

Influenced by natural and organic forms, Maeve Harris renders expressions of color and light. Created with a variety of inks and pigments, her paintings reveal a focus on the medium itself. She is interested in the integration of traditional subject matter with contemporary styles and techniques.

Born in New Jersey in 1976, Harris grew up on the east coast in Washington DC and outside of New York City. She became an avid equestrian and has a passion for horses and the art of dressage. She also fell in love with the creative process at an early age. Encouraged by the diversity of art New York had to offer, Maeve explored the tradition and historical importance of works at the Metropolitan Museum to installations and contemporary pieces in galleries. She feels fortunate to have been exposed to a broad spectrum of influences, and is especially affected by works from living artists.

Harris moved to Phoenix, Arizona in 1994 where she attended Arizona State University and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in photography. Her work in photographic processes carried into printmaking and continued into painting. She references photographs both found and of her own in her work and enjoys experimentation with other media to push the limits of paint.

Study abroad in Florence, Italy richly influenced Harris' life both personally and artistically. Travel and adventure are an important part of her life and she draws from her experiences an optimistic and wholehearted spirit. She enjoys love, laughter, and a good bottle of wine, and is a storyteller at heart. Currently she resides in Seattle, WA where she paints from her studio in Pioneer Square.

Simon Hart

Simon Hart studied Design at Staffordshire University before completing an MA in Printed Textiles at the Royal College of Art.

The subject matter for his work is derived from his interest in English and Mediterranean landscapes, particularly Cornish fishing villages and small towns in France and Spain. He focuses on the vibrant colors of fishing boats and painted houses which serve as a contrast with the natural tones of the surrounding landscapes.

Hart is now based in London and in addition to his flourishing career as an artist, he undertakes freelance commissions for textile designs in the furnishing and fashion industries as well as lecturing at art colleges throughout England.

Susan Hartenhoff

Susan Hartenhoff's primary source of inspiration is derived from the world of nature that surrounds her. Her love of the outdoors is evident in her color palette, a mix of warm neutrals with splashes of blues and greens. While she is constantly exploring new mediums, it is her affection for nature that is the driving force behind her work. The artist can often be found lying under a cotton tree on cool grass listening to the wind. I live my life trying to practice the serenity prayer; To accept what I have to, change what I need to, and have enough brains to know the difference.

Hartenhoff, a self described mid-Westerner, was born in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Her interest in art developed at an early age with influence from her father, a commercial artist. She spent her childhood pondering the vast landscape that surrounded her. She remembers learning about great artists as a young child. One of her most poignant memories is of a piece called The Horse Fair by Rosa Bonheur, that hung in the school's hallway. Her love of art is matched only by her passion for horses. It is this subject that first brought attention to her paintings and drawings. "I have had a horse since 1972 and have had my present horse, Dakota Kid, since he was a baby. My family and I enjoy showing him and jumping fences at the horse shows."

She began her formal art education at South Dakota in Brookings, where she obtained a Bachelors of Fine Art degree with an emphasis in printmaking. In her senior year she was honored with the Ritz-Caldwell-Young Art Scholarship. Her thirst for knowledge led her to the University of South Dakota in Vermillion where she worked towards her Master of Fine Art degree. Her talent was quickly noticed and she was awarded an apprenticeship at Echo Press, a fine art lithography shop. There she studied advanced lithographic techniques under the guidance of master printer David Keister. When asked about creative influences Hartenhoff cites printmaker Jerry Kruse. "He taught me the beauty of line and the importance of composition. But the most important thing he taught me was to create what I know and what I believe."

During this time she participated in several solo exhibitions where she won numerous awards. Her work can be found in both private and corporate collections including South Dakota Memorial Art Center, Nobles County Art Center in Worthington, Minnesota and Trump's Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Danna Harvey

During her study at the Glassell School of Art and University of Houston, Danna Harvey was a figurative painter in watercolor, collage, and oil mediums. Later, while working on a project for a Houston gallery, she inadvertently placed a piece of kitchen waxed paper over several landscape photographs. She was drawn to the way the wax film changed the feeling of the landscape, and realized this reaction was and pivotal in the development and direction of her work.

Harvey found that a variety of subjects, including landscapes, could often be more subtly effective as pretexts for human emotions than just the human figure itself. She is interested in finding appropriate compositions and palettes to stir particular feelings. She uses the calendar/grid format and more recently, the horizontal line, to evoke a psychologically reassuring calm.

Although her palette and forms are easily recognizable as views of nature, they are never actual geographical locations and are sometimes distilled to near abstraction. Using an encaustic technique, a completed painting is entombed in multiple layers of wax. The mixture can be opaque and creamy, or thin and translucent; like looking into ice.

Danna Harvey is engaged in a continuing process of self-examination, and her paintings are created out of a need for personal resolve. The paintings are quiet and hopefully they reflect the painter's pursuit of a quiet spirit.

Childe Hassam

Childe Hassam (1859-1935) was an American painter and printmaker, as well as a member of "The Ten," a group of American painters who exhibited together from 1889 to 1918. Hassam moved to Paris in 1886 to study at the Acadamie Julian. While in Paris, his paintings were shown at the Salon, the most well-known gallery of the time and conformed to its standards.

Hassam returned to the United States in 1889, settling in New York City, where everyday city life became his favorite theme and subject matter. During this period, Hassam dedicated himself to trying to capture "the moment," a painting philosophy he adopted from the Impressionists. His paintings depict urban motifs in varying weather conditions. He also painted New England landscapes. The influence of the Impressionists on Hassam is illustrated in the painting "New England Headlands," where Hassam utilizes bright, vivid, calm colors to capture the beauty of the village.

