Christophe Jacrot, 1960 | Paris under the Rain

French photographer Christophe Jacrot lives and works in Paris.

He started off in the film industry, before moving on to photography, his first passion.

Christophe started photographing the rain by accident.

- “I had an order for a travel book about Paris, and sun was a pre-requisite for all the photos!

But the weather was desperately rotten, and that is how I had the idea of starting the Paris in the rain series. It was a sort of contradiction…”

Cecilia Paredes, 1950 | Body painter

A Peruvian-born multimedia artist Cecilia Paredes was born in Lima, Peru and currently lives and works between Philadelphia, PA US and Lima, Peru.

Her primary themes include the power of nature, femininity, and migration, which have been subjects of many of her shows.

She frequently utilizes natural elements, often recycled waste materials and primarily organic ones, in her installations.

One of her best-known works is "Paisajes" in which she camouflages herself and uses her own figure as a canvas for body painting.

Stanislav Aristov, 1982 | Match sticks Art

Russian artist Stanislav Aristov creates miniature sculptures by bending matches and fire, into a desired shape.

A matchstick is something so ordinary and simple that one could hardly imagine it could become an object of art.

Aristov unveils the artistic potential of matches in his his "Спички / matchsticks" series.

This photographer literally plays with fire by bending the matches into the desired shapes as they burn, then uses a macro lens and a studio flash to shoot the fire and the smoke around it.

The artist then moves to Photoshop to finish the image.

Catlin Harrison | Abstract artist

"A Londoner by birth and inclination, the city provides for me a fresh daily helping of eclectic people to watch and wonder about.

I'm endlessly fascinated with the human form, especially meta-figures like ghosts or dolls or archetypes.

Sometimes I think my work stems from a collectors' sensibility - particularly those Victorian do-gooders who pinned butterflies or measured skulls.

Each piece of work is an independent specimen, a set of examples of a particular type.

Presence, oddity, beauty and humour are important elements in all my work, as is colour and aesthetics'.

Luiza Gelts | Still Life photographer

Luiza Gelts / Луиза Гельтс has been professionally involved in fine art photography for over 20 years.

She was born in Germany, in Chemnitz.

She graduated from the art school-studio in Dubna.

Now she lives in Russia, in Dubna.

Happy Valentine's Day 💕 | La storia di San Valentino 💕

Saint Valentine, officially known as Saint Valentine of Rome, is a third-century Roman saint widely celebrated on February 14 and commonly associated with "courtly love".

At least three different Saint Valentines, all of them martyrs, are mentioned in the early martyrologies under date of 14 February.

One is described as a priest at Rome, another as bishop of Interamna (modern Terni), and these two seem both to have suffered in the second half of the third century and to have been buried on the Flaminian Way, but at different distances from the city.

Ildiko Neer | Dreamland

Ildiko Neer belongs to the urban photography, landscape photography, graphic photography art style.

Ildiko Neer enjoys composing impressive natural environments retouched photos all together in the series called "Dreamland".

With beautiful colors, beautiful landscapes and enigmatic paths are discovered later in the article.

Alexander Sviridov, 1986 | Surrealist photographer

Alexander Sviridov is a fine art photographer and digital artist based in Toronto, Canada.

He initially studied art design in Russia, and over the years he has developed a passion for photography.

-"My photography journey began about twelve years ago.

I came from a background in painting, having worked extensively with oil and acrylic, and spent a few years as a graphic designer.

Those experiences still play a massive role in how I approach my photography today".

Pakayla Biehn, 1986 | Surrealist painter

Pakayla Rae Biehn is a young and talented artist born and raised in California.

She uses oil and acrylic to create incredible paintings that look like pictures.

Her talent is definitely polyhedric expressed with several techniques and approaches, from painting to installation to design.

Tina Cassati | Surreal fashion

Berlin based artist Tina Cassati, makes costumes (sculpture le mode and giardino di arte), ruffs, hats-, bags - and shoes-, jewelry objects into modern surreale digital-photo-art worlds and illustrations.

She paints, sews, draws, photographs, digital collage - mixed media, collage, illustration.

She does not care about genres.

