Alex Stevenson Diaz, 1962 | Abstract painter

Alex Stevenson Diaz is an artist with appreciation of the human, which communicates through expressive poses the inner struggle of man with himself, his yearnings for freedom, their prisons and bonds.

Anatomies which express the hardness in a baroque miguelangelesco. The tension of his hands and fingers or the rigidity of the neck muscles in head turns back, giving way to an energy that comes from the inside more visceral.

Leonardo da Vinci | Mona Lisa, Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, 1503-1504

This portrait was doubtless started in Florence around 1503. It is thought to be of Lisa Gherardini, wife of a Florentine cloth merchant named Francesco del Giocondo - hence the alternative title, La Gioconda. However, Leonardo seems to have taken the completed portrait to France rather than giving it to the person who commissioned it. After his death, the painting entered François I's collection.

• Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco Giocondo

The history of the Mona Lisa is shrouded in mystery. Among the aspects which remain unclear are the exact identity of the sitter, who commissioned the portrait, how long Leonardo worked on the painting, how long he kept it, and how it came to be in the French royal collection.

The portrait may have been painted to mark one of two events - either when Francesco del Giocondo and his wife bought their own house in 1503, or when their second son, Andrea, was born in December 1502 after the death of a daughter in 1499. The delicate dark veil that covers Mona Lisa's hair is sometimes considered a mourning veil. In fact, such veils were commonly worn as a mark of virtue. Her clothing is unremarkable. Neither the yellow sleeves of her gown, nor her pleated gown, nor the scarf delicately draped round her shoulders are signs of aristocratic status.

Julie Bell, 1958 | Fantasy / Wildlife painter / Book Illustrator

American artist🎨 Julie Bell was born in Beaumont, Texas. A former nationally ranked competitive bodybuilder, she applies the same discipline and intensity to her art career.

Her knowledge of anatomy has allowed her to imbue her figures of humans and animals with grace and strength. At the heart of her work is a deep curiosity, honor, and respect for the world of emotions.

After having her heart captured by a pack of wolves at Lakota Wolf Preserve in 2001, Julie has also turned her attention to painting wildlife.

She is strongly earning her place among the top wildlife and western painters, winning awards🎨 and showing her work in exhibits throughout the USA and Europe.

Boris Vallejo, 1941 | Fantasy painter / Illustrator

Peruvian painter Boris Vallejo works almost exclusively in the fantasy genres. His hyper-representational paintings have appeared on the covers of numerous science fiction and fantasy paperbacks and are featured in a series of best-selling glossy calendars.

Subjects of his paintings are typically sword and sorcery gods, monsters, and well-muscled male and female barbarians engaged in battle.

Vallejo began painting at the age of 13, in 1954, and had his first illustration job three years later, in 1957, at the age of 16. He attended the Escuela Nacional Superior Autónoma de Bellas Artes on a five-year scholarship, and was awarded🎨 a prize medal.

Poonam Chandrika Tyagi, 1964 | Symbolist painter

Indian painter Poonam Chandrika Tyagi is a Master of Arts in “Drawings and Paintings” from R.G. College, Meerut.

In the paintings of the artist, a woman who is known in the Indian panorama pittorico, manifests a world that is "haunted" by the ancient myths, primordial energies of Eros, representations of erotic passion and sublime.

In many works it takes the iconic image of a woman who is almost a contortionist. Poonam Chandrika Tyagi takes a pictorial space that evokes a sense of Indian tradition.

Neo-Impressionist Artists | Sitemap

Neo-Impressionism is a term applied to an avant-garde art movement that flourished principally in France from 1886-1906. Led by the example of Georges Seurat🎨, artists of the Neo-Impressionist circle renounced the random spontaneity of Impressionism🎨 in favor of a measured painting technique grounded in science and the study of optics.

Georges Seurat🎨 (1859-1891) A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, 1884

Edwin Georgi (1896-1964) | Magazine Illustrator

Edwin Georgi was an American artist🎨 born in 1896. He was best known for his dynamic pin-up illustrations, but surprisingly, based on his talent, he did not initially pursue art as a career.

A leader in the second wave of "pretty-girl" artists: more like pin-ups without actually being pin-ups. Largely self-taught, learning his way up in ad and art agencies. A pilot in WWI.

Style ranged from simple, posteresque lines and colors to his more famous pointillist🎨 pieces with boldly directed light, a unique use of warm shadows, and sparkling colors.

Like Seurat🎨, Edwin Georgi shunned the easy solution of using literal colour, preferring the challenge of conducting an orchestra of coloured points to play a symphony of dazzling luminosity.

That lack of literal color gives Georgi's illustrations a magical quality.