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

Wilma Sanchez

Born in the Dominican Republic, Wilma Sanchez demonstrated early abilities in fine art. She studied at the Altos de Chavon School of design, a highly acclaimed art and design institution in the Caribbean and later moved to New York City where she obtained her Bachelors Degree in Fine Art from Parsons School of Design. Shortly thereafter she began creating designs for the textile and home furnishing industry, which later developed into application of her work into fine art prints, greeting cards, and a variety of gift products. Her natural sensibility to color, form, and texture have helped strengthen and shape the style of her art. She lives with her husband in New York City.

Scott Sandell

Describing himself as a "third generation abstract expressionist," Scott Sandell combines mixed-media in his vibrant painted prints: oil and acrylic paint, photography, intaglio, woodblock and lithographic printing techniques are all employed. Printmaking has been an integral aspect of Sandell's artistic expression since he began experimenting with multi-color printmaking in one press runs which he began while living and working in Minnesota and continued after relocating to New York in 1982.

The artist often layers different elements, collaging different formats to create effects in which separate techniques are absorbed into the painting. One particularly striking characteristic is his use of Japanese Kozo handmade paper, with tree bark and natural fibers visible in the surface, which manifests an organic surface in the work. Although Sandell includes recognizable themes, his work is primarily abstract, focusing on the harmonious aesthetics of nature.

Sandell's work has appeared in solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States since 1977, including The Chicago Center for the Print, C.G. Rein Gallery, The Hudson River Museum, Frick Art Museum and Christie's Contemporary Art. His images are included in notable public collections including The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, The Library of Congress, Chrysler Museum, Harvard University, Time Life/Warner, Chemical Bank, Sperry Univac and Prudential Insurance.

Soledat Sans

Soledat Sans, painter and teacher, was born in Barcelona, Spain in 1943. Her mother, who was of Italian descent, passed her creative genes on to Soledat; and from her father, with his love of books, she developed her cultural passion.

Soledat's initial formation as received as a painter at The Massana School (Escuela Massana) in Barcelona during the years 1959-1967, where she specialized in painting. She studied other techniques, as well, including ceramics and papier mache. She was very interested in the history of art, and took specialized art history courses.

In 1967, Soledat married architect A. Amargos. Currently they live in Barcelona and have three children. In 1976 Soledat taught sculpture classes to children at the primary levels. She also won two awards in Institutional Education. Around this time, Soledat and her family changed residences and moved to San Just Desvern, a town near Barcelona. Soledat established her studio in San Just Desvern, where she produced serigraphs and engravings, and specialized in oil painting. She also exhibited several of her pieces in art galleries at Catalunya, Spain, and in France.

In 1989 Soledat's early work was showcased in her first book, "Soledat Sans". In 1980 Soledat founded the studio/workshop "Plastica Carrau Blau", a creative workplace for children in San Just Desvern. In this studio, Soledat taught art and held public art exhibitions.

In 1990, Soledat's second book, "Dialegs Amb La Sorra", was published. In 1996, her last and most recent book, "Crear: Crean Arte Los Ninos?" a book of children's art, is exhibited in Galeria Llucia Homs de Barcelona. In 1992, Soledat published a second version of her book with the Association of Teachers (Asociacion de Maestros Rosa Sensat), "Hacer Plastica, Un Proceso de Dialogo y Situaciones".

At the same time, Soledat continued to work as a painter and a teacher. For that reason, she needed to open two new studios in the province of Castellon, which kept her close to the sea and mountains. She focused on the themes of space, time and location, which facilitated her ability to express her ideas in her paintings.

In 2000, Soledat presented her work in several places. Her work was published in the book "La Mirada Confident", which explores her life; and in another book in which she explores passages, interiors, windows to the sea, and plants, and discusses her literary opinions and feelings.

In 2001, Soledat had a retrospective exhibition of her 20 years of work in the studio "Workshop Carrau Blau".

Felipe Santamans

Born in Valencia, Spain in 1951, Santamans demonstrated at an early age that he was an artistic prodigy. He began his art studies under the tutelage of some of the most important painters in the region, and by the time he was fourteen he was working with the noted pastel artist Professore Benjamin Suria. His formal training began at the prestigious Academy Barrera of Valencia, and continued in The School of Fine Arts at the Fuster Academy under Dr. Suria. In 1968, he met and began studying with painter Jose Espert, whom Santamans considers his true mentor. Together they formed the 'Painters of Riberia' which defined a new era of figurative painting in the region. They presented their first group exhibition in May 1969; before Santamans' eighteenth birthday.

Though most of his early work was oil on canvas, he switched medium to pastels. The virtue of pastels is that the colors are almost transparent in their brilliance, and the degree of subtlety that they afford results in shadows of nuance is unachievable in other mediums. Extremely delicate by nature, there are both enormous technical and aesthetic challenges for the pastel artist to overcome.

His current work involves nudes and still-lifes. He works from life in his 'natura morte' paintings, and paints from natural light. Critics and viewers comment on how alive Santamans' paintings seem. They possess a clarity that is three- dimensional- as if the objects could be lifted out of the canvas. His nudes are sensuous and seem lifelike. He achieves intense depth of color penetration, yet his work remains a delicate play of light and shadow.

Victor Santos

When Victor Santos left a successful career as a commercial artist, he turned his talents to the painting of still lifes and florals in oil and acrylic. Santos was born in the Philippines in 1934 and earned a degree of Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines. He began his career in advertising where he received numerous industry awards. In 1971, while working as a commercial artist in San Francisco, he was persuaded to move to Vancouver to take up painting on a full time basis.

Santos' style of realism displays a meticulous attention to detail. His purity of line and glowing colors give his work a quiet beauty which Canadian and American collectors esteem. Santos is now a Canadian citizen and works from his home in Delta, British Columbia.

Robert Schaar

Painting famous people, significant events, and a wide range of subject matter, Robert Schaar has brush-stroked his way to an international reputation as one of the most exciting and versatile artists of our time.

His portrait subjects have included Barry Goldwater, President Gerald Ford, jockeys Johnny Longdon and Willie Shoemaker, baseball great Duke Snider and Challenger Space Shuttle Astronaut Christa McAuliffe. His work has depicted the excitement of the Kentucky Derby and provided the official poster for the 1992 U.S. Open Golf Championship. Schaar has won many gold medals in juried art shows and is one of an elite group of artists who comprise the NASA Art Program. His work hangs in such varied venues as the Smithsonian Institute, the Pentagon, the Saudi Arabia Royal Air Force headquarters and the Kentucky Derby Museum.

But Schaar is as much at home with pastoral landscapes and tranquil shorelines as with action-packed sports scenes, famous events or portraits of prominent figures.

As to being categorized as a particular type of artist, I refuse to be, says Schaar. There are just too many subjects that attract my interest. I want to be free to capture them all on canvas. And capture them he does, in oils and acrylics with a colorful, brushy style that is uniquely his own. Schaar's work is deceptively loose and spontaneous and characterized by a profusion of color and the lively interplay of light and shadows. Yet his technique never loses the structural unity that is based on solid values of drawing, composition and design.

To me, design is extremely important in a painting, says Schaar. It's as important as anything because the design element creates the mood, action and the general feeling of the painting. Noting that sometimes his brushwork can look unrestrained and relaxed, Schaar explains that if one looks closely at his paintings, they can see subtle things he does that aren't always obvious at first glance, part of the joy the viewer experiences in his work that surfaces at every examination.

Evidence of Schaar's recent visits to Europe are found in several of his themes - street scenes, canals, bridges, and other water settings. His travels are a constant source of inspiration and subject matter for his art.

Deborah Schenck

In our fast-paced world of noise and stress, the simple serenity of Deborah Schenck's images encourages us to step back and breathe in the often-overlooked beauty in everyday life. An appreciation of all things peaceful and contemplative comes naturally to Schenck. She spent her childhood in a tranquil English village of quintessential country gardens and winding lanes. Her artistic journey began with courses in film and design before landing her firmly behind the camera.

Deborah has been an image transfer artist since 1991. She uses a technique called Polaroid Transfers in which she repositions a photographic image on watercolor paper and enhances it by hand painting with watercolors. Today Deborah continues to develop her unique style as she experiments with different media. Recently she has begun doing transfers on plaster and wood.

Deborah, her husband and two children reside in Vermont in a small country town similar to the English village where her journey began. Her originals are sold worldwide, and reproductions can be found on cards, furniture, wallpaper, tiles, fabric and an ever-growing list of gift items.

Anke Schofield

Anke Schofield was born in Ithaca, New York, 1972 and was apprenticed as a professional photographer assistant when she was still in the 8th grade. Her father introduced her to the wonders of the camera early in life. Anke took to the form readily and with enthusiasm. During high school Anke apprenticed with a number of artists in the New York area and eventually won a scholarship to the Savannah College of Art and Design, where she earned a bachelors degree in fine art. Throughout this period she pursued her studies of color theory and painting, continuing to find in these endeavors greater creative stimulus and inspiration than she had known in her photographic work. "My work is inspired photographically", says Anke "but I take it beyond the ordinary representation to create a harmonious blend of texture with composition." Anke has been working as a fine art painter in Atlanta, Georgia for the past 4 years.

Michael Schofield

The landscapes of Michael Schofield are justly prized and celebrated for the wealth of their fine detail, for the radiancy of their colors, and for the unfailing consonance of their diverse visual parts which enables those elements to form a harmonious visual whole. And his landscapes are not at all the same; Schofield has the ability to summon up the memories and images of different times and places, from years before and from miles and miles away, and recombine them on canvas with entirely new results. Indeed, though he has a characteristic elegance of style, his serigraphs are as distinct from one another as are the various natural beauties that inspire them.

Schofield was born in Florida 1947, but his family moved to California that same year. He began to paint and study watercolor in high school. Like most teenage boys, he was at first much more interested in sports than in fine art, but his art teacher at Oakland High School recognized that Michael had an exceptional talent, and for nearly two years he tutored the youth privately. After a stint in the military, Schofield went to art school in Nashville, Tennessee. During the summers he would journey to Woodstock, New York, in order to study with watercolorist John Pike, an esteemed member of the National Academy of Art and the American Watercolor Society.

Schofield soon opened his own art studio, where he painted and taught for more than a decade. He returned to California in 1980 to set up a silk-screen printing studio in order to be able to create his own original serigraphs. He wanted to be involved in every step of the intricate and exacting process of serigraph, from fabricating the stencils to adding the final finishing touches of color.

Having been a successful artist for many years, Schofield has his works in numerous private and corporate collections, including the Bank of America, the Library of Congress, the Xerox Corporation, Occidental, and Twentieth Century, Inc.

Schofield believes that the primary aspiration of art is to communicate a shared perception of beauty from one human heart to another, from the artist to the viewer of his art: I choose to create more traditional landscapes because they involved imagery most people can relate to, imagery that evokes a memory and therefore a feeling. I painting landscapes because they speak to everyone. In sharing a place I have known, I know that others will see places they have known. In that way, I can communicate with others without using a single word.

Thea Schrack

Thea Schrack is a photographer with a penchant for the past. Her photographic forays have taken her to English country estates and Czech castles in search of places with a sense of beauty and mystery. Schrack's fascination with architecture and landscapes produces photographic work, which predominantly figures structures and gardens steeped in antiquity.

