Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun (1755-1842) | Neoclassical painter

Elisabeth Louise Vigée-Le Brun was one of the most successful portraitists of 18th century France, gaining renowned in particular for her self-portraits and depictions of courtly women, Queen Marie Antoinette most famously.

Born in Paris as the eldest child of the portraitist Louis Vigée (1715-1767) and Jeanne Maissin, Vigée Le Brun was trained by her father from an early age.

She succeeded in gaining entrance to the Académie de Saint-Luc at the age of just nineteen, a remarkable accomplishment for a woman at the time.

Olga Akasi, 1970 | Classical portraits painter

Olga Akasi / Ольга Акаси is an Ukrainian artist born in Kiev, Ukraine.

She studied painting at the Grekov Odessa Art school.

"Akasi’s characters have astonishing faces. They don’t look like faces of real people; they came from another world, very far from human being. They look like images that don’t exist in our world.

Artist materializes them, embodies them, makes viewer to peer at this different-being and not to recognize himself in it. Smiles of faces at her works are not mundane and not human; there is something different in human being, the mystery that unites mundane human world with non-material, spiritual image".

Fede Galizia (1578-1630) | Baroque painter

Born in 1578 in Milan, Italy, Fede Galizia, like many female artists of her time, was the daughter of a painter (a miniaturist), who is assumed to have taught her his craft.

Little is known of her life, but her skill as a painter was first noted by Italian historian Giovanni P. Lomazzo when she was just 12 years old, and she was widely considered a prodigy.

Sofonisba Anguissola (1532-1625) | Renaissance painter

Sofonisba Anguissola also known as Sophonisba Angussola or Sophonisba Anguisciola, was an Italian Renaissance painter born in Cremona to a relatively poor noble family.

Anguissola is significant to feminist art historians. Although there has never been a period in Western history in which women were completely absent in the visual arts, Anguissola's great success opened the way for larger numbers of women to pursue serious careers as artists; Lavinia Fontana expressed in a letter written in 1579 that she and another woman, Irene di Spilimbergo, had “set [their] heart[s] on learning how to paint” after seeing one of Anguissola’s portraits.

Camille Claudel | L'âge mûr / L'Età matura, 1902

The Age of Maturity/L'âge mûr is probably the work that most lends itself to an interpretation based on autobiographical narrative: the end of the relationship between Claudel🎨 and Rodin🎨.

In actual fact, the association of the three figures with Camille Claudel🎨, Auguste Rodin🎨 and Rose Beuret arose some time after the sculpture was first exhibited. The critics initially saw it as the “symbolic representation of Destiny, in which the ageing man is torn away from love, youth and life”.

Anny Maddock, 1954 | Figurative painter

South African painter Anny Maddock started drawing people when she was old enough to hold a pencil and was considered a child prodigy. She matriculated at Rhenish Girls High in Stellenbosch and then studied fine art at Cape Technical College. After qualifying she studied Fashion Design and then went into Textile Design.

After her marriage and divorce she worked in fields as diverse as journalism, tourism, antiques and restauranteering.

Tina Spratt, 1976 | Figurative painter

British painter🎨 Tina Spratt is best known for her paintings of the female figure, either in oils or pastel, her subjects are often lost in introspection, or surrounded by the fascinating textures of a myriad of fabrics.

"I have always been drawn to the female figure in my work", she has said, "and I hope to recreate the beauty and integrity of a simple, everyday intimacy".

With an emphasis on beautiful fabrics or domestic scenes , she is influenced by artists such as Andrew Wyeth🎨, Rembrandt🎨 and Vermeer🎨.

Kieta Nuij, 1960 | Abstract sculptor

Dutch artist🎨 Kieta Nuij was born in Heerlen in the south of the Netherlands. She is a graduate of the Maastricht Academy of Fine Arts. She started working as an artist - she became a sculptor🎨 in 1984, just after graduating. Initially, she worked in clay, and now she has been creating bronze sculptures for over 25 years.

Characteristic for her art is the use of materials marked by the destructive effects of time - pieces of material, ropes, wood.

Caro Guarinos, 1963 | Surrealist painter

Caro Guarinos is an Spanish painter🎨, born in Alcoy (Alicante).

If we talk about artists, we think, is it born or made?

Well, the artist is born, but the environment where he lives configures his training. This is the case of Caro Guarinos, in which we enter into his surroundings and meet her paternal grandfather who was already a good painter and cartoonist, and much appreciated by Alcoyana society.

Her father, a great artist of wood and creator of innovations and forms of great quality and personality, so on the basis, they influence Caro.

Berthe Morisot | Impressionist painter

One of "les Trois Grandes Dames" of Impressionism alongside Marie Bracquemond and Mary Cassatt🎨, French painter Berthe Morisot 1841-1895 was a painter and a member of the circle of painters in Paris who became known as the Impressionists🎨.

Annie Manero | Abstract painter

Annie Manero is realized in a passion for painting that she has not always been able to express totally in the family years, but that takes her from her adolescence towards the study of the painting of others, the big ones.