Julia Hawkins

I like paintings that you long to run your fingers over, says British artist Julia Hawkins. This personal preference is not only a powerful motivation in Julia's art; it has contributed greatly to its success.

Julia's life as an artist began in early childhood in Berkhamsted, England, where she recalls she was "always painting and making things." But it wasn't until her mid-twenties that she chose to study and make art her career. Upon graduating from Cambridge in three years, she achieved a first class honors degree and, most importantly, a mastery of an individual style and artistic expression.

Inspired by objects, textiles or magazine clippings which spark her imagination, Julia begins the creative process. "I love to create depth and texture with collage," says the artist. Equally fascinated by colors and how they work together, Julia combines bold shapes and vibrant colors in a variety of styles and media to achieve her creative goal of tactile temptation. She believes that the simplest of marks can produce depth and detail and also that the quality of a single mark or a splash of color can change an entire painting.

Julia points to the abstract works of Mark Rothko, Patrick Heron and Albert Irvin as being major artistic influences. She has more recently become interested in Japanese prints and brushwork and the more delicate line drawings of artists such as Shiele. Julia's images have been published as prints and greeting cards. She has completed many commissions as well.

Alan Hayes

Creating imagery that makes a clear and unique presence through simple expression is the accomplishment that Alan Hayes achieves his art. Each piece, subtle and alluring, conveys an emotional sensitivity through a planned language of signs and symbols that has been derived from a lifetime of adaptation and rigorous attention to the process of communication. Alan Thomas Hayes was born to a mother who was deaf, and to a family where the what and how of communication had real meaning. He suggests that coping with the hearing disabilities in his family was significant in honing his ability to "develop and integrate space, time and movement into visio-linguistic codices." Given this, it is not surprising that Hayes' first interests were in Egyptology - a field where symbolism was integral to communication.

This interest lasted well into high school where it was replaced with painting and printmaking. The talent he exhibited in this media was of such caliber that he won a scholarship to Northern Illinois University. Here he studied printmaking with a focus on etching under an inspirational professor, Dr. Driesbach, who recognized Hayes' talent and introduced him to two nationally acclaimed masters in the craft of viscosity printing, Stanley Wm. Hayter and Krishna Reddy. Hayes considers these three individuals to be indispensable in the developing of his artistic talents.

Hayes' years at the University constituted a period of intense growth for his art. In addition to being rigorously involved in his art, he wrote critiques and reviews for a national art publication. His art gained recognition beyond the university setting. From the academic front, he was awarded a Van Brighten Talented Student Scholarship, and from the critical community, he started showing on a regular basis in one of Chicago's leading galleries.

As a result of his dedication to his art, his natural and inevitable bent to his medium, and the guidance of these critical people in his life, Hayes gained admission to the Art Institute of Chicago. This was no routine achievement. He was selected for one of five available graduate positions out of approximately 3500 applicants.

Through graduate school, Hayes was given access to the Glore Print room Collection of the Chicago Museum. Here he was able to study a continuum of print work ranging from early Renaissance engravings through the contemporary work of the best of today's print artists. These studies brought sophistication and solidity to his work. His style evolved into a postmodern presentation incorporating color with semiotics (meaning as relates to symbols and signs). Even with this solid theoretical foundation, the end result is simple, understated and very effective.

To date, his artwork has been universally well received. Hayes has exhibited at the Name and the Artemesia Galleries in Chicago, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. and internationally in both South America and Europe. His prints and paintings are also represented in both corporate and private collections, including the established and respected Sears collection. Finally, Hayes has work in the very collection that was so important to the development of his style, the Glore Print Room. Beyond these credentials, since graduation from the Art Institute of Chicago, Hayes has received several grants and won numerous competitions.

Audrey Heard

In 1991, after a successful career in interior design and merchandising, she discovered that painting provided a meaningful outlet for self expression. She fully immersed herself in her new avocation, enrolling in college art classes and participating in numerous workshops throughout the United States. Audrey's kitchen became a studio, her living room a gallery and storeroom.

Now working from a studio, Audrey works mostly in oils on wood and canvas. Her large, contemporary paintings are highly decorative, the images recognizable but not representational. There is a richness to her color and a sculptural quality to her hand, giving her work a strong sense of depth.

Audrey likes the challenge of working on a new series of paintings. "Working on two to six or more paintings of the same general subject, size and theme at one time is exciting. Each painting is a stimulus to the others." She does not like to re-work paintings, preferring instead to take a new approach to the whole piece when it is not working.

A native of New York, Audrey now lives in Connecticut just three minutes from her studio and close by to her three great-grandkids. She has an incredible zest for life and an endless supply of energy and enthusiasm for her newfound passion of painting.

Brent Heighton

Brent Heighton's work is like an oasis for the senses - the soft hues of a spring bouquet, shimmering light on a pond, gentle pastoral scenes. And from the delicacy of a petal to the power of surging breakers, Heighton controls the mood by controlling the play of light and colors.

I don't attempt to make social commentaries, Heighton says. I work instead with natural elements. They're passive, serene and, for me, a rest from the way things are around us today.

His watercolors reflect both his environment, Canada's Pacific coast, and his artistic influences: American, Oriental and Soviet Impressionists. Perhaps, too, the effect of having grown up on two farms, surrounded by nature influences his subject matter.

