Richard Blunt | Historia de un amor

- Born in Stourbridge in the West Midlands I had a happy but pretty average childhood for a kid growing up in the eighties.

My favourite place to be was outside but if I was ever inside I loved to be creative, especially with art and later on playing guitar and music.

On leaving school I went to art college to study 3D design and although I enjoyed the course, as with many teens I was easily distracted and became easily derailed.

I soon began to lose my way and eventually dropped out of art college early.

József Kárpáti, 1956 | Figurative painter

József Kárpáti was born in Kevermes, Békés County, Hungary.

Graduated as a teacher of arts at the Teacher Training College of Eger.

At the beginning he took interest in the non-figurative style of painting, which shows the influence of his master, Ignác Kokas.

Within some years he found his individual abstract world of images.

Maria Serafina, 1955 | Impressionist / Romantic painter

Maria Serafina Tribunella is an American of Sicilian origin (born in Collesano, Palermo); raised and educated in New York City.

After receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from New York University, she married and moved to the home of her ancestors, Italy.

It is there shat she now resides making her living as an accomplished painter alongside her husband, the Neapolitian artist, Raimondi Roberti.

The return to her native land has proved to be very important in the development of her artistic work.

There is a very strong influence of The Grand Tour heritage of Southern Italy that is nostalgically rendered in her paintings.

Boris Indrikov, 1967 | Magical Realism painter

Борис Индриков is a Russian painter contemporary artist, renowned for his highly detailed work in the genre of fantastic realism.

His unique visual language seamlessly weaves together elements of surrealism, symbolism and Art Nouveau, heavily influenced by the masters of the European Renaissance and Eastern cultures.

Born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), Indrikov initially pursued engineering before shifting his full focus to art in 1990.

Renso Castaneda, 1970 | Figurative painter

Renso Castaneda (born Renso Zevallos Castaneda) is a prominent Peruvian contemporary figurative painter known for his highly detailed oil paintings that blend precise realism with surrealism.

Born in Lima, Peru, his artwork focuses heavily on portraiture and the exploration of the human form, often infusing his subjects with dreamlike, emotional and poetic elements.

Beyond his career as a gallery artist, Castaneda is highly active in international art education, teaching fine art techniques to global audiences online.

Graduated from the National Autonomous Superior School of Fine Arts of Peru, where he studied painting from 1989 to 1995.

Pantelis Zografos, 1949 | Watercolors of Greek Islands

Παντελής Ζωγράφος was born in Athens, Greece, into a family with along tradition of producing fine artists.

In greek language, the name of Zografos - Ζωγράφος - means artist: and following the Greek custom, Pantelis took the name of his paternal grandfather, a renowned iconographer.

Both of his parents were professional artists, and he spent much of his youth in their studio in Athens.

In 1971, after serving the Greek Air Force, Pantelis moved to America.

He studied at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and painted landscapes in his spare time.

Eva Antonini, 1961 | Figurative sculptor

Eva Antonini was born in Rapperswil-Switzerland, the place of her childhood and adolescence.

As a young girl, Eva reveals a natural proneness for molding clay, matter that later will be privileged in the creation of sculptures of medium and large dimensions.

From 1981-1985 she lives in Geneva, where she takes her first steps in the working world, following her diverse and complex education: language studies; singing, music and dance; a horizon of journeys, stays in England, Italy and United States with stops in the Middle and Far East.

Nadežda Petrović | Expressionist / Fauve painter

Nadežda Petrović / Надежда Петровић (1873-1915) was a Serbian painter and one of the women war photography pioneers in the region.

Considered Serbia's most famous Expressionist and Fauvist, she was the most important Serbian female painter of the period.

Born in the town of Čačak, Petrović moved to Belgrade in her youth and attended the women's school of higher education there.

In 1893, she became an art teacher at the school and later taught at the women's university in Belgrade.

Agnès Boulloche | Fantastic Surrealism painter

Agnès Boulloche (1951-2019) was a prominent French Surrealist painter and sculptor renowned for creating fantastical, dreamlike universes.

Heavily inspired by her childhood in Morocco and the works of Old Masters like Hieronymus Bosch, her art blends human and animal forms into surreal, allegorical creatures.

Born in Paris, she was the daughter of André Boulloche, a prominent French resistance fighter and Minister of Education.

She spent her early childhood in Morocco.

Yuri Kuzmin, 1949 | Belle Époque painter

Yuri Kuzmin / Юрий Кузьмин is a Russian painter, widely known for his highly detailed, nostalgic depictions of Parisian cityscapes during the Belle Époque era.

Consistent with the artists previously discussed, he belongs to the classic Soviet-era lineage of painting.

Though Russian by birth, Kuzmin developed an intense fascination with France.

He lived there for extended periods, and his primary artistic focus became the streetscapes of old Paris.

His work heavily captures the "Beautiful Era" of Paris (late 19th to early 20th century).