Closer, for more than 20 years, she has let her imagination paint for her. Her paintings open up her sensitivity for the colors they are in the tone or in the harmonies.

They also enlighten us by their lights, and those of our regions have magical reflections on the ponds and on the sea. She explored the themes of nature that surrounds us and finally all the visions of travel and especially the eternal Venice that inspired him a lot.

Katia San Millan, 1952 | Visionary painter

Dominican artist Katia San Millan is a spiritual visionary painter whose work spans the gamut from Realism, Impressionism, Surrealism to the Abstract.

Haitian born artist with over 37 years of experience as a visual artist and art teacher.

"I am the daughter of master artist, Roger San Millan, who touched, shaped and colored my life as if it had been one of the many mediums he used to express his passion for deep reflection and beauty".

Beatriz Martin Vidal, 1973 | Surrealist illustrator

Beatriz Martin Vidal was born in Valladolid, Spain. After studying law for a time and then Fine Arts and Illustration in Bologna, Italy, she now works in her home city as a prize-winning fine artist and illustrator. She has had several exhibitions of painting and has recently illustrated Ovid s Metamorphoses and a book of classic Russian tales, published in Spain.

Kate Powell, 1995 | Symbolist painter

"My name is Kate Louise Powell and I dream of being a professional artist.

I was drawing before I could talk. A lot of people associate me with my ability to pick up a pencil and render something impressive, and for that reason, I am proud. I have recently trying to gather more confidence in myself and what I do.

I still do feel quite bold and even boastful labelling myself as an artist, because for me an artist is a professional who makes a living from creating; I am just a girl who draws for fun".

Frøydis Aarseths, 1986 | Figurative painter

Frøydis Aarseth is a full time artist and runs her own school of figurative art in Bergen, Norway. Frøydis Aarseth was born in Norway in 1986. She has always known what she wanted in life and that is to live life as a figurative artist – not only to paint paintings that are beautiful to look at, but also to convey a deeper importance that will give the viewer something more than only aesthetics.

She began her studies at The Florence Academy of Art🎨 in Italy in 2006 and graduated from the academy in 2009. After this she continued her studies in Paris, France under the direction of the figurative master Odd Nerdrum🎨.

Judy Drew, 1951 | Pastel painter

Judy Drew🎨 is an Australian painter. Her passion for the Post-Impressionism period and the influence of Japanese art in the late 1880's, along with her creative sense of colour and form, allow Judy to create beautiful and modern work, even though Judy's work is contemporary she retains a touch of sentiment in all her pieces.

Her rich and textured pastels convey her emotion and love for this medium creating refreshing and strong compositional work, which is sensitive to the subject matter.
Judy🎨'd love for figurative work and her sensitive portraits of the Bougainville people gained local and international attention whilst living and working on Bougainville Island in papua New Guinea from 1976-1984.

Margaret Dyer | Impressionist Figurative painter

A Master Pastelist with the Pastel Society of America and award-winning🎨 member of the American Impressionist🎨 Society, Margaret Dyer has made her living for over 20 years selling her work and teaching workshops.

Margaret has lived in and around Atlanta, GA, since her family moved from New York in 1960.

She attended the Atlanta College of Art at the High Museum of Art and furthered her studies under painters Roman Chatov and Kate Fetterolf.

Laura Knight | Ballet dancers

Dame Laura Knight🎨, (née Johnson), (4 August 1877 - 7 July 1970) was an English artist🎨 who worked in oils, watercolours, etching, engraving and drypoint. Knight was a painter in the figurative, realist tradition and who embraced English Impressionism.

In her long career, Knight was among the most successful and popular painters in Britain.

Her success in the male-dominated British art establishment paved the way for greater status and recognition for women artists.

Cristina Troufa, 1974 | Surrealist / Symbolist painter

Cristina Troufa is a Portuguese based artist, working predominately in figurative painting. In recent works, she uses her own image in autobiographical paintings that explore her livings and spiritual beliefs. As a form of self-knowledge and self-questioning, her work explores, in a symbolic and surrealistic way, an inner world, which remains inaccessible to the voyeur, who can only guess what each painting represents.

Cristina Troufa holds a masters degree in Painting since 2012 and a degree in Painting since 1998 bout in FBAUP (University of Fine Arts of Porto).

She has exhibited trough Portugal, in solo and group exhibitions since 1995 and international exhibitions, Italy, Spain, France and Australia.

Lidia Wylangowska | Figurative painter

Polish painter🎨 Lidia Wylangowska - born in Polen, Poland - works from her workshop in Illinois, and holds regular exhibitions at the Polish Museum of America, Chicago.

"My art tells my story. It's a story of my world, of my thoughts and emotions entwined in an internal dialogue. And some of it can be expressed only through painting. It is incredible, how fairy-tales I heard once-upon-a-time, in my childhood actually influenced my life and defined who I am. As an adult, I still believe in happy endings and that good will prevail".