He experiments with both abstract and representational forms, but the art is spontaneous. I take a piece of paper and pull something out of it. I don't necessarily know at the beginning where I'm going. I just have to follow what the medium tells me to do. What begins as an abstract design may turn out to be representational. And some pieces that start out representational may turn out more abstract. For me, that's what's exciting.

Heighton's work is sold in more than thirty countries throughout the world. Corporate collections in which he is honored include Imperial Oil, Texaco Oil, Ronalds Federated, Air Canada and Laing Properties.

Gottlieb Helnwein

Gottlieb Helnwein (1948-) is an activist, a dissident, a radical, and, above all, an artist. He uses his artwork to inspire, incite, and involve the public in political situations and issues. His subject matter has run the gamut from hyper-realistic paintings showing wounded and tormented children to "entertainment" art; his photographic portraits of political figures John F. Kennedy and Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko have appeared on the covers of Time magazine; his series of portraits of James Dean lifted the actor to almost deity status.

Helnwein is an accomplished painter, photographer, and stage and scene designer. He has called himself "the fastest watercolor painter in the world," and he has been called "the world's finest artist" by critics. His list of credits and accomplishments is extraordinary.

Stephen Henning

Stephen Henning was an award winning graphic designer and creative director for over 15 years before taking up the brush full time. Since the early 1990's he has developed a distinctive style of American impressionism and a loyal following of collectors who share his love of nature and the outdoors. His original paintings hang in private, corporate, and public collections across North America. Mentored since childhood by Ernest Oberholzer (co-founder of the Wilderness Society), Henning strives to paint the landscape in its untamed state. "I am essentially an introvert. I enjoy people, but part of me is always hungry for wide, open spaces and the beauty of nature. Painting is my means of escape."

Known for his big Midwestern landscapes and nature images, Henning also creates large still life paintings in an impressionistic style. Often beginning his landscapes outdoors, working "en plein aire" (in open air) as the impressionists were known to do, he will typically finish large canvases in the studio.

Henning serves as artist-in-residence in rural schools each year and has taught outdoor painting workshops for many arts organizations throughout the Midwest. A strong advocate for the arts, he is a director on the boards for the Evansville Arts Coalition, Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts and COMPAS.

A grandson of South Dakota "sodbusters," Henning was born in Minot, North Dakota, and raised in Anoka, Minnesota. He resides near Inspiration Peak, Minnesota's second highest promontory, and shares studio space with fellow artist and wife, Jacqueline.

Edna Hibel

For over 40 years, Edna Hibel has been referred to as America's best loved and most versatile artist, and best colorist. Since being commissioned by the Foundation of the U.S. National Archives in 1995 to commemorate 75 years of women receiving the universal right to vote, Hibel is now also acclaimed as the "Heart and Conscience of America."

Edna Hibel was educated at the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts, from 1935-39, and was a special graduate student, 1942, and was honored with the Sturtevant Traveling Fellowship to Mexico. The work of Edna Hibel has been exhibited in prestigious museums and galleries in more than 20 countries on four continents including national museums in Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Russia and the U.S.A., and under the royal patronage of Count and Countess Bernadotte of Germany, Count Thor Bonde of Sweden, Prince and the late Princess Rainier of Monaco and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of England.

Hibel received medals of honor from His Eminence Pope John Paul II and the late Belgiam King Baudouin, and has received three honorary Doctorate degrees including her most recent from Eureka College, the alma mater of President Ronald Regan. According to Will Ray, Palm Beach County Cultural Council, Miss Hibel is Palm Beach's most famous artist. ....In addition to her numerous artistic awards, Edna Hibel has received many humanitarian honors for her more than one half century in raising donations with her work for children's and medical charities.

Juaquin Hidalgo

Juaquin Hidalgo Pages was born March 28, 1928 in Cantallops (Gerona), Spain. He was the first child of Jacinto, who served in the Civil Guard, and Carmen, who worked with her parents on the land. From 1929 to 1935, Juaquin followed his parents as they moved about in the service of the Civil Guard to different Catalonian towns, including Manlleu, Calella, and Vallirana.

In January 1936, Hidalgo's parents took him to live with his paternal grandparents in Mamblas (Avila) during the years of the Spanish Civil War. These were difficult years for his grandparents because they worked on the land. Hidalgo worked with his grandfather and became a shepherd. During these years, the Falangists came to the town where they abducted various neighbors because of their Communist ideas. They would take them to a nearby forest and line them up to be shot without a chance of explanation or self-defense. These are images that lived on in and weighed heavily on the young boy's mind.

After the Civil War ended, Hidalgo's family was reunited in Barcelona. These were difficult years, as his father was now without work. The young Hidalgo was sent to live with his mother and brother back in Cantllops. His grandfather would sometimes take him out to the woods to hunt birds. These excursions imprinted on his mind the dramatic scenes of a trapped bird, its wings fluttering in the brilliant first light of dawn. Years later, the artist created his "Bird Series" from these remembered images.

In 1944, Hidalgo returned to Barcelona to study in various private schools and prepare to take the Baccalaureats. He was taken ill with pleurisy in 1946 and returned to Cantallops to recover. It was during this period that he began to draw and paint. Once recovered, he returned to Barcelona where he began working in a bank, studying at night in various academies of drawing and painting.

Hidalgo began his National Service duty in 1949, where he met the painters Guanse, Marques and Emilia Xargay. Because the National Service duty afforded him ample free time, he dedicated himself to painting in his studio. When his term of duty with the National Service ended, he quit his bank job and dedicated himself to painting, alternating with work in design with his brother and a friend.