Schrack's photographs are decidedly complex images involving countless shapes and textures. There is a Gothic sensibility which permeates her work, in the solitude of the Czech castle ruins, elongated shadows, moss laden trees, arrested fountains and open gates Schrack uses the photographic medium to transform, or possibly even romanticize, small vignettes of our world. She aspires to capture the essence of the subject through the balance of the absolute and a dream of bringing it into a new existence.

Schrack is constantly captivated by the role of light within her work. She experiments with photographing the same image at different times of day. The picture at noon will be different from the picture at 8:00 AM, she states. Schrack also favors visiting the site several times to perceive the subtle diurnal and more evident seasonal changes and to develop an increased sense of the beauty of nature within the area.

The pervasive ethereal, somnambulistic effect throughout her work is derived from an amalgamation of her subject choice, film and developing techniques. Her use of infrared film overexposes the lights and intensifies the darks, producing work which embodies her desire for a sense of mystery. Schrack works with a sepia-toned printing process which involves bleaching and toning, further accentuating the lights and darks within the photograph. The ghostly paleness created by the infrared film relates the atmosphere of a reverie.

Finding 35mm cameras severely confining in size, Schrack shoots mostly with a modern Japanese Widelux panorama camera and cites Josef Sudek, the late Czech photographer, as an inspiration particularly for his work with the panorama camera. She favors the wider format, supplemented by infrared film, for its superior ability to encompass and complement the complexity of her work.

Peter Sculthorpe

Peter Sculthorpe's (1948-) paintings celebrate the rural landscape, particularly the stone barns and rolling pastures of the Brandywine Valley in Chester County, Pennsylvania, where he resides. The quality of light in his compositions is pristine, yet the paintings suggest reality without being either sentimental or nostalgic. "My work is directly related to what I have observed in nature. The act of transcription is enhanced by what has been retained in my memory - the visual impact and the necessary elements. I feel the artist's true signature manifests itself when the combination of recollect and invention are tempered with reality."

Qualities of ambiguity, complexity and tension that pervade his artwork give range and subtle inflection to his imagery. Using the demanding medium of watercolor, he manipulates light and form, giving his paintings a dramatic, romantic, yet natural tone. In addition, the artist is inspired by exploring a variety of other media including etching, monotype and stone lithography, each of which is related to his painting by virtue of his masterful drawing.

Sculthorpe has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the American Artist Professional League Award in 1984, Philadelphia Sketch Club Silver Medal in 1985, election to the Watercolor U.S.A. Honor Society in 1992, and National Art League, New York, First Prize, Oil Painting in 1993. His work is included in the public collections of the Springfield Art Museum, Springfield, MO, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE, The Brandywine River Museum, Chadds Ford, PA, the William Penn Memorial Art Museum, Harrisburg, PA, Nabisco Headquarters Gallery in New Jersey, Forbes Collection in New York, and the Du Pont Company in Japan.

Justina Selinger

Justina Selinger is a plein air painter whose work is well known for its radiant light and color, as well as for its simplicity of composition. Selinger was raised in Nierstein am Rhein, West Germany. As a child, she was fascinated with color and design. During the war, she had no art supplies to express her creative passion, not even crayons. But she remembers the influence and power of the Old Masters, as well as Vincent Van Gogh and other Impressionists.

Born and educated in Germany, Selinger paints exclusively with oil medium, and was initially schooled in the traditional methods of the old masters. However, she felt that something was missing within the traditional style, especially in the rendition of color. The search for completeness of expression, which emphasizes the full-color spectrum, led her to study at the School of Light and Color in California and with Lois Griffel at the Cape Cod School of Art in Provincetown, MA.

Selinger feels that oil painting is a natural extension of herself. She loves having the ability to make and mix colors. She revels in the smell and feel of the pigments, even the smell of turpentine; and she especially loves when all of these elements mesh with her creative vision to make an image come together. As a plein air painter, Selinger often does multiple small studies in order to capture the constant variation in light. She then uses these studies in her studio to complete a larger painting.

Selinger is an award-winning artist whose work is enjoyed by many international collectors throughout the U.S., Europe and Japan. Her work is also exhibited through various domestic galleries including the California Collector's Gallery in Kentfield, CA; the Lionshead Gallery in Carmel Valley, CA; Z Forrest Gallery in Tubac, AZ; and at the Garafolo & Osborne Gallery in Avon, CT.

Selinger recently completed a very successful exhibition at the renowned Sausalito Art Festival in California. Her most recent national award was received at the Light and Color National Exhibit in Colorado. Her paintings are also featured in the latest edition of Sharon O'Connor's series, Menus and Music, integrating food, music and art.

"Inspired by Impressionism, I am a painter of the light and its enchantments. With light as the subject, I explore the full spectrum of color which permeates every object and scene."

Georges Seurat

Georges Seurat was a French painter and the founding figure of Neo-Impressionism, a movement which dedicated itself to the scientific representation of light and color.

Seurat left the Impressionist movement and developed his "Divisionist" technique in an attempt to bring formal structure to Impressionism. His goal was to demonstrate "optical mixture." He accomplished this by placing small dots of contrasting colors next to one another in his paintings. The effect is one of pure color that blends in the viewer's eye, not on the palette or canvas. This technique is seen in the painting, "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte." This painting was shown in the last Impressionist exhibition in 1886.

Seurat made countless drawings and oil sketches of different aspects of his initial ideas that were ultimately included in his final canvases. He was careful to balance his compositions so that no single aspect of the painting dominated the whole. Seurat's paintings proved to be a great influence on the Post-Impressionists, including Van Gogh, Gauguin and Toulouse-Lautrec.

Eve Shpritser

Texture and blending of vibrant color with deep sienna, ochre, and umber serve as one of the many fascinating qualities in Eve Shpritser's paintings. It is as though she has created the images and shapes in a sculptural manner, giving her work a textural quality and depth for which she is well known. Eve, an artist from Quebec, Canada, has always been fascinated with the space and the effect inanimate objects can have on one another, which led her to the study of interior design. This interest is quite evident in many of the subjects of her paintings. o The layering of object upon object and tone upon tone, create a distinctive style that is all her own.

Viktor Shvaiko

Born in Altai, one of Russia's most remote and off-the-beaten-track towns, Viktor Shvaiko grew up surrounded by the beauty of the wilderness. His natural inclination for fine arts and his strong urge to share his vision of nature drove him to find a way into the Novoaltaisk Artistic School, one of the two best schools for the arts in the former Soviet Union. Four years of strenuous studies enabled Viktor, a very diligent student, to acquire the skills of a true artist.

Viktor credits his teacher, Ilbek Khairoullinov, for a true fine arts education. A strict regimen of drawing, an intricate technique of using colors, and the influence of the 19th Century Russian artist Karl Brynllow brought Viktor Shvaiko close to a traditional academic style of painting. After having attained technical excellence in the manner of these traditional influences, the artist now possessed the tools with which to express his feelings to the world. At this point, Viktor's main focus became the beautiful Altai landscapes.

The Shvaiko family then moved to Transkarpathia, the western mountainous portion of Ukraine. There Viktor became enchanted with the picturesque and breathtakingly beautiful countryside. He continued to paint and was invited to show in two one-person expositions in Moukachevo in 1990 and a group exhibition in Hungary in 1991.

Shvaiko chafed under the stifling effect that the lingering Russian Bureaucracy had on the careers of young artists. Unable to get a visa to a Western country, Viktor was permitted to travel to Yugoslavia. In the confusion of the civil war, he fled to Italy with his paintings strapped to his back, often encountering gunfire from roving bands of militia.

Having arrived in Italy virtually penniless, Viktor survived by selling his paintings on the streets of Rome. He managed to build a following for himself, and save some money. He eventually returned to a now more liberalized Russia, and was able to obtain passage to America.

Arriving in New York with little money and less English, Viktor was again able to survive by selling his work. It was here he developed his penchant for painting the little cafes and other intimate places that we see in his work today, and that have become his trademark. His enticing mix of beauty and mystery has drawn the interest and admiration of collectors from around the world.

Jane Simmons

Gertie and Bertie the lovebirds, and Madge and John the dogs are Simmons' living companions on her ex-fishing boat now moored in Cornwall. It is this and the wildlife she can see from the wheelhouse that provides Simmons with her inspiration. It is no surprise that her home is hardly conventional having traveled extensively with her family and living in a whole range of unusual homes.

Having tried her hand at landscape gardening, futon making, teaching basket weaving and soft toy making she claims that the only thing to hold her interest was the idea of illustrating children's books. She therefore studied illustration as a mature student at Anglia University, Cambridge where her talent was recognized with several awards.

Simmons' delightful stories of Daisy the inquisitive and disobedient duckling have captured the hearts and imaginations of many, while her bold, sweeping brushstrokes and clever use of perspective have propelled her to the very top of the children's illustration field.

'Come On, Daisy!' was shortlisted for the Mother Goose Award 1998, the Best British Book Award 1998 and won the Silver Award in the Smarties Book Prize 1998 (0-5 category). It also received a 'highly commended' accolade in the prestigious Kate Greenaway competition in 1999.

Chris Simpson

Chris Simpson was born in August 1952 to a Russian/Bulgarian mother and Australian father. Although educated in the UK, Simpson's family lived in Mauritius, where he spent an average of three months every year. Simpson studied Art and Photography at Ealing School of Art, London and has been a professional photographer for over twenty-five years. Having originally established his career in fashion photography and traveling extensively, Simpson has worked as a location advertising photographer since 1991. He regularly exhibits his personal work and has sold a number of his fine art prints over the past ten years. Kate Greenaway award in 1999. He has two sons, Jack and Fergus and lives in East Sussex, England.

Greg Singley

Singley was born September 30, 1950, in Greensboro, Alabama. After attending four years of business studies at an Alabama college, he enrolled in the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, Florida. He graduated there in 1976 with a degree in Illustration and Design. After working for a time in the South as a designer, he decided to move to the Southwest United States in order to pursue a career in illustration and fine art. He has since free-lanced as an illustrator, serving clients as varied as Arizona Trends, New Times Weekly News and Arts Journal, Arizona Living, the Arizona Republic, and the Phoenix Gazette.

As a painter, Singley exhibits with the John Douglas Cline Gallery of Phoenix, the Ratcliff Williams Gallery of Sedona, and the Michael Collier Gallery of Scottsdale. Outside Arizona he exhibits with Chemers of Newport Beach, California; Miranda Galleries of Laguna Beach, California; Marylin Wilson Gallery of Birmingham, Alabama; Windsors of Dania, Florida; and J. Richards Gallery of Engelwood, New Jersey.

Singley takes his major inspiration from the first French Impressionists. He cites Monet (especially at Giverny), Pissarro, and Van Gogh as having most strongly influenced the evolution of his impressionistic style, and he greatly reveres the American turn-of-the-century Impressionist Maynard Dixon as well. Says Singley: At its heart, Impressionism is a spirit. To best express this spirit, the work should be extremely abstract. The magic of an impressionistic canvas is the viewer's recognition of the greater image. By using the most fleeting bits of color and shape, I can demonstrate how each form is made of so many others.

Singley paints from the heart, with passion, and he chooses his colors instinctively, utterly without calculation. He will at times use a palette knife and even his fingers so he can apply paint to the canvas more directly, more intuitively, but he always uses a brush for the highlights and shadow strokes and other fine details. These methods have enabled him to imbue his paintings with a uniquely rich and vivid magnificence.

