Paul Cheng, 1958 | Ballet Dancers

OPA Signature Member, Art Gallery Painter, Award-Winning Artist, Sr. Illustrator in Animation and Gaming field, Paul Cheng was born in Guangzhou, China.

- "My youth was the decade of China’s Cultural Revolution", he says.

"There were no art teachers and no art teaching books.

I had to explore painting by myself and find some art loving students to draw and paint together".

Cassie Phillips | Let them

If they want to choose something or someone over you,

Let them.

If they want to go weeks without talking to you,

Let them.

If they are okay with never seeing you,

Let them.

Jack Vettriano

Cassie Phillips | Lasciali fare | La poesia

Se vogliono scegliere qualcosa o qualcuno al posto tuo,

Lasciali fare.

Se vogliono passare settimane senza parlarti,

Lasciali fare.

Se stanno bene a non vederti mai,

Lasciali fare.

Se stanno bene a mettere sempre se stessi al primo posto,

Lasciali fare.

Jack Vettriano

Theodore Earl Butler, l'impressionista americano a Parigi

Theodore Earl Butler (1861-1936) è stato un pittore impressionista Americano.

Nacque a Columbus, Ohio, e si trasferì a Parigi per studiare arte.

Conobbe Claude Monet a Giverny e ne sposò la figliastra, Suzanne Hoschedé.

Dopo la sua morte, sposò la sorella di lei, Marthe Hoschedé.

Butler fu uno dei membri fondatori della Society of Independent Artists.

David Gray, 1970 | Classical Realist painter

David's Gray signature style reveals a personal and contemporary expression of beauty and order which pays homage to the Classical Tradition in its craftsmanship.

Collectors of David's work often relate that his painting provoke a sense of peace, stillness, or a contemplative mood.

His award winning works have been covered by major art publications including Southwest Art, Art of the West, and American Art Collector.

Anna Klumpke | Catinou knitting, 1887

Encouraged by an independent, educationally oriented mother, Anna Elizabeth Klumpke (1856-1942) was a copyist in the Luxembourg Museum and studied at the Académie Julien in Paris.

She enjoyed an education guided by the concept that women artists could compete with their male counterparts.

In her memoirs of 1940, Klumpke cites a most influential moment in her childhood: receiving the gift of a Rosa Bonheur doll.

Her admiration of Bonheur, the French painter of animals, led her to paint the aging woman’s portrait - which is considered a companion piece to her portrait of leading suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

David Bowers, 1956 | Surrealist painter

David Michael Bowers was born in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania and graduated from art school in Pittsburgh in 1979.

He began working as a staff artist at various studios in the Pittsburgh, PA area.

Two years later, David began teaching his craft at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh where he lectured for ten years and was honored as the Keynote Speaker for the Class of 2003.

In 1991, David began his illustration career working mostly with book publishers in New York City in which he completed over one hundred book covers in the span of over ten years.

Meadow Gist, 1975 | Impressionist painter

Meadow Gist chooses the subject matter she paints to express a love and respect of a simpler life, when you grew your own food and more things were crafted by hand.

This is what attracted her to being an artist in the first place, "crafting a unique item that has a piece of me in it, and I can say "I made that".

She enjoys presenting a romantic view of bygone days, and sharing a little of this optimism with all who view her paintings.

Her inspiration comes from the painting of the Russian Impressionists and the way they paint daily life, as well as the Orientalists and the pride they bring to the simple man.

Nancy Boren, 1955 | Impressionist painter

Nancy Boren’s first painting, a watercolor, was done at age 12 while sitting next to her artist father, James Boren, as he painted at the Grand Canyon.

Since then she has branched out to original print making and oil painting, depicting a variety of landscape and marine subjects, and is often captivated by scenes in which the figure fills the canvas.

She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Abilene Christian University and cites the influence of notable traditional painters such as Sargent, Sorolla and Fechin.

William Faulkner: "I believe that man will not merely endure he will prevail!"

William Faulkner’s speech at the Nobel Banquet at the City Hall in Stockholm

December 10, 1950

Ladies and gentlemen,

I feel that this award was not made to me as a man, but to my work - a life’s work in the agony and sweat of the human spirit, not for glory and least of all for profit, but to create out of the materials of the human spirit something which did not exist before.

So this award is only mine in trust. It will not be difficult to find a dedication for the money part of it commensurate with the purpose and significance of its origin.

Antonio Nunziante

Emily Dickinson | Marzo: Mese di attesa / March: Month of expectation, 1877

Marzo: mese di attesa.

Le cose che ignoriamo -

E le persone del nostro presagio

Sono in cammino -

Ci sforziamo di fingere fermezza -

Come si deve, ma la gioia solenne

Claude Monet | Strada Romana at Bordighera | Museum Barberini

Tamara de Lempicka | Russian Dancer, 1924

Russian Dancer was created in 1924 by Tamara de Lempicka (Polish Art Déco painter, 1894-1980).