In 1952 Hidalgo enrolled in the La Lonja School of Art in Barcelona, where he met art critic Don Angel Marsa. Marsa was impressed by Hidalgo's work and sponsored his first exhibition in the El Jardin Gallery under the title "Cycles of New Art". Hidalgo's art was also shown in the Serque Mayllo Llot de Barcelona, along with exhibits in the collections of the Layetana Gallery. In 1953 his work was included in the First Biennial of Hispanic-American Art. In 1960 he exhibited along with the painters who form the group "Salon of Modern Art", located on Celler Petrixol in Barcelona. Through 1962 to 1969 Hidalgo's work is exhibited in various shows, including the Galeria Lleonard and Galeria Taller de Picasso in Barcelona and others in Catalonia.

In 1970 the artist participated in the "Rapida Pintura" Competition in Tossa de Mar, for which he wins the first prize. There he meets Don Emilio Pena, a Madrid Gallery owner who buys thirty of his paintings. This results in increased recognition of Hidalgo's work in Madrid's art circles. He began spending summers in Tossa de Mar, where he worked and lived for three months out of the year.

Hidalgo traveled in 1971 with painter Joan Cruspinera to Paris, Holland and Germany where he saw the great Expressionist painters such as Ensor and Nolde for the first time. After this trip, his work began to take on a more Expressionist style. In 1972 Hidalgo is joined again by Cruspinera on a visit to the museum of galleries of London, where he became greatly influenced by the work of Francis Bacon. The following year he travels to New York, where he sees Picasso's "Guernica".

During 1976-1978, Hidalgo began work on his "Bird Series", which he exhibited at the Galeria Lleonard in Barcelona and then in Madrid. His work was written about by many prominent critics and figures in the Spanish art world. In 1979 he returned to painting landscapes and still lifes, which were exhibited throughout Spain. In 1985 he met his wife-to-be, and began work on his new series "Materia". In 1988-89 he completed three "Anthology" expositions in Spain, and in 1990 exhibited in Galeria Beumers, Aachen, Germany; and the art fair of Dusseldorf. In 1991 he began his new series "Contactos", and in 1992 participated in EUROP-ART of Ginebra. He also had a one-man exhibition in Avignon, France at Galeria Ducastel.

In both 1993 and 1994 Hidalgo won the Honor Medal B.M.W. In 1996 he had exhibitions in Gerona, Sitges, and Paris.

Jason Higby

Jason Higby finds art to be a very satisfying endeavor. An individualist with a strong work ethic, Higby believes that the acts of creating and viewing art are deeply personal experiences. His earliest art influence was his appreciation of the beauty and colors of nature, and this passion is reflected in the organic power of his paintings.

Higby was born in Germany, and raised in Southern California and Northwestern Washington. He currently works as a Production Manager for an art company. He holds a degree from the Phoenix Institute of Technology.

Lisa Hilliker

Lisa Hilliker has spent most of her life in rural northern Vermont, just a stone's throw from the Canadian border. Surrounded by natural beauty and abundant wildlife, it is not surprising that both have become sources of inspiration for her. "I love animals and nature. Any piece of wood or stone sets me off. I start feeling and seeing what could happen."

Hilliker has been creating art since she was a small child. Early teachers included an artistic mother and grandmother, and an extraordinarily talented eighth grade art teacher. From there she has learned from other artists and let her powers of observation guide her. "Art is in the eye of the beholder," she says.

Fellow Vermonter and Wild Apple artist Warren Kimble, who is considered to be "America's Best Known Living Folk Artist", has been a great source of inspiration for Lisa. "Any guy who paints on barn boards is terrific in my book," she says.

Lisa shares Warren's affinity for barn board. After selecting the right piece for the project, she sands it and gives it a base coat of paint. Working primarily in acrylics, she then paints, and after completing her project, finishes the piece with an antiquing process and a final protective coat of varnish.

Lisa works from a studio in her home, often with her cat, a favorite muse, at her side.

Jennifer Hollack

If she had her way, Jennifer Hollack would live in a little house made from stones on the sun drenched Greek island of Paros. She would spend her days barefoot down by the sea, painting people and boats, and at night, would eat fish and dance with the old men and women of the village. This love affair with far away places took root while studying architecture and fine art at the Aegean Center for the Arts on Paros. She was born in Dallas on December 7, 1967, and received her BA in Architecture from the University of Arizona in 1991.

Beyond all else, her mother's boundless creativity had the most effect on her life. Every holiday our house was covered with handmade items showing her spirit. Birthday parties always had themes and decorations. We would enter parades with floats built around our bicycles. You name it - mom could build it, design it, and basically create it. I have never known the limits of what can be accomplished.

Her love of exotic cultures and examination of the history of a people have enriched her work and ideas with an expressive fascination for color, texture, pattern and form. All my life, I've been taught to do my best, Jennifer explains. When I was in Venice, I saw the most beautiful piece of glass art. I took all my spending money and invested it on that vase - it was my big splurge. Today, when I paint a piece of art, I think to myself, this is someone's big splurge. With that in mind, I try to create a piece that is beyond my expectations - I want it to be the best piece that I can paint.

Kiff Holland

Light reveals and defines, color creates mood, and shadows harmonize and connect my paintings. This perception has generated many radiant works. Kiff Holland's paintings reveal his experience of light, its ability to reveal and conceal, to define and to cloud, to excite and to soothe. Light and color make mountains, water, trees, people, pots and flowers, faces, and glass eminently paintable.

