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.

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.

Nino Chakvetadze, 1971 | Children's book illustrator

Nino Chakvetadze, born in Tbilisi, Georgia, has built a distinct global following by capturing the innocence, vulnerability and quiet moments of childhood.

She received art degrees from Nikoladze Art Institute (1986-1990) and Tbilisi State Academy of Art on the faculty of painting (1990-1996).

Become a member of Georgian Painters’ Union in 1997.

Nino Chakvetadze is very popular among the artists and people due to her touching paintings of children.

In the paintings of Nino, children are the main characters drawn in her every story.

Lennette Newell, 1959 | Naturalist photographer

Lennette Newell is an acclaimed American fine art and commercial photographer based in San Francisco, California.

She is world-renowned for her bold wildlife portraits and conceptual body-painting series that explore the blurring lines and evolutionary kinship between humans and the animal kingdom.

Lennette Newell channels a lifelong passion for Earth’s biodiversity and the magical wonder of the natural world into compelling animal portraits that afford viewers an intimate glimpse of creatures large and small.

Duma Arantes, 1973 | Pop / Fashion painter

Duma Arantes is a prominent Portuguese contemporary painter born in Lisbon, best known for her signature pop-art and fashion-influenced portraits of the female form.

She frequently lives and works out of Oeiras, Portugal.

Duma lives and works in Oeiras, Portugal where she studied advertising in IADE -Visual Arts, Design Marketig Institute and also Painting and Drawing at the National Society of Fine Arts, in Lisbon.

Sabrina Garrasi | Abstract painter

Italian illustrator Sabrina Garrasi based in Pesaro, Italy, known for her abstract paintings and whimsical fashion illustrations.

Her work balances material texture and ethereal concepts, focusing on themes like memory, space, time and femininity.

She divides her professional time working between Italy and Switzerland.

She frequently combines acrylics, watercolor, gouache, pure pigments, and pencil on premium cotton and fine art paper.

Margarita Georgiadis, 1968 | Narrative painter

Margarita Georgiadis is an internationally renowned Australian postwar and contemporary narrative painter.

Born in Sydney to Greek and Egyptian parents, her career spans over two decades.

Her atmospheric oil paintings often explore themes of memory, the illusion of reality, and the "presence of absence."

She educated herself in philosophy and physics.

This research underpins her work, to such an extent that she fondly compares painting to writing.

Georgiadis had an epiphany after the passing of her father.

Anne-Christine Roda, 1974 | Portrait painter

Anne-Christine Roda defines a highly original interpretation of the portrait: in her work the painting is entirely subjugated to the portrayal of man’s fragility.

Her paintings, in terms of the choice of pose for her models and the neutral treatment of their backgrounds are as rooted in tradition, as her subjects are sourced unequivocally from our contemporary era.

Her choice of subject speaks directly to our everyday lives.

Hers ‘sitters’ - very diverse in age and social status are striking in their individuality.

Sandra Bierman, 1938 | Figurative painter

The magic of American painter Sandra Bierman lies in her soulful, larger-than-life figurative oil paintings that evoke an immediate sense of tranquility, strength, and emotional warmth.

Working entirely from her imagination without models or photographs, she channels what critics and collectors often describe as "pure magic" directly onto the canvas.

Her signature subjects are stylized, exaggerated women with bare, earthy feet and disproportionately large, caring hands.

These figures are deeply nurturing, often seen cradling babies, tending to plants, or holding companion cats.

Bierman approaches her canvases like an abstract painter, focusing on space, shapes, and fluid lines.

Joanna Szewczyk, 1973 | Surrealist painter

Joanna Szewczyk-Oczkowska is an established Polish contemporary painter with more than 30 years of artistic experience, whose art leans heavily into magical realism, emotional portraiture and dark surrealism.

Her work blurs the lines between expressive realism and structural abstraction.

She heavily utilizes palette knives, multi-layered paint applications, and controlled dripping techniques to construct depth and motion.

Her paintings frequently juxtapose softly modeled human portraits against dynamic, geometric, or architectural backgrounds.

Maya Angelou | Come and be my baby

The highway is full of big cars

going nowhere fast

And folks is smoking anything that'll burn

Some people wrap their lives around a cocktail glass

And you sit wondering

where you're going to turn.

Angeles Anglada

Svetlana Bobrova, 1960 | Surrealist painter

The surreal world, created by Svetlana Bobrova / Светлана Боброва, is full of strange creatures.