Alfred Sisley

Alfred Sisley (1839-1899), a French Impressionist painter, was born in Paris in 1839. His English parents intended for him to go into the financial industry, but Sisley chose instead to dedicate himself to painting. Sisley has been compared to his longtime friend and colleague, Claude Monet, whom he met while studying at the Gleyre studio in Paris in the early 1860s. Like Monet, Sisley devoted most of his career to painting Impressionistic landscapes.

Sisley's style differed somewhat from that of the Impressionist school; his brushstroke was firm and created a higher definition of form, a technique reminiscent of English landscape painters. Most of his paintings, however, are of scenes in and around Paris. His most significant series of landscapes depict the flood of 1876 at Port-Marley. He was able to record diverse light effects by painting in the open-air at different times of the day.

Although Sisley contributed to many of the Impressionistic exhibitions, he never received the recognition of his peers while he was alive.

Mike Smith

Mike Smith finds inspiration for his subjects and colors in the gardens and rural setting of his home and studio in the Pacific Northwest. But, while pets wander through many of his watercolors, loosely based on the artist's life, and gardens are full of the riotous bloom of the idyllic pastoral or small-town life, several of his equally successful works depict more exotic fauna. Giraffes, an elephant, a lion, too, draw on Smith's profound artistic experience and spiritual delight in the forms of nature. Infusing his work with this fine sense of celebration and with the pleasures of home and commitment to its care and nurturing, Smith creates works of great charm and visual excitement that are widely collected and exhibited.

Sharyn Sowell

Sharyn Sowell's original designs are cut freehand from a single sheet of paper using only a pair of sharp scissors and abundant imagination. Deft fingers seem to slice through paper, reveling a sparrow's wing, a dancing child, or violets peeking through a grassy meadow.

After twenty years as a designer of fine jewelry, the artist switched mediums, and now is known for detailed paper cuts of pastoral scenes and delicate florals that look fresh from the garden. Sometimes the images are complex black and white silhouettes; sometimes she adds watercolor pastels, or colored paper for stunning color.

The artist's work is executed with tiny snips of Swiss scissors and long strokes from a pair of heirloom shears that once lay in her mother's kitchen drawer. The results have become rubber stamps, garden gates, tablecloths, fine art posters and more. "My work celebrates the miracles we see every day if we open our eyes to simple pleasures", says Sharyn. Critics call her work "striking...imaginative".

Loran Speck

California-born artist Loran Speck draws inspiration for his paintings from the realist artists of the Renaissance, such as Rembrandt and Rubens. He creates highly-detailed images, and has been compared to the great Dutch masters with his brilliant use of light and color.

Speck's artistic flair extends beyond his art, onto the frames that encase his original works. Gilded in gold leaf and hand-carved in his own framing and gilding studio, each frame is in itself a work of art.

Speck has been exhibiting his art in Carmel-by-the-Sea for over 25 years. He also participates in events and exhibitions in Dallas, Houston, Santa Fe and Hilton Head Island.

Annora Spence

After graduating in Liverpool with a first-class Honors Degree in Printed Textiles, Annora Spence continued her training at Birmingham Polytechnic. Spence has worked on a wide variety of commissions ranging from knitwear and ceramics collections to book covers and packaging.

Living on the English south coast, Spence now concentrates on her own painting and artwork. Much of her inspiration is derived from her extensive travels throughout Asia and Europe where characters and situations are reproduced on canvas.

Spence uses a variety of media with colors that range from warm and rich to subtle and pale. Her work has a narrative quality often displaying eccentric characters and animals in comic situations.

Melissa Springer

Melissa Springer studied art and photography at the University of Alabama, Birmingham and has been recognized with several awards, including a fellowship grant from Alabama State Council on the Arts. Melissa has also published several books including A Tribe of Warrior Women and Important Things. In addition, her photographs have been published in many publications including Forbes, Southern Living and The New York Times.

Eloise Harriet Stannard

Artist Eloise Harriet Stannard (fl 1852-1893) was a Norwich still-life painter and a member of the Stannard family, the eldest daughter of Alfred Stannard and sister of Alfred George Stannard.

She exhibited her pictures of flowers and fruit at the Royal Academy and elsewhere from 1856-83, and was a member of the Society of Lady Artists. Her pictures are often compared with those of George Lance, who was an admirer of her work.

Douglas Steakley

Douglas Steakley arrived late into the art world - after college he went to law school; and several years later, in 1974, he graduated with an MFA from Indiana University in Bloomington. He also received a BA from Bowling Green University in 1996. He feels that art just "chose" him; it just seemed a natural path to follow.

Says Steakley, "Art is so challenging. One has to work their way through all of the many influences and techniques until it becomes a personal statement that also has a broad-based appeal. I love it when other people respond to my work!" He feels like he works all of the time. Even when he's traveling, he's always on the lookout for new images. But creating art does not seem like work to him; says the artist, "It's more of a lifestyle."

Steakley's work hangs in many private galleries, and has exhibited at the Fireside Gallery at the Highland Inn; the Conference Center in Monterey, CA; Friends of Photography in Carmel; and Pacific Grove Art Center.

His work has won the Ansel Adams Award for Environmental Photography from The Sierra Club, and is collected by numerous corporations. His work also appears at Pebble Beach and in Doris Day's hotel in Carmel.

Kira Stewart

Although Kira Stewart believes she was born an artist (as a child, her mother let her paint and draw on the walls of one room), it took her a long time realize it. She tried her hand at many things before coming around full circle to realize "this is who I am". Known for her lush, color-drenched oil paintings, Stewart's natural affinity for color was heightened by five years of training at the School of Light and Color in Fair Oaks, California. There she studied visual perception of full color, light, and atmospheric subtleties. This, combined with a desire to communicate passion, boldness, and joy to her viewers, has resulted in a remarkably unique style.

Stewart's work has been featured in over 60 solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States. Her radiant paintings of the California landscape and her playful, luminous still lifes are showcased in numerous private and corporate collections, including the Insurance Corporation of America and the CorVel Corporation. Stewart's works can be found throughout the United States and Japan in law offices, restaurants, insurance companies, medical offices, and real estate brokerages.

Stewart holds a Bachelor's degree in Studio Art from the University of California at Davis. She currently works from her Northern California studio, where the landscape and light are a constant source of inspiration. There, she is often startled to discover that she has become so lost in her work that it seems as if "time has stood still". Nothing, she says, brings her more joy.

Monica Stewart

From the age of 4, Monica Stewart's parents encouraged her artistic pursuits. While growing up in Oakland, California, this early parental patronage, as well as support throughout her school years, helped nurture her talent enough to get a four year scholarship to the San Francisco Art Academy. She later transferred to California State University at Hayward, where she majored in Art. One of the artists she studied under was Raymond Saunders, a very influential figure in her education.

Instead of getting her degree, she cut her studies short to become a flight attendant, and eventually raise a son. This left no time for painting, so her talent remained dormant. Some fifteen years later in 1990, with some time off from work, she had the freedom to get back into painting. Her renewed interest in art coincided with meeting a new friend and neighbor, best-selling novelist Terry McMillan. As Stewart recalls, "She'd come by and we'd talk about what's going on with her. We're around the same age, and I saw how she was taking what was a natural gift for her and making it work. She was the first one to see my pieces and say, 'I'll buy that!'"

Stewart's preferred medium is pastels, as she explains, "I love the brilliance of the colors and the way you can manipulate them." Of her work, and the predominance of women in her paintings, she says, "I have a good understanding of myself as a woman, so I do tend to paint a lot of women. I have a lot of girlfriends, and we talk a lot. So in my work you'll see a lot of women interchanging, talking, doing whatever."

David Stoecklein

Photographer David Stoecklein has been intrigued with the great American West and the cowboy way of life since his childhood in Pittsburgh, PA when he would spend hours dreaming of riding the range alongside Hopalong Cassidy. Although a top commercial and stock photographer for the last 25 years whose assignments are varied and who travels worldwide, Stoecklein is particularly renowned for his color photography which captures the working traditions, customs and culture of the contemporary cowboy.

Also a serious rancher and avid collector of Western cowboy collectibles, Stoecklein lives and works in Idaho's Wood River Valley with his family. When not out on assignment or working in his studio, he has documented both the rugged landscape as well as the Idaho cowboy past and present. The narrative of a bygone era is recreated through his lens in an extensive series which explores the evolution of the working cowboy by detailing the saddles, spurs, hats, boots, bridles, chaps and other gear worn during the last 130 years. By photographing modern cowboys wearing and working in authentic gear in color and in motion on the open range, Stoecklein's work has a dimension and texture which black and white vintage photographs cannot match.

Specializing in photographing both dramatic action and serene wilderness, Stoecklein uses a 35mm camera for flexibility in the field. Working alongside the cowboys in fog, rain, snow and intense heat and in terrains as varied as the mountains of Idaho to the mesquite brush country in Texas, his images document the challenges of the work and remarkable beauty of the workplace.

Stoecklein's work reveals a portrait of traditions unchanged and the legendary cowboy ethic of strength, honesty and integrity which remains the model for the American folk hero.

Robert Striffolino

Striffolino was born in New York city in 1950 and was raised on Long Island. Although from his childhood he could draw spontaneously with extraordinary skill, he never took a formal art class, feeling that his drawings were so personal he could allow no one -- not even teachers -- to interfere with his art. Instead, he majored in architecture at Ohio University. After his graduation he was hired by the City of Cincinnati as an architect. However, in spite of earning good commissions and professional recognition, he began to feel increasing frustration over a life and career too distant from the art he loves.

In 1978 Striffolino left his architect's job to embark upon what he has since called "an odyssey: I decided to travel for as long as I needed to reestablish something in my soul, something I had gotten away from." He backpacked and camped along for seven months starting in the Great Smoky Mountains, then along the Gulf Coast and across Texas to New Mexico, through the Rocky Mountains north into Canada, and finally across to the Pacific and down the California coast. It was while camping in California within sight of the Pacific Ocean that he made the decision to settle down and paint in earnest. This decision he later said "resounded in my soul". Immediately thereafter he moved permanently to northern New Mexico, where he still resides.

For Striffolino color is the highest and most subjective element of painting, but the real subject matter of his work is its emotional content. He strives to articulate on canvas an intense feeling about the location, whether it is the physical dynamics of the landscape or the juxtaposition of colors and light. This is when the painting really begins to take on a life of its own.

"Elmer Bischoff said, 'You have to bring off a fusion of your interest both in the subject and in the painting. It's like walking on a tightrope...the paint on canvas plays a double role -- one of an alive, sensual thing in itself, and the other conveying a response to the subject. Between the two is the tightrope.' I like the fact that I need to feel that tension. I feed information onto the canvas until a dialogue begins. Listening becomes paramount because then I can discover what the painting needs in order for it to blossom. Another balance and tension I seek is between the landscape imagery and my emotions. That kind of tension and edge keeps me coming back to paint again and again."

Jeff Surret

Born in the City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia, in 1971, Surret started drawing at an early age. He received a full scholarship to the Savannah College of Art and Design where he studied illustration and art history.

During a lengthy visit to Japan, he learned to cherish the tranquility and serenity of gardens as places to meditate. That esteem, melded with his admiration for the art of Mark Tansey and Chris Van Allsburg, has resulted in imaginary, surreal landscapes evoked by the feeling of the solitude of nature without the intrusion of objects that can refer to time. Of his work, Surret says, I offer a unique look by combining irregular, contrasted shapes with a very soft brush technique. All landscapes are created within, yet I use photographic elements to convey the realism.

Studying Japanese and intrigued by the culture, Surret would like to return to Japan. He would like to travel to many countries, study their philosophies and immerse himself in their art, learning new techniques, observing life and translating his observations into memorable dreamscapes.