Kiff Holland was born in South Africa where he received his formal art training. In 1975 he immigrated to Canada. In addition to his work as an artist, Kiff Holland teaches in the Design & Illustration Department at the Capilano College.

He is a past president of the Federation of Canadian Artists and was elected a Signature Member of the American Watercolor Society in 1992. His work has won many awards in Canada and the United States. Galleries in Vancouver, Saltspring Island, Calgary, Edmonton and Toronto show his work.

Holland lives with his wife Janet on the edge of the forest in North Vancouver.

Kate Holmes

Born in 1964, Holmes is a bit of a paradox - a mix of East Coast tradition and West Coast contrariness. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, she attended Smith College and graduated from Brown University, majoring in Fine Art. She then studied at University College London's Slade School of Fine Art, living several years in London. Most recently, she and her family moved from the Venice area of Los Angeles (where she lived for more than ten years) to San Miguel de Allende, an artist colony in the mountains of central Mexico. She opened Estudio Kate Holmes there in January 2002. She opened a gallery in May 2002 in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts where she and her family now reside. It is this timeless environment, where Holmes spent long summer days at her grandmother's house, which provides the fundamental source of Holmes' art.

Her style combines natural settings, birds, animals, and of course, sailboats. Her objective is to focus on deceptively simple forms that personify her love of nature - illuminating their classic beauty in an evocative, poetic and peaceful yet compelling composition and palette. Her paintings strive to present in tangible form the beauty and imaginativeness of that which is "childlike".

In many ways, her art reflects her reality. Along with being an artist, this wife and full-time mother works her painting time in and around the daily challenges that accompany her children: two boys, age 8 and 3, and a 2-year-old girl. Each day is a self-described "study in the magical, mystical experience of ‘mommying'", an exercise in wonder, raw energy and yes, occasional mayhem.

Holmes takes great care fashioning her reproductions. She employs a state-of-the-art system that creates limited editions using special pigmented inks. The results are spectacular: vibrant reproductions, individually produced by hand on museum quality paper.

Her work is sold through select galleries.

William Hook

The American Landscape is William Hook's inspiration. Large skies, low horizons, distant mountains, and textured foregrounds are expressed in his paintings with broad brushstrokes vivid color. His work is distinctive and stands out from contemporary landscape painters.

Hook's background in art began at an early age. It was through the influence of his father and grandmother, a professional photographer and architect respectively, that art became second nature. Other family members include art historian Bainbridge Bunting, prominent Italian painters Gino and Bertha Venanzi, as well as Pulitzer Prize winning author Willa Cather. There was never a lack of opinions and interest when it came to art in the Hook household.

After attending classes at the Kansas City Art Institute, William Hook left Kansas City continue his study at the University of New Mexico where he received his Bachelors of Fine Arts Degree in 1970. He went on to complete his formal education at the Universita Per Straniere in Perugia, Italy, and at the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles.

Featured as a one of the notable influences on the western art scene in the book Leading the West by Donald Hagery, magazines such as Southwest Art, Art of the West, U.S. Art, American Artist, and Focus Santa Fe have proclaimed Hook's importance as a leading American landscape painter. His work is included in many distinctive private and corporate collections world wide as well as in the permanent collection of the Denver Art Museum, the Tucson Art Museum, the University of New Mexico, the FORBES Museum in New York City, and the Genesee Museum in New York.

Elizabeth Horning

If you love the splendor of flowers and the glories of the pageant of life, you will cherish the paintings of Elizabeth Horning, for she possess a rare ability to communicate the joy she receives from flowers - and from all other living things - flawlessly, with paint on canvas and paper. Her love of flowering plants has caused her home and most of her paintings to overflow with them; even the trees in her landscapes seem to bloom. But like all true artists, she does not merely copy the beauty of nature, she magnifies it.

Horning was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and graduated with a BFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1965. As an undergraduate, she received a Royal Bailey Farnum Scholarship and grants from both the Ford and Carnegie Foundations. Since graduation she has never ceased to study art, and over the years she has attained superb technical proficiency in her craft.

Horning began her career in art as a teacher, setting up and implementing art programs in the elementary schools of Franklin, New Hampshire, until 1973 when she moved to the part of the American Southwest where she lives and paints to this day. She has been able to use her artistic talent in numerous interconnected ways subsequent to her move: as an illustrator, as a commercial artist, as an art director of a commercial enterprise, as a designer, and of course as a creator of fine art. In addition, she has been active in artists' leagues during her entire career, and her works can be found in galleries from Vancouver to San Diego and from Honolulu to New York, as well as in many corporate and private collections.

In speaking about her work, Horning says, Although I have worked in a wide variety of media throughout my career, I keep coming back to oils. I think oil on canvas allows for more spontaneity than practically any other medium. It is my favorite medium for composing pictures and working out new ideas which, once resolved, I will reinterpret on paper. Much like watercolor, oil paint on paper tends to have a more transparent quality; it, like watercolor, can easily be destroyed by overworking. So, foremost in my mind when I am working on paper is the preservation of the light which is vital to the life of the painting and which must come from the paper itself.

A person who looks at the art of Elizabeth Horning might be tempted to wonder if she is truly content with filling just her own world with blossoms and life, or if she might year to give the viewers even more joy, by filling their world with these things too. But whether or not she has such a yearning, she does in face lavish upon us an abundant efflorescence of beauty.