In this world everything is possible.

Her artworks are full of energy, passion and grotesqueness.

Like dreams, they are born from real anxieties and experiences, taking the spectator far into the depths of sub-consciousness.

They have a hypnotic internal glow, which penetrates the eyes with tonal transitions of neon, green, yellow and blue.

Gerardine Jacoba | Still life painter of flowers

Came from an artistic family, the still life Dutch painter Gerardina Jacoba Van de Sande Bakhuyzen (1826-1895), was a 19th-century painter from the Northern Netherlands.

Her father was the painter Hendrik Van de Sande Bakhuyzen, and her brother was the painter Julius Jacobus Van de Sande Bakhuyzen.

Gerardina was taught by her father, as were all her numerous sisters.

She achieved great success with her oils and watercolours of flowers and still lives, winning numerous medals between 1870-1880, in which year she had an exhibition at the Grafton Gallery in London.

Katie Swatland, 1981 | Figurative painter

The paintings of Katie Swatland are an intrinsic dance between reality and rêverie.

She approaches the canvas through means of discovery, imparting a sense of playful curiosity throughout a broad range of subject matter.

Gestural brushwork combine with areas of transparency, offset by passages of thick impasto paint, all intermingle in a symphony of lost and found edges.

- "Painting has been a part of my life since I was very young.

There were always brushes and paint in the house growing up; and my mother was always at work painting.

Andrea Orr Clague | Figurative painter

Traditionally trained at Pensacola Christian College in Florida, Andrea Orr Clague received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Commercial Art in 2006, and a Master of Fine Arts in 2009.

While at PCC, Clague learned the importance of accurate drawing, strong value patterns and variety in edgework, essentials for a successful painting, under the masterful teaching of her mentor and instructor, Brian Jekel.

Clague’s paintings reveal her fascination with light and the beauty it bestows upon seemingly ordinary objects.

Clague credits her talent as a gift from God, and desires to use her art to bring glory to Him.

Erica Hopper, 1949 | Impressionist Figurative painter

American painter Erica Hopper was born in Kansas City, Missouri, studied graphic and industrial design at San Diego State University, and continued her art education at the University of The Americas in Puebla, Mexico.

During the 70's and 80's she was a successful illustrator with many published works in national periodicals.

Today Hopper concentrates on oil media and textile design.

It is clear one influences the other by the rhythm and texture found in her paintings.

Danhui Nai | Vintage style painter

Danhui Nai, Chinese painter, was born and raised in mainland China.

As the child of a sculptor and a painter it is no small wonder that she showed an interest in art at an early age.

After college, Danhui Nai moved to New York City where she worked as a textile designer.

She studied at the Fashion institute of Technology at night and also took a summer course in French costume and interior design in Paris.

She has a flower garden outside her studio and loves to paint in the garden when weather permits.

Her antique roses and other flowers are among her favorite subjects.

Renata Domagalska | Expressive Figurative painter

Renata Domagalska, Polish painter, known for working in the Expressive Figurative style, presently live in Spain.

Predominant motif of my art is the human.

I'm fascinated by dynamic and motion of life that`s why they are a motor of my art creation: flamenco dance, tango, folklore, figure, the atmosphere of sunny southern countries, small towns with their little streets teeming with life, fragments of nature.

Holly Sierra, 1962 | Magic realism painter

Whether wandering through the forest or exploring an ancient crumbling castle, Holly Sierra finds inspiration all around her.

Holly has been drawn to painting things ‘mystical and magical’ for as long as she can remember.

After her fine art education at SUNY Purchase in NY, the next decade found Holly living and traveling extensively in Asia.

She now blends her marvelous multicultural memories with themes that influence and fascinate her today.

Anne Magill, 1962 | Figurative painter

Anne Magill, Irish-born British painter is rapidly building a strong following amongst an exclusive international audience, with works held in major private and corporate collections worldwide.

After studying at St. Martin’s School of Art and gaining early success as an innovative and award-winning commercial artist, Magill’s iconic subjects and narrative style made an easy transition into fine art, with her first solo exhibition taking place in 1992.

Anne’s style has steadily developed, with exhibitions in prestigious galleries in London, Europe and the United States.

Rich and atmospheric texture, epic silhouettes, timeless context and infinitely subtle tonal notes, have become Magill’s distinctive creative signature.

Anne Magill’s portraits, landscapes and contextual urban and rural canvases evoke a powerful vision unparalleled by her contemporaries.