Albert Swayhoover

For 35 years, the paintings of Albert Swayhoover have been evoking delighted responses from critics and collectors across America. Combining superb technique with a unique textural imagery, he captures the total experience of nature.

Swayhoover is, first and foremost, a consummate master of the painting knife. Forsaking the traditional brushes, and using only a series of knives, he deftly breathes life into delicate beach grasses as well as fierce storm clouds. His artistic expertise extends to the beautifully structured composition of his work, subtle shifts of color and the modulating of impastos create an immediate environmental experience that is rare on canvas.

"Using knives", Swayhoover says, "I can achieve painterly surfaces without fussiness of brush strokes. Colors stay vibrant and shapes stay crisp. Fine lines are easily achieved by using quick strokes with the edge of a painting knife. These tools give sharpness, exuberance and freedom to my work."

"I love the sounds and sights of boat yards, marsh grass blowing in the wind, old weathered buildings and rocky shores. All of these give me great pleasure and inspiration for my work. My idea of a perfect afternoon is to sit on a dock sketching a harbor scene or to follow a stone wall and discover a wonderful old barn on a snowy hillside."

Albert Swayhoover was born in New York City. He studied art at New York College at Farmingdale and at the School of Visual Art, dividing his time between painting and a successful career in advertising. The demand for his canvases increased steadily and, in 1966, he left advertising to devote himself totally to painting. He is the recipient of over 20 awards, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Award given by the Salmagundi Club. He has had many successful one-man shows in leading galleries in the New York, Boston, Washington D. C. and Philadelphia areas. His paintings are presently being shown in these and other galleries in North Carolina and Florida. Some of his works hang in important private collections as well as the corporate collections of IBM, Chase Manhattan, CBS, HR Grace and others. He is a member of American Society of Marine Artists.

Taddio

Taddio grew up in Southern California in a creative and scientific family. His mother studied art in college while earning her degree in archeology. His father is a retired physicist/entrepreneur and published author. This genetic combination perhaps explains why Taddio spent the pre-artist part of his working career in the biotech field. His reintroduction to creating art, latent since the mural masterpiece he and his brothers created in the family room of their childhood home, occurred shortly after he met Jennifer Garant. Ever since their marriage, the two have been inseparable and busy painting and traveling together.

Taddio's favorite artist growing up was Jerome Tiger, a full blooded Creek-Seminole, as well as Marc Chagall. He is most inspired by watching his wife and best friend Jennifer paint; he learns something new from her artistically everyday.

The studio that Taddio shares with his wife has seasonal views of a small cove of Lake Monroe—seasonal meaning that you can see the lake when the leaves are off the trees, while standing on a chair and squinting really hard. It is filled with canvasses in various degrees of completion by both of them, even some pieces that they both collaborate on. He loves painting big whimsical landscapes with rich autumn colors. Admitting to be a passionate and almost fanatical fisherman, if you don't find Taddio in his studio, he is probably on the water.

Yuriko Takata

Yuriko Takata's (1957-) work is a simple celebration of the beauty of nature; her florals range from delicately rendered watercolors reminiscent of French antique botanical prints, to bold pastelled still-life images inspired by the oil paintings of the old Dutch masters. Her 20th century eye brings a fresh twist to favorite classic art styles. Fond of drawing "en plein air" in exotic and beautiful locations throughout the world, Takata most recently spent several months in Hawaii exploring the lush landscape, rugged volcanoes and pristine beaches where the quality of light off the water has further enriched her extensive palette.

Always searching for new insights and visual experiences, Takata's interests range from realistic still-life and landscape to the exploration of purely abstract imagery with a simplified surface. Although she creates most of her work in the privacy of her own studio after making extensive sketches on location, she enjoys working with other artists in a warehouse studio, taking advantage of the creative spirit and support found within a group atmosphere. Additionally, she appreciates having the opportunity to explore different artistic styles at once.

Takata was born just after her parents moved to California in 1957. Raised in the United States, she speaks Japanese with her mother who, also a creative woman, studies the ancient art of Japanese flower arranging. Although she frequently visits the rest of her family in Japan, Takata considers the San Francisco Bay Area her home.

With exhibits both in the United States and Japan, Takata's work is held in the collections of AT&T, Bank of America, Dean Witter, Foremost McKesson, Hollister, Inc., Illinois Bell, IBM, Kaiser Permanente, Pacific Bell and Nordstrom Department Stores.

Yoichi Tanabe

Yoichi Tanabe was born in Kumamoto, Japan in 1949. In 1957 he moved to Tokyo, where he completed Political Science studies at the University Waseda. In 1974 he completed a postgraduate artistic study of human anatomy at the University of Fine Arts in Tokyo. From 1975 through 1978 he worked for the National Parliament's library, and from 1979 through 1986 he participated in numerous solo exhibitions in a variety of Tokyo art galleries, and became Professor of Drawing in the Bunka Fashion College, Tokyo.

In 1988 Tanabe moved to Sitges, a small town on the Catalan coast near Barcelona, Spain. He spent a few years there, at the edge of the Mediterranean sea. His paintings are infused with the Mediterranean landscape—the earth, the sea and the light. At the same time, the rich tradition of his Japanese culture is very clearly evident in his work.

One of the first impressions one receives from Tanabe's paintings is the deep respect with which the subject is treated; a closing of the distance between the painter, the subject and the viewer. Elements merge within his work—nothing presents itself apart from the composition as a whole. The principal trait of Tanabe's work is the natural rhythm, which implies life and reflects the sense of amazement that the artist feels when confronted with the spectacle of nature.

The magnificent works of Tanabe are testimony to a place in space and time that will never repeat itself, and that cannot be compared with anything else.

Tanner

Artist Tanner was the first baby born at the stroke of the New Year 1972. Perhaps it was just her Capricorn energy wanting to get up and get things going. Nonetheless, this same eagerness to move ahead is reflected today when she says she gets a thrill out of starting any new painting: I see my work as an expression of organic forms within structure, the intense young artist explains. It's such a challenge...every canvas is filled with endless possibilities.

Working with simple shapes and a complex layering of colors and textures, Tanner's work is reminiscent of the accomplished abstract expressionist painters of the 1950's. Tanner's creative influences include water, rust, train cars, used palettes, the last conversation she overheard. Very often the shape of the paintings themselves come into play, sculpted to be three-dimensional or made of individual canvas panels, they enhance the effect of depth and surface interest to complete the artist's vision.

Teo Tarras

Teo Tarras was born in Barcelona in 1960. His mother, who was a painter, provided his earliest artistic influence. From an early age the young Tarras felt the need to express himself through illustration, painting and, more than anything, photography. Tarras specialized in Graphic Design and Publicity at the Escuela de Bellas Artes y Oficios Artísticos. He graduated from the University of Barcelona with a B.A., and received a degree from Escuela Massana y La Llotja de Barcelona.

Tarras has many years of experience in illustration, photography and design and has worked for a variety of publicity agencies and editors over the years.

"I like to photograph in black and white as this is the poetic part of photography," says Tarras about his great interest in life. Photography is a means of expression that Tarras feels a strong need to experience. He has always loved art in all of its expressions and forms, and he experimented with many different forms until he found his own way with photography. Tarras is particularly inspired by the movement and the people within his urban surroundings.

Tarras has exhibited his work in Palau Rogent in Barcelona, and his works appear in a permanent exhibition in the Liceo Opera House in Barcelona.

Ron Tarver

Ron Tarver was born in Ft. Gibson, Oklahoma in 1957. He received a B.A. in Journalism and Graphic Arts at Northeastern Oklahoma State University. He has been on staff at the Philadelphia Inquirer 19 years earning honors form the National Society of Professional Journalists, the National Press Photographers Association/University of Missouri Pictures of the Year competition, World Press Photo Awards, and other state and regional wards.

He has received fellowships and a grant form the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts and the National Geographic Society respectively, and in 1997, he was named one of the Delaware Valley's "50 Rising Stars in the Arts" by Seven Arts Magazine. In 2001 he was awarded a Pew Fellowship in the Arts, one of the largest fellowships for an individual artist, carrying a $50,000 prize.

Tarver's photographs have been exhibited both nationally and internationally and are in many corporate, private, and museum collections including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Smithsonian National Museum of American Art and the State Museum in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Corporate collections include Banana Republic, Johnson and Johnson, Hyatt and Sheraton Hotels. His photographs are included in the traveling exhibition book, Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers by Deborah Willis, and in Committed to the Image, at the Brooklyn Museum.

Dale Terbush

Contemporary luminist painter Dale Terbush creates majestic landscapes, working in the traditions of Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Moran and Frederic Church by whom his work is inspired. However, Terbush's expansive landscapes, dramatically illuminated with an ethereal light, are completely imaginary although referenced in the American Southwest where he lives and works.

Born in Chicago, self-taught Terbush began his painting journey at the age of five and has collected visual information which appears in his acrylics on canvas wherever he has lived since, including the grand variety of land and seascapes in California where he was raised. His professional career included designing interiors for many prestigious restaurants which enabled him to further develop his facility for painting. The artist also developed an intense interest in 19th century antiques over the years which further influenced his painting in the style contemporary with that era.

A master of color and natural light living and working now in Santa Fe, NM, Terbush has created an atmosphere consistent with the serenity and mystical quality inherent in his paintings. " I want people to feel something when they view my work - a sense of grandeur, wonder, spirituality. I want to touch their hearts."

The artist's work hangs in many prominent collections and he has received several awards including Best Traditional Realist from the Laguna Beach Festival of Arts; he has also participated in the exclusive Hubbard Museum's Pursuit of Excellence.

Polly Thompson

"Although dogs have been the subjects of my paintings for twenty years, I don't consider myself a painter of dogs, per se," observes oil painter, Polly Thompson. "Dogs provide us with some of the clearest physical expressions of a lot of feelings, such as suffering, jealousy or joy. My paintings are symbolic statements about the nature of what we share with them."

Polly made her first oil painting at the age of 17 when she discovered her mother's paint box full of ancient oils and a palette knife. She pushed color around on canvas and was immediately hooked. Still, she didn't choose it for her career when she began college. She studied geology at Oberlin College and began a pre-med program at Bennington College in Vermont. When she began hospital rounds she realized the importance of seizing the day while she was healthy enough to do so. She left medical school and embarked on her painting career.

Polly has resided in Vermont for 30 years. She and her husband Julian, a novelist, divide the year between the city atmosphere of Burlington and the country isolation of West Rupert, Vermont. "Living with a writer inspires my narrative work," Polly observes. "We entertain each other with the stories we create."

Her Burlington home studio overlooks Lake Champlain and is a large utilitarian space bathed in light. In the country, Polly's space is in a cramped corner of their old house. The large trees shade her windows but she has access to "the heavenly outdoors of Vermont summers."

Though her work is narrative, Polly doesn't have a story in mind when she begins a sketch. She draws small sketches and blocks in color ideas with pastels. Then she puts pencil to canvas to work out the drawing, and the story reveals itself. When she is happy with the sketch, she paints a thin oil layer and then adds colors for the undercoat. She gradually builds up thicker layers of color until the work is complete. "I am sometimes asked if I use an air-brush to create my smooth surfaces," she says. "I don't, but I do use soft brushes that allow the paint to blend on the canvas."

Galleries throughout the U.S. carry Polly's paintings, and she has received numerous awards. Her work is part of private collections in the U.S. and abroad.