Bernie Horton

Contemporary American realist Bernie Horton delights sports enthusiasts the world over with his nostalgic renderings of vintage sports equipment.

Born in rural North Carolina, Horton attended Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, Florida. After enjoying an extraordinarily successful twenty-six year career in advertising and design, the artist turned his attention to fine art. Horton retired from advertising in 1989 and moved to Pawley's Island, South Carolina where he opened an art gallery.

While the artist enjoys working in a variety of styles and mediums, he is best known for his realistic paintings of antique sports memorabilia and household objects. Before he begins painting, Horton fastidiously researches his subjects to insure their accurate and authentic depiction. The artist attributes his affinity for realism to his career in advertising which required meticulous attention to detail. Horton's work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions throughout the United States.

Albena Hristova

When asked why she became an artist, Albena Hristova says, "The question of why has never existed in my life in respect to art. It was my destiny and I never thought I could be something else but an artist. I think of myself as an artist by birth."

Albena spent her formative years in the studio of her mother, the leading restorer of the Bulgarian National Gallery in Sophia. She also accompanied her to projects in nearby churches and monasteries. Recognizing art as her passion and her future, she attended four years of fine art high school followed by six years at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia. She graduated with a Master Degree in mural painting. After completing two murals, she started working in oil and mixed techniques. Her pride as an artist is clearly seen as she experiments and develops new and different techniques. "I select the technique depending on the subject matter and the overall impression that I am targeting," explains Albena.

Over the past ten years she has had five solo exhibitions and numerous group shows. Her work can be seen in the permanent collection at the National Art Gallery in Sofia, and in various private collections worldwide.

Wendy Hunter-Higgins

Black and white photographer Wendy Hunter-Higgins describes her technique as "simply looking." "I can't help myself—when I'm lucky, it's there." And the "there" happens to be the great outdoors, especially during the summer months she spends in Vermont riding horses with friends. Home for the remainder of the year is in Massachusetts with her husband and daughter.

Wendy traditionally used her trusty Nikon equipment to capture images until recently when she experimented with a digital camera. With the print quality of digital images improved to her liking, she felt it was time to switch. She prints her own photographs on archival materials, preferring under-saturated images, which bear some resemblance to hand painted photos of yesteryear. Her influences are the great photographers Minor White, Ansel Adams, Richard Avedon and Jerry Uelsmann.

Wendy operates a graphic arts firm catering to horse businesses. She produces advertisements, websites and is involved with the layout and design of magazines and books. Wendy's hobbies include lots of travel, especially to Eastern Europe, summers horseback riding in Vermont and working in her garden. She exhibits her work in Vermont.

Marieluise Hutchinson

The composition and subject matter of Marieluise Hutchinson's paintings are a direct result of her upbringing. Her formative years were enjoyed in a bucolic 1820's homestead on the South Shore of Boston. Growing up in the 1950's when the United States was strong and at peace, patriotism played a significant role in her aesthetic expression. This accounts for the frequent appearance of an American flag in her paintings.

Marieluise began to paint in her late twenties and is entirely self-taught. Her work has a tone of thoughtfulness, a tangible silence. An image may evoke the feeling of a crisp autumn evening, the pensive passage from fall breezes to the chill snap of winter, or the solitude that follows a New England snowfall. Her vision is precise, without action, leaving much to the viewer's imagination. In essence, Marieluise's paintings stir memories and embody Yankee values of character, integrity and promise.

David Hwang

David Hwang was born in Pyong-Yang, Korea, the capital of North Korea. His birth name, Hyang, Myung Duk means bright (Myung) giant (Duk). As a young man, his mother told him that his grandfather wanted him to live with those two meanings in his heart.

Mr. Hwang's family moved to Seoul, Korea in 1951, the year the Korean Civil War began. He continued to live there until 1981 when he moved to the United States. David Hwang's father was a businessman and his mother was an Asian homemaker who loved to embroider. He felt it was his mother's influence that encouraged him to become an artist.

As a student in middle school, David Hwang loved to draw. He began taking art classes and won many national competitions while he was in middle and high school. Once he completed grade school, he continued his secondary education at the University studying oil painting, watercolors, graphic design, sculpture and oriental painting. He majored in painting and has an affinity for landscape painting as he has a great love for mountains.

After graduating from college, David Hwang entered the Army. Once he completed his service he opened a sporting goods store and would paint in his spare time, not as an occupation, but to feed his soul. Unfortunately, at that time in Korea, due to the economy, it was impossible for him to support himself as an artist.

In 1981, Mr. Hwang moved to Southern California. He was hired as a studio artist and worked hard for six years immersing himself in the American style of painting. Since 1987, he has produced and sold his paintings, working closely with designers, consultants on many prestigious projects.

Pam Ingalls-Cox

Pam Ingalls-Cox received her BA in Art in 1979 from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. From 1977-78 she attended the Accademia Delle Belle Arti in Florence, Italy. In 1991 she studied drawing with Frederick Frank in Warwick, New York, and has participated in painting workshops with Ramon Kelley, William Reese, Del Gish, Richard Schmid and Burt Silverman. From 1992-95 she studied Russian Impressionist Painting with Ron Lukas.

In 1982, Ingalls-Cox participated in the Bethlehem Peace Pilgrimage, walking7000 miles through 11 countries for Peace. She also produced a portrait series of the homeless in Seattle for the Catholic Community Services. She worked as a Graphic Artist from 1984 through 1992, and has been an art instructor at various facilities since 1993.