The painting is part of the Collection of Polish businessman and art collector Marek Roefler/ Villa la Fleur, Konstancin-Jeziorna, Poland.

Russian Dancer, posthumously titled in reference to the Ballets Russes - the troupe founded by Serge Diaghilev, which took Paris by storm in the 1910s and 1920s with its innovative choreography and gleaming costumes and sets designed by Russian artists-portrays a woman dressed in folk attire from southern Russia.

Tamara de Lempicka | Russian Dancer, 1924

Charles Baudelaire | Inno alla bellezza / Hymn to Beauty

Vieni dal cielo profondo o esci dall’abisso,

Bellezza? Il tuo sguardo, divino e infernale,

dispensa alla rinfusa il sollievo e il crimine,

ed in questo puoi essere paragonata al vino.

Daniel Gerhartz | Green velvet

Trish Biddle | Art Déco painter

American artist Trish Biddle studied at the Dallas Institute of Art, before beginning her career as an illustrator and textile designer.

Trish Biddle is published internationally, and is collected around the world.

Her process of drawing, painting and designing eventually melded onto canvases, creating romantic images and her unmistakable Art Déco figurative paintings.

Cecilia Beaux | Sita and Sarita, 1894

This portrait by Cecilia Beaux (American Impressionist painter and portraitist, 1855-1942) portrays the artist's cousin, Sarah Allibone Leavitt, dressed in white with her black cat on her shoulder.

Beaux was recognized not only for her bold painting technique, but also for her ability to imbue her female subjects with wit and intelligence, rendering them more than just mere objects of beauty.

A student in Paris in the late 1880s, the artist was influenced by her firsthand exposure to French impressionism.

Her light-filled palette and gestural style invite comparisons with many of her contemporaries, including William Merritt Chase, James McNeill Whistler, John Singer Sargent and Mary Cassatt.

Cecilia Beaux | Sita and Sarita, 1894 | Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Charles Warren Mundy, 1945 | Impressionist painter

Charles Warren Mundy is an American impressionist painter, born in Indianapolis, Indiana.

His works has been displayed in the Indiana state Museum, The University of Louisville Hall of Fame, Indianapolis 500, Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame, Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Joseph Stella | America's first Futurist

Joseph Stella (born Giuseppe Michele Stella, 1877-1946) was an Italian-born American Futurist painter best known for his depictions of industrial America, especially his images of the Brooklyn Bridge.

He is also associated with the American Precisionist movement of the 1910s–1940s.

Early life and education

Battle of Lights, Coney Island, Mardi Gras, a 1914 portrait of Coney Island by Stella now on display at Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut Stella was born to a middle-class family in Italy, in Muro Lucano, a village in the province of Potenza.

His grandfather Antonio and his father Michele were attorneys, but he came to New York City in 1896 to study medicine, following in the footsteps of his older brother Doctor Antonio Stella.

Norman Rockwell | Picasso vs. Sargent, 1966

Picasso vs. Sargent was created in 1966 by Norman Rockwell (American painter and illustrator, 1894-1978) for the January 11, 1966 edition of the LOOK magazine.

It is part of the collection of the National Museum of American Illustration.

Norman Rockwell left the Saturday Evening Post in 1963 and his paintings took a more political turn.

He spent the last decade of his life creating works that dealt with issues such as civil rights and the fight against poverty.

From 1964 Rockwell went on to create work for LOOK Magazine.

Norman Rockwell | Picasso vs. Sargent, 1966 | National Museum of American Illustration

Joseph Christian Leyendecker | Art Nouveau illustrator

German-American illustrator Joseph Christian Leyendecker (1874-1951) was one of the most prominent and financially successful freelance commercial artists in the U.S.

He was active between 1895 and 1951 producing drawings and paintings for hundreds of posters, books, advertisements, and magazine covers and stories.

He is best known for his 80 covers for Collier's Weekly, 322 covers for The Saturday Evening Post, and advertising illustrations for B. Kuppenheimer men's clothing and Arrow brand shirts and detachable collars.

He was one of the few known reportedly gay artists working in the early-twentieth century U.S.

Janice Darr Cua | Ladies and horses

Whether exercising her powers to capture the spirit of Arabians, the romance of the Renaissance, classic sensuality of femininity, or the universal bond between mother and child, Janice Darr Cua delivers striking depth and passion.

Paintings that radiate a glow that mesmerizes the viewer, a comforting warmth which evokes the passion within all.

Her work can be seen in select galleries around the world, with over thirty sell-out shows abroad as well as dozens of American exhibitions.

Cua is a sure stock, an intelligent investment as her popularity, technique, and price point increases in favor.