Martin Pate | Ballet Dancers

Martin Pate graduated with honors from Ringling School of Art in 1981.

His figurative works won acclaim in the Sarasota area by such notables as Thornton Utz who declared a life drawing by Martin as the best work in the 1981 student show.

His love of figurative works has led to numerous commissions over the last 30+ years including a 20+ year association with the National Park Service.

Martin's personal paintings and drawings have won awards in local, regional and national shows.

Daria Petrilli, 1970 | Pop-Surrealist Illustrator

Daria Petrilli is an award winning illustrator, born in Rome, Italy.

After graduating with an MA in Communication and Design at the Università La Sapienza, she took on various agency roles as a graphic designer and illustrator in Rome.

Later she moved to London, where she completed a Diploma in Experimental Illustration at the LCC - part of the University of the Arts London, achieving the highest possible grade.

Gerda Wegener | Lili Elbe’s wife in 'The Danish Girl'

Gerda Wegener: The Lady Gaga of the 1920s

The Danish Girl tells the story of the painter Einar Wegener, who had the world’s first gender-reassignment surgery and became Lili Elbe.

But his wife Gerda had a fascinating life and career of her own.

Gerda Wegener | Ulla Poulsen, 1927

Yana Movchan, 1971 | Magic Realism painter

Ukrainian-born Canadian painter Yanina (Yana) Movchan was born in Kiev.

Yana’s sublime mastery of the technique and structure of Renaissance painting combines with the instinctive symbolism of "magical realism" to create a personal neo-realist idiom.

Her work is formal, yet playful; contemporary, yet timeless; and joyous, yet mysterious, evocative and dreamlike.

Glenna Goodacre | Figurative sculptor

Glenna Goodacre’s (1939-2020) sculptures are immediately recognizable for their unique expression, texture, design and movement.

Beginning as a painter provided a foundation for her first bronzes created in 1969.

She has since created over 600 different works, the most well-known of which is the Vietnam Women’s Memorial installed in Washington, D.C. in 1993.

Her largest piece is the massive Irish Memorial created in 2002 for Penn’s Landing in Philadelphia.

Arthur John Elsley | Genre painter

Arthur John Elsley (20 November 1860 - 19 February 1952) was an English painter of the late Victorian and Edwardian periods, famous for his idyllic genre scenes of playful children and their pets.

He achieved great popularity during his life and much of his work appeared in calendars, magazines and books.

Elsley was born in London, one of six children of John Elsley, coachman and amateur artist, and Emily Freer.

Elsley's father had exhibited at the British Institution Exhibition in 1845 but later in life contracted tuberculosis which forced him into early retirement.

Alexander Saidov / Александр Саидов, 1970 | Still Life

Alexander Saidov / Александр Саидов was born in the village of Pavlovskaya, Krasnodar region, Russia.

In 1989 he has finished the Krasnodar Art Institute.

Since 1995 is a member of The Artist’s Union of Russia.

From 1991 is participant of city, regional, zone exhibitions.

František Drtikol | Art Déco / Nouveau photographer

František Drtikol (1883-1961) was a Czech photographer and became famous for his modernist portraits and acts in the style of the late Art Nouveau.

Born in 1883 in the mining town of Pribram, west of Prague, Drtikol would go on to study photography in Munich, where he would be heavily influenced by the Art Nouveau.

Early on he divided his time among both drawing and photography, but focused primarily on the latter upon his return home; both as an art form and as a means for making a living.

Igor Talwinski | Ballet dancers

Igor Talwinski (1907-1983) was a notable Polish-born French painter, active primarily in France and England, known for his portraits and figure studies, particularly female figures.

His work is characterized by a figurative style, with soft modeling of faces and bodies often contrasted by lively brushwork in the backgrounds.

He was mobilized in September 1939 and was taken prisoner by the Germans.

Philippe Jacquot, 1966 | Figurative painter

Philippe Jacquot's favorite subject is the representation of characters.

Later he sought expression in both portraits and figure.

He works the pencil and pastels, as well as red chalk drawing, oil and acrylic.

After several experiences in decorative painting and design, in 1990 he decided to devote himself exclusively to his painting.

Rob Gonsalves | Magic realism painter

Robert "Rob" Gonsalves (1959-2017) was an award winning Canadian painter of magic realism -surrealism.