Ingalls-Cox has had number group and solo exhibitions, and is a member of numerous creative organizations, including Oil Painters of America, Women Painters of Washington, and The American Artists Professional League.

Santiago Izquierdo

Santiago Izquierdo was born in Burgos, Spain, on April 20, 1948. He lived his childhood and adolescence in Spain's central region, a very extensive area known as Castille.

Castille is a place where the sun shines very brightly and the land is red and rich; where the color yellow takes over the countryside in the summertime and where trees reveal their various shades of color in autumn. This range of color that characterizes Castille's different seasons marked Izquierdo forever.

Light is one of the key elements in Izquierdo's painting; a natural, strong light that contributes feeling and emotion to the observation of Castillian landscapes. Warm colors are mixed for a clear purpose: to add light to such landscapes, a purpose that is beautifully accomplished. Color is another of Izquierdo's key elements. His broad chromatic palette shows lively and warm colors which are used with great artistic strength.

The artist starts from a Castillian naturalist landscape and moves on to create a schematic composition, which in some of Izquierdo's paintings becomes abstract landscape representations. Brush strokes are free and the composition falls apart into color-dominated levels, leading to an abstract landscape.

Sissi Janku

"Painting to me is like a springtime stroll through a garden. My palette expresses the beauty, elegance and fragrance of the flowers."

Sissi Janku was born in Munich, Germany. She studied graphic arts at the Academy of Arts in Munich and worked as a graphic designer for a German magazine.

In 1984 she fulfilled a childhood dream to visit the Hawaiian Islands. The tropical beauty inspired her artistic passions and she traded places to make Hawaii her home as an artist.

Watercolors allowed Sissi to capture the vibrant colors and gentle moods of her surroundings. She developed a unique watercolor technique combining strong colors, light and engaging patterns.

Sissi has earned the appreciation of art lovers everywhere. Her paintings have been commissioned by the Mauna Lani Hotel in Hawaii, the Dai-ichi Hotel in Tokyo, the Plantation Inn in Maui, the Player's Island in Nevada and by numerous other collectors around the world.

"As an artist, you have complete power over your creations. You compose a scene with as much or as little drama as you like. You choose your media like musical instruments and make it happen. You tell the painting what it should be and in return it reveals everything about you."

Susan Jeschke

A self-taught artist, Susan Jeschke has extensive experience as an industrial designer, fine artist, illustrator, and author of children's books.

Her murals can be found in many notable places including: Hershey World, Pennsylvania, Madison Square Gardens, New York City, Trump's Taj Mahal, Atlantic City, Pyramids, Las Vegas, and Bergdorf Goodman, New York City, to name a few.

She has researched, painted, designed and produced renderings for Marshall Fields and Sak Fifth Avenue department store's famous holiday windows. Ms. Jeschke has also painted a scrim for Harlem Boys Choir, and completed decorative works in many exclusive private residences. Her work can also be found in malls, theaters and large companies throughout the world.

As an author and illustrator, one of Ms. Jeschke ‘s children's books, Perfect the Pig, is shown every summer on PBS as a Reading Rainbow selection.

Jasper Johns

Born in South Carolina during the Depression, Jasper Johns' interest in art led him to New York in the early 1950s where he worked as a commercial artist.

Inspired by a dream, Johns painted his first painting of the American flag in 1954. This work became the first of a series that elevated commonplace objects to the status of art. In selecting a subject, Johns sought objects that "are seen and not looked at, not examined." Using the ancient technique of encaustic, blending pigment with a binder of hot wax, the artist is able to achieve the highly textural surfaces that characterize his work.

His friendship with fellow artist Robert Rauschenberg proved influential, particularly during the early stages of Johns career. With Rauschenberg, Johns is frequently identified with Pop Art and Minimalism. He has outlived both of those movements and his current work defies categorization and is often self-referential in nature. In 1996 The Museum of Modern Art, New York, premiered a comprehensive retrospective of the artists work in both painting and print.

Julieann Johnson

As a self-taught artist, Juliann Johnson paints in watercolors, acrylics, and oils. By focusing on landscapes and botanicals as central motifs, she connects with a world of nature. She is an enthusiastic hiker and enjoys searching for beautiful landscapes to paint. Her travels have taken her all over California, the Hawaiian Islands, as well as Europe.

Studies in botany and bird watching have led Johnson into an appreciation of natural history and helped refine her visual vocabulary in floral botanical and bird illustration. Incorporating various drawing and painting skills as well as other mediums have segued into collage works, and her keen sense of design and balance translate well into the process. By cropping images, attention is given to details, and each element takes on abstract qualities. She also enjoys the challenge of plein-air painting and often hikes long distances to capture a desired location.

Landscape artist influences include Russell Chatham, William Wendt, Percy Gray, and Giuseppe Cadenasso. She is also inspired by the detailed botanicals and bird paintings of Pierre-Joseph Redoute, Mark Gatesby, John Livingston, and James Audubon, as well as the Japanese prints by Hiroshige.

Robert A. Johnson

Robert A. Johnson was born in Hopewell, Virginia in 1942. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Duke University in 1964, and his J.D. from Duke University Law School in 1967. He has instructed for the Art Students League of New York; the Scottsdale Artists School; Drawing and Anatomy Workshop; and private painting workshops.

His earliest art influence was his older brother Ben, who was a fine painter, connoisseur and conservator of art. Ben was Director of Conservation at the Los Angeles Museum of Art. Johnson's mother is also a painter. Johnson drew and painted from his earliest days, reveling in "the magic of creating illusions and beauty with a brush.