George Grie, 1962 | Neo-Surrealist painter

George Grie is a Russian-Canadian artist.

One of the first digital surrealism artists, Grie is known for numerous 3D, 2D, and matte painting images.

Born in the USSR during the Soviet regime he did not adopt the conventional and politically correct socialist realism art style.

Grie's artistic style has been heavily influenced by famous surrealists such as René Magritte and Salvador Dalí, fantastic realists Zdzisław Beksiński and Wojciech Siudmak, and surreal photomanipulation artist Jerry Uelsmann.

His neo-surrealist artwork is a combination of classic surrealist symbolism with modern fantasy, gothic and visionary arttendencies.

Yuri Obukhovsky, 1965 | Romantic Realism painter

Yuri Obukhovsky (Yury Anatolyevich Obukhovsky) / Юрий Обуховский is a contemporary Russian landscape painter born in Perm, Russia.

He is highly celebrated for his vibrant, light-filled artworks painted in a style he describes as "Romantic Realism".

He graduated in 1987 from the painting department of the Penza Art College named after K.A. Savitsky, a school known for upholding strong realistic academic traditions.

He began exhibiting his work publicly in 1989 across prominent galleries in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Yurii Klapoukh, 1963 | Romantic / Genre painter

Iurii Klapoukh / Юрий Клапоух is a contemporary Ukrainian painter born in Uman, Ukraine.

He is widely recognized for his high technical mastery in oil-on-canvas realism, seamlessly blending classical artistic traditions with contemporary elements.

He took an unconventional career path, originally training and working as an aviation engineer before fully dedicating his life to professional fine art.

He graduated from the prestigious Surikov State Academic Art Institute in Moscow in 1993.

Kay Ruane, 1956 | Symbolist painter

Kay Ruane is a contemporary American visual artist widely recognized for her intricate, highly detailed graphite drawings.

Currently based in Los Angeles, her meticulously rendered graphite-on-board and graphite-on-paper worlds often explore themes of human existence, isolation, intimacy and the cultural disconnect between interior spaces and the outside world.

Education: Earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Studio Arts from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and advanced her artistic training at Indiana State University and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Yurii Dubinin, 1962 | Romantic / impressionist painter

Yurii Dubinin is a contemporary Ukrainian painter and graphic artist known for his romantic, meditative and impressionistic style.

Born in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, he later built his life and career in Zhytomyr, Ukraine.

His art heavily emphasizes smooth lines, the dramatic interplay of light and shadow (chiaroscuro), and vibrant, contrasting colors.

Graduated from the Moscow State Art Institute named after V. Surikov in 1992, studying under renowned specialist A. Savostyuk.

Valeriy Kot, 1958 | Surrealist painter

Valeriy Kot is a prominent contemporary Ukrainian surrealist painter.

Born in Polesskoe (Kyiv region), he initially trained and worked as an industrial architect before transitioning to a full-time painting career in 1985.

In 1985 changes his vocation and starts dealing with art, lead by ideas of surrealism he is so fascinated by, from his earlier years.

In 1977 performs his first art works in surrealism genre.

His first show took place on April 1979.

Didier Delamonica, 1950 | Surrealits painter

Didier Delamonica is a contemporary French painter born in Lille, France.

He is widely recognized for his unique mystical fantasy and surrealist painting style, which blends vibrant color palettes with complex, dream-like narratives.

His studies include "Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Industries Textiles", commencing with two careers working adjacent during several years, comprising publicite/advertising and painting.

Now, he presents his work in numerous galleries all over France.

The works of Delamonica are including a number of private collections in USA and Canada and in Europe.

Girel Oleg | Minimalist portraits

These Minimalist portraits by artist Girel Oleg eliminate all but a few colors to tell their story.

Oleg Girel is a Belarusian cinematographer, director of photography, and visual artist known for his work in film production and digital photography.

Each image (originally a photograph) was digitally remixed, removing layer upon layer of detail to leave just contour lines and patches of richly textured color.

It’s a simple, yet effective effect.

Haixia Liu, 1962 | Impressionist painter

Haixia Liu is a highly successful Chinese-American contemporary painter born to a family of artists in the Hubei Province of China.

He is celebrated for his vibrant, textured oil paintings that merge realistic details with dreamy contemporary impressionism.

Encouraged and instructed by his father and grandfather, he began to draw at very early age.

He did decorative painting for local businesses at age 12.

Between 1981-1983 Liu chose to learn graphic design at the Hubei Industry Institute.

Deidre But-Husaim, 1959

Deidre But-Husaim is an accomplished Australian contemporary realist painter based in Adelaide, South Australia.

Oil painting sits at the absolute core of her figurative and portraiture practice, which explores the deep tension between public identity and the private self.

Deidre But-Husaim attended Adelaide Central School of Art and Adelaide Centre for the Arts.

She paints with oil on canvas (linen), her work is mostly figurative.