Reggie, Polly's dog of 14 years, was her constant companion and model. With his recent passing, she has to rely on her memory of his expressiveness and physical qualities. Meanwhile she's taken in two cats and continues to puzzle out their aloof behavior and experiment with painting them. There will, no doubt, be another dog in the picture someday.

Marybeth Thorngren

When I was three years old, my mother set up my first easel, Mary Beth Thorngren recalls, "and it is the same easel I use today." After receiving a B.F.A. in painting from East Texas State University, Mary Beth headed to London to concentrate on her skills in watercolor. Mary Beth approaches the empty canvas with brush and paint, never sketching an image in advance. She works in the style of the Abstract Expressionists, applying the paint rapidly and loosely. Jackson Pollack is among her many influences. Now living in the Colorado Springs, Mary Beth is established as a member of the Denver Art Company. The alliance with DAC has increased the exposure of Mary Beth's original artwork throughout the country.

Avery Tillmon

Avery Tillmon, like many artists, found art at a young age. He began at only five or six years old by copying pictures he liked from his books. He followed his youthful passion into a college degree in sculpture and eventually a career in art, which has included teaching and designing, as well as professional sculpting and painting.

Tillmon describes his interests as primarily object and figure oriented. "I approach drawing and painting like a very shallow sculpture. I build and take away until I've achieved what I envisioned at the outset."

Tillmon and his wife feel they have found the perfect home in rural Vermont, where they indulge in the outdoor activities they love, including gardening, hiking, camping and the occasional game of horseshoes. His dream studio, however, remains just that at the moment – a dream. "Fortunately," says Tillmon, "I can and do work most anywhere."

Ben Timmins

A love of design in art and a flair for the unusual, unmistakably color the work of artist Ben Timmins. Whether it's ceramics, sculpture or furniture design, this English-born artist draws on many innovative, creative influences to produce vibrant canvases and extraordinary assemblages of images that are truly multimedia and contemporary in flavor.

An avid journal-keeper, Timmins believes in capturing the moment, and freezes images around him in a wealth of candid Polaroid's. Such fragments are useful things, the artist explains. There is humor and art in how we contextualize these moments.

Timmins received his education at the University of the West of England, specializing in Fine Art, Ceramics and Glazing Technology. He attended workshops under the direction of eminent ceramicists Paul Soldner, and Takeshi Yasuda, amongst others.

Jennie Tomao

Tomao was born in New York City. She attended the prestigious New York School of Music and Art, where she received an Award of Excellence from the Pittsburgh Institute of Art. She has been painting for over 30 years.

Tomao is renown not only for her magnificent landscapes but also for her traditional images of women and children in imaginative settings, and her exquisite lifelike flowers arranged in elegantly detailed vases. Her palette is both jewel-like and muted - light glistens off the focal objects, sometimes actually flowing with their inner radiance. Her style is strongly reminiscent of George Innes in its quiet feeling of warmth and space.

Tomao has had exhibitions in Long Beach, Beverly Hills, Pacific Palisades, San Diego, San Francisco, Palm Desert, Portland, Vancouver, New Orleans and Palm Beach.

Luke J. Tornatzky

Luke J. Tornatzky was born in Cleveland, OH in 1954. He attended the Cooper School art in Cleveland, and earned his B.F.A. from the School of Design, Art & Architecture in Cincinnati, OH. His work as a fine artist tends to draw upon his experience as an illustrator, and his love for the impressionistic painters who brought their style to the forefront of art beginning in the late 1800's.

He says "After about twenty years working almost exclusively in pastel, I have been seduced by the lush wet quality of oil paint. It is refreshing to be out from behind the glass." The goal of his work is to create a space which the viewer would want to enter; and once there, forget about the painting and become lost in the feelings which the art has evoked.

Tornatzky has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions, and won numerous awards as well. His work has been published as posters for Pike Place Market in Seattle, the Center for Wooden Boats, the Whidbey Island Race Week, and has appeared as cover art in numerous magazines.

Ian Tremewen

Ian Tremewen's childhood in Hawaii has had a vast influence upon his work and personality. He has a free spirit and enthusiasm about life that is clearly represented in his art. Now calling Australia his home, he has lived in Bermuda and Vancouver, British Columbia. With all of these places having been home to him once, they have all influenced his unique style of art and life. Ian's dedication to his art is strong, working daily with time out for his family and his love of travel. His devotion towards the freedom of expression inherent in his art is a direct reflection of his personality and through his life you are looking at his passion for life and everything in it.

Born in 1954 in Canada, Tremewen was surrounded by art at a very early age; influenced by his parents (both artists), creative expression was a predominant force in his upbringing. I was always encouraged to draw and paint, but never forced. Through this guidance his passion for art grew. He attended Vancouver College and studied fine art and architecture. In his early works he experimented with ceramics, woods, watercolors and papers and has held on to watercolors as a favorite medium. As he says in his own words, ...because of the techniques one can use...anything, anyway...in exploring the medium.

Tremewen's affection for the freedom of expression in art has propelled him to try a myriad of themes and test the boundaries of what you can do with transparent watercolors. His barn series as well as his rainforest series stretch the standard of watercolor's. He uses a variation on a theme approach to the series that is to him experimenting with color, patterns, and texture with watercolor involving rainforests, barns, and nautical themes. These themes can be seen in his use of watercolors both transparent and textured...the rainforest alive, such an important place.

As an artist Tremewen has experimented with varied mediums and styles while retaining a very personal style seen throughout his works. He speaks of the vision of a painting rather than overanalyzing the work itself. I'm more into the creation of if it and I believe that I learn with each new work. I don't want to lose my spontaneity, therefore I don't analyze it too much - better for me to make it than talk about it! He has an honesty that lets the purity of the painting become the importance of the work rather than what truths lie within it.

Ian Tremewen's talents are represented in awards, publications, and public, corporate, and private collections. Several of his corporate collections are Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and Art, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, and Kaiser Permanente. His awards include the S.O.S. Festival Gold Medal/Bond University, Australia, Art Maui Poster Award and Suncorp Biennial and an original artwork cover on Point Out Magazine and Parkroyal Brochures.

Trey

Born in Atlanta in 1971, Trey has always been involved with art. While in high school, he was one of 10 students in the state chosen for the Governor's Honors Program. Similar honors followed him in his undergraduate work at the Savannah College of Art and Design, where he graduate Summa Cum Laude and was salutatorian of his class. After getting his Masters at Georgia State, he continued there as an instructor of figure drawing, and plans one day to return.

Favoring still life, Trey also enjoys doing abstracts, working mostly with mixed media. His aim is to create objects worth perceiving and believes that as long as one teaches, one learns.

Sarah Van Beckum

Most of Sarah Van Beckum's formative years took place on a 160 acre farm in Wisconsin, with a one year diversion to Colombia, South America. Now residing in Colorado, Van Beckum has enjoyed living in both Mexico City and Paris. "In Mexico I learned to love the primitive art and the whimsy and colors of Mexico. The aesthetics of the countryside of France, as well as the culture, art and elegance of Paris provided another view of the world." Indeed all of these experiences are present in the paper, paint and stitched works that Sarah produces in her studio near Denver. Her artwork beautifully incorporates the many artistic skills she has developed over the years, with a multicultural accent throughout. Her work has varied from dressmaking and tailoring in a couturier shop to teaching high school Spanish and French. But four years ago she opened her studio and began to market her artwork, the most rewarding work she can imagine.

Sarah's interest in design and textiles started as a child when she imagined fabric designs in her head and transferred them to paper. She greatly admired a family friend who was a children's book illustrator, "a wonderfully creative cook, a master gardener as well as an exquisite artist," thus fascinating the young and impressionable artist. "She worked in such fine detail with tiny brushes, and I was captivated to catch a glimpse of her at work in her home studio."

Another person influenced Van Beckum's career when she attended Mount Mary College in Milwaukee. Her design teacher was a renowned textile designer who taught design through silkscreen printing on textiles. "We created design and pattern and printed our work on 3 yard pieces of fabric," Sarah recalls. Her love for screen printing has endured ever since, and is an integral part of her present work. Sarah's collages consist of materials she creates herself. "I start my work by dying Goya rice paper which is quite fibrous and will withstand dye baths without disintegrating. I silkscreen and/or stamp print found objects to create background interest and texture. Collage, hand-painting with gouache, and finally stitching with metallic threads are some of the final applications."

Sarah now exhibits her work in galleries in the United States and Europe. She is in the permanent collections of many corporations including Merrill Lynch and Kohler Co. She lives in Colorado with her husband, Tim, and their three sons, Jake, Sam and Augie.

Debra Van Swearingen

Debra Van Swearingen has had a passion for photography since the age of 12. While working for the Department of Defense in government contracts, she took photography classes at the Oklahoma School of Photography. It was after a year of cancer remediation in 1995 that Debra decided to make her passion her profession. She established a studio in the artistically vibrant Paseo District of Oklahoma City in 1997 and has been producing art photography ever since.

Debra loves to photograph nature, as well as ornate architectural lines. She works with Polaroid film, using tools to manipulate the images during the emulsion and development process to give the prints a patina and infuse them with mood and emotion. Debra also hand-colors black and white photographs using a special fiber paper, oils and pencils to alter the focal point of the photos while being true to the original composition.

She derives inspiration from Renoir, Monet and Rembrandt for their use of color, lighting, composition and subtleties of technique. She also counts photographers Ansel Adams and Edward Weston among her mentors.

Debra displays her work in her studio/gallery in Paseo, and participates in local arts festivals. She has received awards from the Center for Visual Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the Firehouse Arts Center in Norman, Oklahoma.

The youngest of three children from Shawnee, Oklahoma, Debra moved to Norman to attend the University of Oklahoma and has lived there ever since. She met Greg, her husband of 16 years, there. Together they have a teenage daughter plus three grown boys from Greg's previous marriage. Debra enjoys working on her home as well as raising her daughter, and manages to fit in time to garden, travel and go boating.

Niro Vasali

Born in Palermo, Italy in 1969, Niro Vasali has always felt a solid connection to his Italian roots. Vasali has made a permanent home in the United States after studying at both the Minneapolis College of Art & Design and later at the Atlanta College of Art.

Vasali's color palette is reminiscent of the earth tones common to the landscape of southern Italy, while his evident passion for drama stems from the lavish influences of his childhood. His extent of techniques is vast, ranging from surrealism to intricate abstracts.

He feels that the substance of his work is his ability to blend his inner muse with traditional painting styles. Forever seeking to further develop his talent, Vasali has traveled extensively and continues to works closely with his mentors, Arturo Lindsey and Antonio Dojer.

Although rarely satisfied with his work, Vasali sees progress as the symbol of success and continually strives to enhance his manipulation over the canvas.

Silvia Vassileva

Silvia Vassileva took her first art class when she was twelve years old in her native Bulgaria. From that time she knew where her destiny would lead and she never wavered.

"After my first lesson, there was no doubt about what I wanted to do. I never changed my mind!" Silvia pursued her love of art at the Academy of Fine Art in Sofia where she attained her bachelor's and master's degrees. She then spent six years painting and exhibiting her work in Japan before moving to California, where she now lives with her husband and two children.

Bernhard Vogel

Austrian artist Bernhard Vogel is an instinctive master of watercolor. He achieves strength, drama and richness of color in a medium often associated with gentleness and soft hues.

Vogel was born in Salzburg and is an inveterate traveler. His work has taken him to Greece, Tunisia, the USA, Bali, Venice and Scotland, amongst other places. The resulting works manage to convey effortlessly the particular character of each place.