He paints every day first thing in the morning. His painting days are usually 8-9 hours, and he generally paints only in natural North light when indoors. He hopes to create an excitement in the viewer similar to the excitement he experienced in creating the work.

Johnson has been featured in several magazine articles and appears in a book entitled The Best of Flower Painting (North Light Books, 1999).

His work has appeared in numerous one-man shows at the Turner Gallery in Middleburg, VA; the Gilpin Gallery in Washington, D.C.; The Meyer Gallery in Santa Fe, NM; and the Atlantic Gallery in Washington, D.C.

Group shows include the Allied Artists of New York; Oil Painters of America; Washington Society of Portrait Artists in the U.S. Senate Office Building; Arts for the Parks in Jackson, WY; National Watercolor Society in NY; and many more.

Johnson's work appears in the collections of the Alabama Museum of Fine Arts; the Art Students League of New York; the Food Distribution Institute in Washington, D.C.; and numerous private collections throughout the United States, Europe and the Far East.

JoSon

JoSon was born in the Philippines in 1970 to a Filipino-Chinese mother and an African- American father. At the age of nine he was sent to live with his mother's side of the family in Vietnam (Ho Chi Mihn City) where he was educated in a Buddhist temple through most of his teen years. After spending a few summers in the United States, JoSon found himself in a new home in Lake Tahoe. Here he began a life behind the camera, which was influenced by his mother's love of photography. He later moved to San Francisco where he received his Master of Fine Arts Degree in photo- illustration from the Academy of Art College. Today JoSon lives and works between New York and San Francisco.

Influenced by the world of botanical illustration in the 14th and 15th centuries, JoSon creates his images using a digital camera, a flatbed scanner, and computer software. Because of his techniques, the final artwork does not have the conventional look and feel of a photograph … it is more of a cross between an illustration and a photograph. In addition to using colors and forms to create a sense of harmony in the design of each flower image, JoSon shows the unique personalities and individual characteristics of his subjects that can surprise the viewer. He lends insight into the beauty and diversity of other life forms that share the planet.

JoSon's work has appeared in books, calendars, greeting cards, as well as in media advertising. One of his images was recently selected, from an international call for entries, for the cover of the Graphis Photo Annual 2004. More than 250 photographs are reproduced in this outstanding collection of the best contemporary photographs from around the world.

His collectors recognize his botanical imagery for it's elegant and brilliant color. His use of empty white spaces around the flowers creates a sense of mystery, balance, and provides a surreal treatment of form and space. His botanical images, which reveal the bold colors of nature, strange forms, and unique textures of flowers from backyards around the world, have become his signature. As he puts it, "I do not like to simply document my subject, but rather bring it to life in my photography… and Mother Nature has the best subjects to inspire my passion."

Denis Jully

Denis Jully was born in Mulhouse (Strasbourg, France), the cradle of the Alsatian textile industry. He has sound training as a fabrics maker. After founding the government factories of the Shah of Iran, the former fabric ennobler has transferred to his paintings all the details of this craft, such as the color hues and degradation, the tension created by spaces on canvas, typical of printed fabrics.

Jully's works reveal a personal spirit characteristic of the Rhine school (neo-romantic and mystic). His canvases are permeated by the feeling of Nature, an allegorical nature where the mountain streams and vegetation are just archetypes. He defines his work as "allusive imagining," often finding inspiration in his many trips and the years he lived in Africa or Iran. Persian miniatures, rug samples, the ochre and red colors of the African soil, pieces of wood with history-all these elements are woven and combined in his paintings.

Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) took inspiration from native popular art in order to find and assert her Mexican identity. Working in a primitive style, her paintings are full of odd color combinations, static figures and incredible space and scale.

Kahlo experienced tremendous physical and psychological torment throughout her life. When she was fifteen, she was involved in a near fatal streetcar accident which left her with a crushed pelvis, fractured spine and broken foot. This accident was the beginning of a lifelong battle of operations, infection, amputation, and, eventually, death. It was also the beginning of a remarkable series of paintings about pain, confinement and femininity. Almost all of Kahlo's paintings are self-portraits, an autobiography in paint. Kahlo said that many of her contemporaries "thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn't. I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality."

Diego Rivera, Kahlo's husband, gave her house in Coyoacan and its contents to the state to be used as the Frida Kahlo Museum after her death in 1954.

Yi Kai

Yi Kai was born in 1955 in Changsha, China. When he was 11 his father, a government official, was sent to work on a farm as part of China's Cultural. His mother, a teacher, was also sent away, leaving Yi and his ten-year old brother to fend for themselves for over three years. He finished middle school in 1970 and at 15 he was drafted into the army where he spent the next 14 years.

While driving around to the small village showing propaganda movies to PLA soldiers, Yi Kai studied books and magazine and taught himself to draw and paint. In 1979, the Art Institute of the PLA in Beijing reopened with 4,000 applicants vying for a limited number of spots. Mr. Kai gained entrance with the honor of being the only applicant to receive acceptance votes from all judges.

He studied traditional Chinese ink painting and Western-style drawing and painting, earning at BA and a MA. He was even allowed to show and sell his paintings in Taiwan. The boldly colorful acrylic abstracts, which are his signature, are a world away from the duller figurative paintings of ethnic minorities hew of his past. But those served their purpose. First of all they informed Mr. Kai's sense of how blocks of color work on canvas, and secondly --- and most importantly – they were his ticket out of C