Her work is influenced by Renaissance, Baroque, Traditional Clothing (Folk Costumes) fairy tales. To her, fashion is fine art.

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.

Mark Ashkenazi | Pop Art painter

Mark Ashkenazi is an Israeli photo artist based in New York City.

He loved art since childhood and everyone around him, including himself, knew that he would become an artist.

Starting artwork at such a young age provided him with the opportunity to learn a lot from other renowned artists.

Oleg Oprisco, 1987 | Surrealist / Conceptual photographer

Ukrainian Fine Art photographer Oleg Oprisco is born in the small town of Lviv, in western Ukraine.

Oprisco is known for his conceptual shots that involve elaborately constructed props and scenes that capture his distinct sense of surreality.

Relying on neutrals and subdued tones rather than a bold color palette, the mysterious, dreamlike images tend to center on a single figure within a quiet and unoccupied landscape.

Georges Maroniez | Genre painter

Georges Philibert Charles Maroniez (1865, Douai - 1933, Paris) was a French painter, specializing in landscapes with figures.

Education and first works

Maroniez was the son of an industrialist who owned a sugar refinery in Montigny-en-Ostrevent.

He displayed artistic talent at an early age, but - although not discouraged - was expected to pursue a more professional career.

Accordingly, he studied law, and afterwards served as a magistrate in, successively, Boulogne-sur-Mer (1891), Avesnes-sur-Helpe (1894) and Cambrai (1897).

Jeremiah Stermer's realistic surrealism

Jeremiah Stermer was born in Baltimore in 1946.

He started his artistic path at the age of 11.

He considers himself a realist / surrealist, meaning that the theme is always surrealistic, but the painting is made in a traditional way.

He states that he draws and paints very naturally, and that he pays the particular attention on the air around the subjects of his paintings and considers the mood as the crucial element of his works.

Ionut Caras, 1978 | Surrealist photographer

Romanian professional photographer and "photo mechanic" Ionut Caras was born and lives in Iasi, Romania.

Caras describes himself as a 'photo mechanic' and has created the series of mindboggling pictures using the computer program.

His passion for photography began seven years ago when Kara discovered the processing of photographs, artistic of composition.

Coco Chanel: "Fashion changes, but style endures"!

Coco Chanel and Romy Schneider

• "Where should one use perfume? A young woman asked. Wherever one wants to be kissed".

• "It’s probably not just by chance that I’m alone. It would be very hard for a man to live with me, unless he’s terribly strong".

And if he’s stronger than I, I’m the one who can’t live with him. … I’m neither smart nor stupid, but I don’t think I’m a run-of-the-mill person".

I’ve been in business without being a businesswoman, I’ve loved without being a woman made only for love".

The two men I’ve loved, I think, will remember me, on earth or in heaven, because men always remember a woman who caused them concern and uneasiness".

Claude Debussy / Paul Verlaine | Clair de Lune, 1869

Clair de Lune is a French poem written by Paul Verlaine (French poet associated with the Symbolist movement and the Decadent movement, 1844-1896) in 1869.

It is the inspiration for the third and most famous movement of Debussy's 1890 Suite bergamasque of the same name.

The poem has also been set to music by Gabriel Fauré.

Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer | Sérénade au clair de lune, Venise | Christie's

Diego L. Rodríguez | Abstract illustrator

Diego L. Rodríguez is an Illustrator, Graphic Designer and visual Artist from Spain.

From his childhood, he has been always dedicated to the audiovisual !eld.

He has studied Cinema Production, Publicity and Photography, working on those !elds for a few years.

The arrival of new tools and the outburst of digital graphics, made Diego to focus his career into digital art and illustration.

Derek Boshier | Pop art painter

Biography from the Tate Gallery

British painter, sculptor, photographer and printmaker Derek Boshier ((1937-2024)) studied painting and lithography at Yeovil School of Art in Somerset (1953-7), Guildford College of Art (1957-9) and the Royal College of Art, London (1959-62), where he was one of the students associated with Pop art.

Boshier juxtaposed contrasting styles within his paintings, but he favoured topical subject-matter such as the space race, political events and the Americanisation of Europe.