Sandy Wadlington

Those who appreciate the softly-painted and widely acclaimed New England landscapes of Sandy Wadlington find it easy to understand both her love for art and for the New England countryside that she paints. Her love of art began with finding tons of paper and boxes of pencils, crayons and paints under the Christmas tree each year as a child and is, fortunately, one she has never outgrown.

As to her focus, Wadlington says, In my art, I try to emphasize those qualities which appeal to me upon initial impact: a snow-covered mountain behind a clump of trees, the contrasts of the seasons, a crisp November sky.

And while Wadlington says there is no message in her art, that she simply tries to communicate the quintessential beauty that inspired it in the first place, her work certainly conveys a love for the New England countryside. Confirming this, Wadlington says that the simple yet sublime images of New England are indeed important to her. In her eyes nature in the form of mountains, water, sky, sunsets, light and trees should be revered in an almost religious sense.

Her work has been exhibited in individual and group shows throughout the country, including the Marvin Seline Gallery, Houston, Texas; the San Antonio Art Institute, San Antonio, Texas; and the Texas Fine Arts Association, Austin, Texas. She was represented in six shows in Japan in 1993, and her work is included in many corporate collections.

Wadlington was born and educated in Boston, but it was not until she married a Texan and moved willingly to Texas that she began to think clearly about the importance of the New England landscape in her art. Influenced, too, by her great-great-great grandfather, Alvin Fisher, one of the Hudson River painters, she began to act on her desire to continue with the landscape tradition.

Says the artist: Inspirations come from the New England coastline and the mountains of New Hampshire, all of which are near where I live. I try to focus on color as well as place - the strong sunlit coastal buildings in summer, the oranges of autumn against the distant blue, the subtle, colors of winter and spring. Mountains in winter, though often snow-covered, can have a warm, brilliant quality which I find appealing.

Wadlington, who works out of her studio in rural New Hampshire, says that being from New England, with its beauty and variety, makes it easy for her to work there. But having lived in the Southwest and on the West Coast and having traveled extensively, she says that it is not difficult to find the inspiration to paint no matter where she finds herself.

Ann Walker

Ann's paintings are more narrative, even when the story isn't evident. A history of assigning importance and meaning to color and texture, light and shadow, fill each image with an underlying truth. She works in layers, one building upon another; a metaphor for life itself.

A certain segment of Ann's work relies heavily on the use of hand made paper as a collage element. On those pieces she often include metallic leafs, the contrast between the rich gold essence and the common rough paper. Ann often scribbles poetry across the surface, and often paints over it. o She starts each clean piece of paper or canvas with a written affirmation of her spiritual commitment. The paint goes on after that.

Curt Walters

Curt Walters, one of the West's foremost landscape artists, grew up in La Plata Valley, near Farmington, New Mexico. He started painting at the age of 15 and never stopped. Painting has been his only vocation.

Walters is distinguished for his plein aire paintings of Western sites, as well as studio oils derived from color studies made at the site. Painting on location allows me to express my true emotions freely and to render nature at its fullest, just as the French Impressionists did, said Walters in an article in American Artist. Painting outdoors, direct from nature, has become an obsession.

Walters spends his time painting equally in California, New Mexico and Arizona. These states not only have some of the most varied and dramatic landscapes in the United States, but embedded in them, a history of fascinating and haunting cultures that have all but disappeared. In my paintings, I am committed to capturing some of the glory of the past, as well as some of the pristine beauty of the present in order to help preserve these images for future generations.

Andy Warhol

Best remembered for his declaration that everyone would have fifteen minutes of fame, artist Andy Warhol (1928-1987) cultivated celebrity status and achieved a level of notoriety normally reserved for Hollywood stars.

Born Andrew Warhola in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the artist began studies there at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1945. In 1949, Warhol moved to New York where he established himself as a successful commercial designer working for leading fashion houses. Taking his inspiration from commercial art and popular culture, Warhol produced a series of works that appropriated imagery from advertisements and tabloids, eliminating personal references and any trace of the artist's hand. His mechanically produced works were in stark contrast to the highly personal statements of the Abstract Expressionist.

A 1962 exhibition that featured his "Campbell's Soup Cans" and "Coca-Cola Bottles" brought Warhol instantaneous celebrity status and he was proclaimed the leader of the Pop Art movement. In 1963 Warhol established his New York studio which he called "The Factory" and increasingly relied on assistants to produce his work. In 1965 the artist shifted his focus to film and performance art. He produced numerous multi-media events he labeled "The Exploding Plastic Inevitable." The Andy Warhol Museum opened in the artist's hometown of Pittsburgh in 1994.

John William Waterhouse

The drama and romance of Classical art and architecture made a lasting impression on eminent Victorian artist John William Waterhouse (1849-1917) and provided the inspiration and setting for many of his best known works. Born in Rome, Waterhouse's parents, both English artists, nurtured his artistic talent and love of classical subjects. Upon his family's return to England in 1870, Waterhouse attended Royal Academy Schools. The artist's early work, historical genre in ancient settings, was strongly influenced by the work of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema.

Throughout his career Waterhouse painted romantic and poetic subjects, often featuring women characterized by their wistful expression and haunting sensuality. Waterhouse was strongly influenced by the work of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and adapted many of their classical and literary themes for his own compositions. The densely atmospheric works of Waterhouse's mature style is characterized by bold brushwork and a rich, opalescent palette.

Later in his career the artist advanced to a looser style, distinguished by a lighter palette and an increasingly refined handling of paint. During his lifetime, the artist enjoyed a high level of success and frequently exhibited at the Royal Academy. Waterhouse enjoyed the support of many distinguished patrons and his work was collected by British and Australian museums. The artist worked up until his death in 1917, leaving his final work, The Enclosed Garden unfinished.

Susy Pilgrim Waters

Susy Pilgrim Waters prefers things that are a little out of the ordinary, not part of a routine, a tad off-center. She hangs art in arrangements that defy the norms, employing her own unique sense of design and composition. In her artwork, she works with multiple media – ink, paper, paint, tissue, photos, wood, canvas, and occasionally computer graphics – so that she is not confined to any one of them. As an illustrator, Susy creates pieces to fulfill assignments, but she also reserves time to explore new subjects and techniques for artistic growth.

Susy's first job as an illustrator was to hand-letter and paint 25 dinner menus for a restaurant in the North End of Boston. She is now a regular contributor to the Boston Globe, Washington Post, New York Times, Metropolitan Home and Gourmet Magazine. Her studio is a busy, sometimes chaotic, place, that ironically provides Susy with a sense of calm and happiness: the crazy pace matches her boundless creativity.

Susy met her husband Keith while at art school in London. Shortly afterwards, the native Britons moved to Texas, started a family, and eventually settled in the Boston area where they live with their two teenage children, one cockapoo, three rabbits and two cats.

Diana Watson

"What inspires me to make Art?" asks Australian artist, Diana Watson. And she answers, "Everything. It is a complete way of life, never far from my thoughts, seeing beauty all around me, colors, shapes, shadows, nature and the challenge of putting it on canvas. I love Picasso's quote, 'The purpose of art is to wash the dust of everyday life from our souls'."

Diana paints in oils on canvas or board and works from her studio overlooking Sydney harbor. An early memory is sitting and drawing with her father, and her art career flexed with the stages of life: school, marriage, motherhood. She studied fine and commercial art, and worked as an illustrator for interior design and fashion advertising. "When trompe l'oeil and painted furniture became fashionable I launched into that. Then came fashion drawing commissions, and fabric painting, anything creative. It was not until our daughters had left home that I was able to follow my real dream to paint full time."

Diana is a prolific artist of sumptuous still life paintings, Italy-inspired landscapes, horse studies, and the human figure. Though her daughters have families of their own, Diana remains creatively connected to them and finds their family conversations continually influence her work. "Design, in every form," she muses, "is a constant topic of discussion." Her husband, Bill, is her greatest support system and handles the business side of her studio. She is represented by galleries in Australia and the United States.

Chase Web

"Color excites me," says Wisconsin native Chase Web. "Breaking rules and playing outside the lines are some of my greatest joys. I celebrate life in my art and I hope it shows."

Chase Web followed a fairly unusual path to his current career as a portrait painter. He studied art in college, but graduated with a degree in marketing and then received an MBA from the University of Wisconsin. He worked in advertising and eventually became President and Creative Director of a firm. Four years ago he left that post to paint full-time, though he continues to consult and give lectures about creativity and creative problem solving.

"I am passionate about art," he says. "After a career where I created work to others' specifications, I now enjoy listening to that inner voice." Chase paints in oils on a variety of surfaces in a converted sunroom on the northwest side of his home. Here he paints in two very distinctive styles: portraits influenced by the California expressionists; and the pure escapist play of his work published here, work that is free of rules and strictures. This work is influenced by Modigliani, Cubists, and the Fauve-Expressionists of the 20s and 30s. He revels in violating the laws of perspective to "capture light, and joyful and sometimes whimsical subjects."

Chase is represented by galleries in the U.S. and has received painting and illustration awards throughout his career. He lives with his wife Joanne and their three children in the beautiful Kettle Moraine lake country west of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Susan Webster

Maryland artist Susan Webster began her professional art career in seventh grade when she designed a business card for the doctor who lived across the street. That turned out to be just the beginning of a life-long career in art.

Susan grew up on both the East Coast and in the Pacific Northwest. After graduating from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University with a degree in printmaking, Susan worked as as a cartographer for an environmental planning firm before focusing on her own artwork full-time. She is now represented by several galleries on the east and west coasts with the demand of her originals keeping her quite busy.

Her paintings are compilations of collagraph prints, charcoal, pastels, fabric paints, collage and impasto. Susan's style is vivid and mobile, an expressionist abstraction of the mundane with a strong fauvist bent. She finds her greatest inspiration in the German Expressionists. "They show how to portray one's inner self without words, and use striking colors to get the point across." The bright colors and expressions she creates in her art reflect her own personality and life perspective.

That perspective changed when Susan received a heart transplant seven years ago. It has motivated her to live life to its fullest, to seize every moment. She has taken classes to try new things such as horseback riding and glass blowing and is on a mission to visit as much of the world as possible and experience many different cultures during the second chance at life.

Susan lives with her husband Bill on the eastern shore of Chesapeake Bay. Her attached studio is "a place for me to work amongst all my junk with charcoal dust, paper scraps and dog hairs" without any pressure to keep it neat. She shares the studio with Truman, her Dalmatian, who is occasionally a subject of her paintings. When not in the studio, Susan and Bill enjoy sailing their boat on the Chesapeake Bay.

Bi Wei

Contemporary Impressionist Bi Wei's eloquent paintings capture the essence of her subject with an exceptional sense of light and color, reminiscent of French Impressionist masters.

Wei was born in Canton, China. Her formal art education began at Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art, one of only six art colleges in China. There the artist fulfilled her childhood dream of learning to paint from many of China's masters and renowned teachers. Fascinated by the French Impressionists, Wei sought to master the subtleties of light and shadow and concentrated on developing methods of using rich color to capture light in her work. After concluding her studies in China in 1982, the artist came to the United States to obtain further instruction at the Massachusetts College of Art and completed a degree in Fine Arts in 1985.

Wei's painting is a unique blend of Eastern and Western influences, combining the elegant line and rich pattern of traditional Chinese painting with Impressionist subject matter and style.