He produces original works, limited edition prints and illustrations for his own books.

Andrey Belle, 1957 | Figurative painter / sculptor

Aндрей Белле was born in Minsk, Bielorussia. Since his birth, he lived and studied in Leningrad, now St Petersburg.

From 1975-1977, he served in the Soviet Army.

In 1977, he went straight from the army into the V. I. Mukhina Leningrad Higher School of Commercial Art.

He began to exhibit his work while still at the institute.

Upon graduating and being professionally assigned to the Lot Central Research Institute, he started work as an independent artist - a painter and graphic artist.

Nikki Marie-Smith | Mixed-media painter

Nikki Marie Smith is an artist, mother,and entrepreneur. She creates themed art, including a music-inspired series, and received the FAA Artistic Merit Award.

"- I am an artist, a mother, and an entrepreneur. I'm passionate about music and color and seek to convey the transformative power of music through my paintings.

My artwork and tutorials have been regularly featured in Cloth Paper Scissors and Cloth Paper Scissors PAGES magazines.

Ric Nagualero | Surrealist / Outdoor painter

Ric Nagualero (1972-2022) was an internationally collected, award winning wilderness painter and outdoors man, with more than 12 years of professional experience in his field.

He's the man behind one of the most popular YouTube channels on the subject of outdoor plein air painting and wilderness painting adventures.

"With a bit of "know how" everyone can learn how to paint, you just need the basics, patience and to practice, practice, practice the skills you are taught, so you can “earn” and keep them for as long as you live" - Ric Nagualero.

Robert De Niro, Sr | Abstract Expressionist painter

Robert Henry De Niro, better known as Robert De Niro, Sr. (May 3, 1922 - May 3, 1993) was an American abstract expressionist painter and the father of actor Robert De Niro.

Robert De Niro, Sr., was born in Syracuse, New York, to an Italian American father, Henry Martin De Niro (1897–1976), whose parents emigrated from Ferrazzano, in the province of Campobasso, Molise, and an Irish American mother, Helen M. (née O'Reilly; 1899–1999).

He was the eldest of three children; he and siblings John and Joan were raised in Syracuse, New York.

Ilian Rachov, 1970 | Baroque Era style painter

Born in Sofia, Bulgaria, Ilian Rachov starts his artistic career like self-taught man in 1988 realizing copies of medieval orthodox icons and frescoes, re-discovering ancient techniques of gilding methods and how to engrave after the golden backgrounds of the icons.

His personal elaboration of that kind of old techniques and his modern view of this very antique art helps him to develop an own personal and unmistakable style in the iconography field.

Paul Chabas | Figurative painter

Paul Émile Chabas (1869-1937) was a French painter and illustrator and member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts.

He was born in Nantes, and had his artistic training under William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Tony Robert-Fleury. He first exhibited at the Salon in 1890.

He was awarded a gold medal at the Exposition Universelle of 1900 and in 1912 received the Médaille d’honneur.

His preferred subject was a young girl in a natural setting.

Firmin Baes | A Master of Pastel painting

Firmin Baes (1874-1943) was a Belgian painter.

The son of the decorative painter Henri Baes, Firmin Baes was active as a portrait painter and a painter of still life subjects, figures, landscapes and interiors.

He studied under Léon Frédéric at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels between 1888-1894, and the elder artist’s influence is evident in many of Baes’s early paintings.

Arturo Martini | Modern sculptor

Arturo Martini, (1889, Treviso - 1947, Milan), Italian sculptor and painter who was active between the World Wars.

He is known for figurative sculptures executed in a wide variety of styles and materials.

Martini was trained in goldsmithing and in ceramics and worked for a time as a potter.

In 1905 he began sculpting; he attended art classes in Italy at Treviso and Venice before traveling to Munich, Germany, where he studied under the academic sculptor Adolf von Hildebrand in 1909.

Emilio Greco | Figurative sculptor

Emilio Greco (1913-1995) - Italian sculptor and draughtsman, mainly of female figures and portrait busts.

Born in Catania, Sicily.

At the age of thirteen entered the workshop of a stone mason, learning to carve crosses and figures for cemeteries; also began making sculpture on his own account and studied briefly at the Palermo Academy 1934.