Lee White

Lee White's first expressions of artistic creativity were recognized by his grandmother Lizzy when Lee was eight years old. Daily, she set aside time for Lee to create. At age twelve, he received the Mayor's trophy for Artists sponsored by the Miami Herald. Lee's formal training began in California where he studied at the California College of Commercial Design, the City College of Los Angeles. He received a fine art degree from the California Institute of Arts. During the seventies and eighties, serigraphy became a strong medium for Lee's talent. He had the unique experience of being tutored by the famed master of printmaking, Waren Woodward.

After relocating to the Southeast, Lee began working with other leading artists and printmakers. The development, evolution, birth and growth of Lee's present style, the compelling power and uniqueness of his range of humanistic insight with which Lee lays down mixed media on each canvas has matured and he has come into his own.

His personal journey from Florida, upbringing in Southern California, traveling to exotic islands in the Caribbean, and finally moving to Atlanta have all contributed to an extremely diverse cultural experience from coast to coast. The emotions, color and excitement can be felt in his images.

His prolific work, exquisite figuratives, abstract expressions, still lifes and collages are in private and corporate collections across the United States, in Europe and throughout the world.

Suzan Riggsbee White

My earliest memories are drawing related, says Suzan Riggsbee White. "I drew or painted on anything and everything. At age eight I presented my parents with a surprise nine-foot high mural of The Three Bears, which I had painted on their bedroom wall with red enamel paint. The landlord was emotionally moved by my work."

Raised in Westchester, New York, Suzan now lives in South Hero, Vermont, a village in a remote northern corner of the state. Suzan studied printmaking and drawing at Wellesley College and received the studio art award upon graduation. She completed graduate work in painting at the Vermont Studio Center, and soon earned recognition in local shows and galleries. Suzan's work presents itself as "an idea that will not be ignored." She layers quick-drying paint on heavy canvas to create decorative pieces that are suitable for wall or floor.

Currently, her images include maps which depict both flora and fauna. Long walks along the lake and in the woods often provide "seeds" for paintings. "Painting is a way for me to tune into the rhythm and natural splendor of nature."

Jody Whitsell

Raised in Ramsey, New Jersey, Jody Whitsell has an irrepressible urge to create. Jody received her BFA from William Paterson College in Wayne, NJ in 1980, but didn't begin her artistic career until 1999. Being very diversified in her studies, Jody decided to concentrate on painting in gouache watercolors and portrayed realistic rural scenes and still lifes. She has won numerous regional awards and has exhibited in national shows. Then her interests took a turn when she decided to do a fun unconventional portrait of her dog, Mac.

Working on canvas with vivid acrylic paints, she wanted to capture the personality of her pet in a loose fashion in a loose fashion, which was totally opposite from her tight finely detailed gouache paintings. She had so much fun she hasn't turned back in almost 2 years. Being a lover of both animals and art, and believing that fun in necessary in life, Jody has incorporated it all in her dog portraits. They are full of life; personality and character, just like her loveable furry subjects.

Keith Wicks

Keith Wicks always wanted to be an artist even as a child growing up in Bakersfield, California. "If it were not for art and athletics in high school, I wouldn't have done well at all," he confesses. "I just didn't fit in. I was always drawing in class." His grandfather enrolled him in an art class taught by a woman who rarely accepted children as art students. She made the exception for Wicks, though, because she was impressed by his artistic abilities. In the 6th grade he entered several city-wide art contests, and won a blue ribbon for one his works—the first recognition he received for his art.

After high school, Wicks attended a junior college, where a painting instructor urged him to go on to art school. Instead, he opened his own business, working in graphics and doing whatever he could to earn a living by drawing. He built a successful advertising business, but realized he wasn't going where he wanted. At age 30 he enrolled in the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA. Later, he taught figure painting and drawing for several years at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco.

Although he continues to exhibit work in several galleries, last year Wicks opened his own gallery, Vermilion Art in Sonoma, California. The founding member of the Sonoma Plein Air Group, Wicks frequently paints on location in the United States. In addition to Vermilion Art, Wicks is represented in California by Powell Street Gallery, William Torphy Fine Arts, and Win Henstock Gallery.

Marta Wiley

Marta Wiley's (formerly Gottfried) art is an colorful, captivating, and varied as the artist herself. Born in Mexico City, Wiley is of European, Irish and Cherokee descent. As a child, there was a wild streak in young Marta that her grandmother, also an artist, helped channel into the fine arts. Time and maturity have not stilled the childhood energy and verve of this artist. Wiley's passions run as deeply and soulfully as her dignified figurative creations.

My concerns are for the planet, the evolution of the human species, and the balance between the environment and those who are responsible for its continuation. I believe in being aware of personal actions and reactions in order to place the utmost responsibility on the individual. I believe in the individual as a source of ultimate manifestation - in balance and beauty with all living creatures. This is what turns me on the most - the ultimate attainment of the Highest Self - physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

It seems that Wiley's quest for Highest Self has led down several avenues of expression. In addition to her poignant and intense concern for the environment, Wiley is a gifted singer and songwriter. Her inspirations follow varied paths - from the mystical and mythological experimental films of Maya Daren, to the far-reaching expanses of Carlos Castenada's writing to meditation and self-imposed discipline. These inspirations are all evidenced through her art - the dreamlike and alluring figuratives, the romantic, fantastical quality of her settings, the bold texturing and decisive detailing. All combine to produce a piece that is equally seductive as contemplative.

Wiley credits her grandmother with teaching her everything she knows about painting. Additional influences are the work and technique of Sargent, Edvard Munch, and Kathe Kollowitz. Wiley was formally trained at Otis Parsons School of Design. While her idealistic time periods are the Renaissance and the time of Atlantis, her peeves center on much more temporal subjects - whiners, complainers and bullies. If current acclamation of her work is any indication, Wiley, or at least her art, won't have anything to worry about.

Albert Williams

Painting everyday, particularly during the season from Spring to late Autumn, Albert brings nature indoors by means of his canvas. Born in Sussex, in 1922, Albert studied at an early age under his Father and Grandfather, before attending Brighton College of Art as well as academic study in London and Paris. Originally a figurative and portrait painter, Albert has specialized in floral painting for many years. Working at all times, direct from nature, each flower becomes a portrait of an individual bloom that is incorporated into a floral composition.

Jeff Williams

Jeff, a native Georgian, began painting as a child and knew at an early age that art would be his life's work. After graduating from the Art Institute of Atlanta in 1989, he formed a commercial and graphics art firm, Integrated Images. Despite the company's success, painting has remained his first love. While Williams' paintings are typically colorful and full of character, his most recent work has begun to evolve in a new direction. His use of metal, texture and found objects has broken the plane of the canvas and added new dimension to his paintings.

As is evident in his work, Williams is very drawn to and inspired by the Art Deco period of the 1920's and 30's. Perhaps his attraction to the era can be attributed to his personal connection to the spirit of the times, a "Happy Celebration of Life". It is his hope that his work will evoke a similar sense of joy in his audience.

Bob Willoughby

In the early 1950's, Los Angeles born Bob Willoughby began his career photographing for Harper's Bazaar. He was soon discovered by the film studios, becoming the first 'special' photographer, when Warner Brothers assigned him to photograph Judy Garland on "A Star Is Born", beginning a non-stop 20 year collaboration with the publicity departments of all of the major Hollywood studios. His distinction as a 'special' photographer emerged in the unique relationship between the world of the Hollywood film, its stars and personalities and the great magazines and periodicals of the day.

His essential art emerged in his ability to function not just as an adjunct to the production, but to create a special documentation of the course of each film. In doing so he captured with wonderful perception the actors and directors on and off the set, in moments of repose and high drama. He provided the great magazines like LOOK and LIFE with a new link to the very essence of Hollywood filmmaking.

While Willoughby is most famous as the great chronicler of Hollywood, before he began covering film production, he had already made an astonishing series of portraits of jazz musicians. Willoughby had a masterful feel for the character of his sitters, and was able to convey it even in the low lighting conditions of recording studios or when they were performing on stage.

Willoughby was recently honored by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science in Hollywood, with a major retrospective exhibition of his work. His work is in the permanent collection of: The National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., The National Portrait Gallery, London, The National Museum of Photography, Bradford, UK, The Biblioteque Nationale, Paris, The Museum of Modern Art, Film Department, New York, and La Musee de la Photographie, Charleroi, Belgium. Bob Willoughby now lives in the south of France with his lovely wife Dorothy.

Valerie Willson

Willson lives on rural island near Seattle, Washington, and is influenced both by an intense immersion in nature and close involvement in the process of people's lives. Patterns fascinate her. The patterns in growing things and the patterns in our lives, the way humans address similar issues over and over, yet differently each time. Hope and joy fascinate Willson, as they are woven into the continual cycle of living things, and "...in the way for us as humans in that it is a reason to live and yet such a challenge." It is these concepts that Willson thinks about and attempts to infuse into her abstract paintings as she builds/subtracts layer upon layer and pattern over pattern.

Over the years, Valerie Willson has become increasingly interested in incorporating the techniques of monotype into her paintings. Coming from a background of printmaking (etching and monoprinting), Willson continues to be drawn to the freedom and serendipity of the monotype process, while somehow finding that she wants to extend that process into a more substantial finished object.

Willson begins by gessoeing heavy rag paper on both sides. Then she dries it in blotters, creating a very flat surface which will take a lot of abuse. Beginning with an underpainting of a fairly brilliant color, she builds textures and colors slowly, using both substrative and additive processes. She applies paint with stencils (lace, Japanese papers, found objects), stamps (handcut blockprints, commercial made patterns), and textures. Paint is applied both with a brush and with rollers. As in monotype, what is revealed in the subtractive process often becomes the most exciting and unique aspect of the piece. The finished work is varnished and framed, or attached to an archivally finished wood panel.

Willson received a B.F.A. from Portland Museum of Art School in Portland, OR in 1972; and also attended the North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, NC; University of Oregon in Eugene, OR; and Southern Oregon State College in Ashland, OR. In addition to receiving education Willson has imparted quite a bit of art education to others as well, teaching printmaking, monoprinting and drawing at various schools and colleges.

From the early 70's to the present Willson has had numerous group and solo exhibitions throughout the Pacific Northwest, nationally and internationally. Her works have appeared as illustrations in several publications; her works have won many awards; and appear in various public and private collections, including the Portland Art Museum, Safeco Corporation and Fred Meyer Charitable Trust.

Deborah Wilson

Deborah Wilson's artistic journey into the world of photography began in high school art classes. Years later, still interested in art but frustrated by her drawing and painting skills, she turned to the camera. It is behind the lens that she discovered her creative outlet, and she has been photographing nature, people and elements of different cultures ever since.

Using a Nikon 35 mm SLR camera or a Nikon digital camera, Deborah searches for unusual angles, textures, color, light and character. "I tend to take shots that are very close-up or from a different angle, trying to capture the details that make a location, person or culture really unique."

Deborah was born in Pennsylvania and spent her early childhood there before moving to Cincinnati. She lives in Texas, where she has spent most of her adult life.

Deborah travels extensively. "I feel very lucky to have the opportunity to broaden my view of the world through travel, and hopefully, to share that view through my camera."

When asked about her studio, she says: "My studio is wherever I am. That's one of the things I love about photography. I rarely leave the house without a camera."

Ty Wilson

When Ty Wilson (1959-) presented his older brother's drawing of a blue bird as his own in kindergarten, his teacher was so impressed she asked him to draw another while the class looked on. Armed with a blue Crayola, Wilson stared at a blank sheet of white paper for several long, silent minutes before vowing two things: he would never again lie, and he would learn to draw. Fifteen years later, Wilson began his professional art career with Hallmark Greeting Cards. When Hallmark turned down his own design portfolio in 1984, Wilson framed the rejection letter and set his sights on New York. There, his elegant and stylish illustrations were an immediate success in the advertising and fashion worlds. His work was used by corporate giants such as Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Vanity Fair, Macy's and Bloomingdales. He has also done posters for many Broadway shows, including the revival of "Hay Fever" and the musical "Staggerlee."

Wilson's illustrative artwork portrays and captures a by-gone era when romance and elegance reigned. His bold, minimal line drawings elicit feelings of fun, romance, rhythm and sophistication. His art is often made up of only black and white, with just a splash of color - red lips or a red rose. He aims to create a mood with as few lines as possible.

Wilson has been influenced by such great masters as Matisse, Picasso, Ert,, Al Hirschfeld and Andy Warhol. His work is featured in two books: "Fashion Illustration" by Colin Barnes and "The Professional Guide to Marketing, Design and Illustration" by Mary Young.

Nicholas Wilton

Nicholas Wilton grew up in Marin County, California. He attended the College of Creative Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara and graduated from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Rich in color, texture and symbols, Wilton's work references the magical imagery of dreams and the subconscious.

In addition to gallery exhibitions and the inclusion in numerous private collections, Nicholas Wilton's paintings have been featured internationally in editorial and corporate print media. He has illustrated the children's books "Feathers and Fools" by Mem Fox and "Where Do the Butterflies Go When It Rains?" by Mae Garelick. His paintings have appeared on numerous magazine and book covers, including the national bestseller "The Four Agreements" by Don Miguel Ruiz. He has received awards from the Marin Arts Council Society of Illustrators, Communication Arts, Print Magazine, New York Art Directors Club, AIGA and American Illustration.

Nicholas lives in Lagunitas, CA with his wife and two daughters.

Lynne Windsor

Born in Lincolnshire, England, in 1953, Lynne Windsor's passion for creativity began with encouragement from an enthusiastic art teacher at Hawnes School in Bedfordshire. She studied drawing and design principles at Loughborough College of Art and Design in Leicestershire, and then earned her B.A. Honors at Hornsey College of Art and Design, London, in 1975. There she studied 3-dimensional design, specializing in ceramics.

While raising her family, Windsor continued to attend life drawing, etching, sculpture and painting classes at Richmond College and St. Martins Art College, London. In 1989, she began painting exclusively in oils. In September 1993, she traveled to New Mexico to paint for three weeks. This journey proved to be a major turning point for the artist.

Windsor has traveled extensively in Europe, Morocco and parts of the U.S., visiting many museums along the way. In 1995, she and her husband, Barry McCuan, a native New Mexican painter, spent half a year capturing the beauty of the countryside of Great Britain and southern France on canvas. Although Windsor frequently travels to England, she feels most comfortable when she returns to her home in Abiquiu, New Mexico.

"Photos, sketches, notes and memory help me recapture what might have been a fleeting inspiration," Windsor says of her art. "Using a limited palette, mainly on Baltic birch panels and at times linen, I work in layers of opaque paint and glazes. I am fascinated by the subtleties in color created by glazes."

Windsor was chosen as the official artist for the 1997 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta poster. In 1997, she was also chosen to exhibit with three other New Mexican artists at the University of New Mexico - Los Alamos invitational show.

Ian Winstanley

After college, Ian Winstanley developed his early career in Birmingham working for one of the top studios. He was exclusively involved in the advertising and design industries, but later found fine art based work with the help of Private View, a London artist's agency.

Winstanley's work philosophy is to approach an image like a designer would and draw inspiration from all areas of art. The ability to channel such information in a particular direction without destroying the initial energy needs a disciplined sensitivity. "My images should maintain a delicate balance between the natural and the refined – a mixture of the intentional and the arbitrary."

At 30, Ian Winstanley has his own studio and is proving to be one of England's leading fine art photographers.

David Lorenz Winston

David Lorenz Winston studied photography at Pennsylvania State University where he received a B.A. in art in 1965. His work reflects a lifelong love of the natural landscape and of human nature. While David's photographs are inspired by the people and panoramas of Siberia, Peru, India, Nepal, Tibet, Greece, Portugal and Nova Scotia, most of his photographs are from the Delaware Valley where he lives and works.

Winston's images have been exhibited in numerous one person and group exhibits on the East Coast. He has received many first place and best of show awards.

In 1994 he began experimenting with the computer. It has opened up a broad range of possibilities and led the way to new bodies of work.

Art Wolfe

The photography of Art Wolfe (1951-) captures the sheer beauty and wonder of the earth's far corners, documenting endangered species and landscapes that could be lost to future generations. His photographs are a profound statement of what exists, as well as a plea for preservation.

Wolfe is a master of composition, an image magician who creates visual symphonies for the eyes and heart. Traveling thousands of miles annually to capture revealing portraits of wildlife, his animal studies capitalize on his subject's distinguishing features, instinctual behavior and natural habitat. "The shots that are most successful are the photographs where the animal and I have direct eye contact. That's the emotion of the moment."

His landscape photographs are virtual paintings which mix vibrant color, texture, shape and the rhythmic pattern of form and space with unusual light conditions. Wolfe creates ethereal, often mystical, impressions of nature, from haunting, misty landscapes to abstract close ups. His photos jar the senses, awaken the imagination, allowing us access into distant worlds.

As the youngest of three children born to a Navy-photographer father and a commercial-artist mother, Wolfe dreamed of becoming a full-time painter, not a photographer. It was at the University of Washington, while majoring in fine arts and art education that he first began experimenting with an old, used camera. Self-taught, he quickly mastered the mechanics of photography which proved to be the perfect medium for him, one which reflected both his strength as a painter and his love of nature and composition.

Wolfe recently hosted "Safari," a television program on ESPN in which he guided celebrities on photographic expeditions into the wild. Working with fund-raising programs for zoos from coast to coast, Wolfe also works on assignment and publishes frequently with periodicals such as National Geographic, National Wildlife, National Audubon and Smithsonian. He also has released "On Location with Art Wolfe," an instructional video filmed in Alaska, regularly leads photographic workshops and has several more books in the works on subjects as diverse as migratory patterns, primates, eagles and the rainforests of the world.

Grant Wood

Grant Wood (1892-1942), an American artist, was a member of the American Regionalist School, a group of artists who painted scenes of the American Midwest. This artistic movement was formed to permit painters to move away from the style which prevailed at the time. Wood began his career at the Handicraft Guild of Minneapolis where he studied wood and metal works. He opened and worked in a handicraft shop in Iowa upon completion of his studies, but an unflagging interest in painting took him to the Art Institute of Chicago and to The Acadamie Julian in Paris where he studied art and painting.

In 1928, he went to Munich to supervise a commission for stained glass window works and discovered "Netherlandish" paintings. He abandoned his earlier, impressionistic style of painting and picked up the more detailed manner of Dutch masters.

Wood's artwork was brought to national attention in 1930 when his painting, "American Gothic," won a bronze medal at the Art Institute of Chicago. "American Gothic" aroused controversy among the art community who were upset with Wood's caricatures of "plain, country folk." During the 1930s, Wood supervised many Iowa projects for the Federal Arts Project. He remained in Iowa for the remainder of his life, teaching fine arts at the University of Iowa.

After his death, there was a retrospective exhibition of his works held at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Leonard Wren

Leonard Wren's earliest influence was a decorative one, in the form of automotive pin striping. His fine art influence came later, in 1968, when he visited various art museums. He was particularly impressed by a show of Impressionist works in New York. He attended Goetz Art School, the Scottsdale Artist School, and the Art Student League. In 1976 he decided to pursue fine art as a vocation. Acquiring instruction and information full-time, he had his first solo show six months later, and sold out.

Wren loves the freedom to create and to do as he pleases while communicating the beauty of life to others. Creating art gives him the opportunity to examine the visual world with sensual intensity. Most of his work is en plein air in the classic tradition of the French Impressionists. Each painting is begun and almost completed in a quick burst of activity, and the subtle refinements are added slowly from memory. Wren hopes that his work will convey to the viewer an optimistic sense of beauty and pleasure.

His work has been shown in over 20 solo exhibitions and many group shows in galleries and museums throughout the U.S. and France.

Norman Wyatt, Jr.

In addition to being an artist himself, Norman Wyatt, Jr. shares his passion for art by teaching the subject to elementary school students. "I have a very cozy, rustic studio in a huge warehouse-turned-art center, but I use that studio mostly for display. I do more of my painting in the classroom during breaks, surrounded by vibrant, colorful elementary art."

A native Virginian, Wyatt lives in the city in which he was born. He studied art at Virginia State University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in Visual Communications, Art, and Design. He is married to Maketah, a physical therapist. Their young son, Elisha, already shows signs of following in his father's footsteps, spending time drawing on the living room floor almost every day.
Wyatt believes his technique and style are most influenced by Klimt and other impressionists. He starts his paintings by applying layers of acrylics on paper or canvas and then uses his own unique weathering technique to reveal various shades and textures. Finally, he adds details via stamping, pen and ink, and dry brushing.

Wyatt loves to collect pottery and earthy, rich-toned décor. "At one point, I worked in an African gift shop, so textures and patterns seem to roll off of my palette." One of his favorite things is the beauty of autumn. "I would say that nature and the constant changes of nature inspire me the most."

Gholam Yunessi

Master of the poetic juxtaposition of classic and contemporary styles, Gholam Yunessi powerfully blends sensitive tonality with vibrant color to create art that transcends visual aesthetics. His creations stir subtle emotions that take residence in our unconscious.

This talent has been molded through years of dedication to the masters of his native Tehran -- starting with one of Persia's most famous sculptors, his uncle, who nurtured, shaped and chiseled the foundation of Yunessi's creativity. Yunessi continued his development under the guidance of renowned Persian artist, Shaness, and studied the history and techniques of the fine art of painting at the Tehran College of Fine Art.

Yunessi also frequently traveled to Europe to gain a personal understanding of the masters and the styles that characterized European art. As a result of this exposure he was able to move beyond the familiar and create a truly personal style that is born of passion, not custom. Finally, with this rich balance of near-eastern and European influences, he moved to America, where he now lives and where he continues to create and produce work that is recognized and exhibited around the world.

Helen Zarin

Born in Shiraz, Iran in 1970, Helen Zarin can remember beginning to paint pictures as early as the age of 5. As a high school student, Zarin studied with the well-known Persian artist and teacher, Saber. Later she enrolled in the Art and Culture Society, a national organization for gifted Persian artists. As a student of Art and Culture, she refined her skills in the various mediums of painting, in particular pastels and oil, at the same time earning a number of national awards.

Conditions in her native country eventually compelled Zarin to turn elsewhere for the creative nourishment an artist needs. Hard work and God-given talent are not enough for an artist to progress and blossom, she remarks. Creative freedom in the right atmosphere is essential. In the pursuit of these artistic prerequisites, she journeyed first to Europe and finally to the United States, where she now lives and works.

Arriving in New York City in 1993, Zarin attended LaGuardia University and, later, Catonsville Community College, in Baltimore, Maryland, where she learned English and further advanced her art education.

Zelda

Zelda Minkist, a native of Ithaca, New York, was apprenticed as a professional photographer's assistant when she was still in the sixth grade. H