Pam Hawkes | Portrait painter

Full-time painter Pam Hawkes was born in Birmingham, England, and still lives in the Midlands. She received her bachelor’s degree in fine art from Coventry University/Solihull College and her master’s in fine art from the University of Central England.

From 1998-2011, Hawkes was Visiting Lecturer in Fine Art at Solihull College and University of Wolverhampton.

Since 2001, Hawkes has exhibited her work in several dozen group and solo shows. Her paintings were included in the 2011 British Art Fair in London and at Catto Gallery and Flying Colours Gallery in 2012. Hawkes was given a solo exhibition in September 2013 at Celia Lendis Gallery, Moreton in the Marsh, England.

Odysseas Oikonomou, 1967 | Children portrait painter

Albanian-born Greek painter Odysseas Oikonomou /Οδυσσέας Οικονόμου was born in Dhuvjan, Albania to Greek parents.

He paints from the age of five years old.

At the age of 14 years old, ending eight-year primary school, and after double competition (in Gjirokaster, Berat,) wins a place in the Artistic Liceu "Ajet Xhindole" in Berat.

After a four-year studying, ending in 1985 with excellent the school.

His first teacher was the eminent painter Sotir Capo «Artist i Merituar».

In 1990 he graduated from the Pedagogical Institute of Gjirokastra «Eqerem Çabej».

Charles Roka (1912-1999) | Genre painter

Charles Roka (Róka Károly) was a Hungarian painter🎨 living in Norway whose name became synonymous with an excess of artistic kitsch.

Roka was born in Hungary in 1912. After he finished his studies on the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest he went on a European journey. In 1937 he finally settled in Norway, and lived in Bærum, outside Oslo until his death.

Claudio Sacchi, 1953 | Figurative painter

Italian painter🎨 Claudio Sacchi was born in Pesaro, Italy. He attended the Art School in Urbino, and continued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence.
Major influences in his artistic education were his encounters with Pietro Annigoni🎨 and with Enrico Del Bono. Since 1977 his work has been included in the archive of the Kunsthistorisches Institut, Florence, in the section on twentieth-century Italian art.

Colin Staples, 1959 | Figurative painter

Colin Staples, Australian painter: For me, art has always been my vital spark, a journey of discovery into not only techniques and visuals, but of mind and letting go to watch the work create itself.

The creation of art has been my driving force since early childhood with the past 10 years seeing continued growth. The concepts behind my art have been largely influenced through many years of studying martial arts and it's philosophies of no mind; shedding the ego. I feel my best work is expressed through this approach and have developed a feeling I am now intimate with, and trust.

Mustafa Özbakir, 1982

Mustafa Özbakir, Turkish painter, was born in Adana. He graduated from the workshop of Cebrail Ötgün in the Faculty of Fine Arts at Mersin University in 2005. In the same year, he won a merit award in the 66th State Painting and Sculpture Competition. In 2006, he received first prize in the Second Painting Competition, which was held in the name of mayor in Ümraniye. In 2008, he received a merit award in the 69th State Painting and Sculpture Competition. Currently, Özbakır continues to paint at his workshop in Adana.

Charles Hawthorne | Portrait / Genre painter

Charles Webster Hawthorne (1872-1930) was an American painter and a noted teacher who founded the Cape Cod School of Art in 1899.

He was born in Lodi, Illinois and his parents returned to Maine, raising him in the state where Charles' father was born.

At age 18, he went to New York, working as an office-boy by day in a stained-glass factory in New York, and studying at night school and with Henry Siddons Mowbray and William Merritt Chase, and abroad in both Holland and Italy.

Barry Yang | Children in art

Barry Yang was born in China and began to paint at the early age of six. His interest in art led to an opportunity to study with a well-established artist in the area, before eventually being accepted to the local college of fine art.

Barry then found employment with the state owned newspaper as the Editor for Art and Design Barry has traveled throughout China and has visited much of Europe and the United States.

Because he prefers the simplicity of rural communities to the loud noises of city life, Barry frequents small villages in the countryside. Many of his paintings are from his travels to rural Tibet.

Alexandra Tyng, 1954 | Figurative Realist painter

Alexandra Tyng is a Realist painter whose work combines traditional methods with a contemporary viewpoint.

Alex was born in Rome, Italy. The father of Alexandra was famed architect Louis Isadore Kahn (1901-1974) and the mother was Anne Griswold Tyng (1920-2011) an architect and professor.

Primarily self-taught, Alex chose an academic education over art school. She learned traditional oil painting techniques by examining the work of the old masters, reading about the methods and materials of other artists, and watching artists paint.

Salvador Dali | Self-portraits

Salvador Dalí started to paint self-portraits very early on.

In the ones made during adolescence, Dalí represents himself with a distant attitude towards his companions, but at the same time wishing to make an impact on them (or to provoke them) and on the public in general.

Like other adolescents, he sought through his appearance an affirmation of his own personality, wearing long hair and sideburns, and dressing extravagantly.

Salvador Dali 1941 Soft self-portrait with grilled Bacon

Anna Rose Bain, 1985 | Ballet Dancers

Anna Rose Bain is a fine art oil painter and commissioned portrait artist based in Denver, CO. Her paintings often depict people in peaceful settings or places that evoke happiness. She especially loves painting women and children.

Anna was self taught until college. Inspired by her grandfather, who started painting at the age of 70, Anna spent her free time as a child sketching from nature and poring over art books.

Vicki Sullivan, 1961 | Portrait /Figurative /Realist painter

Vicki Sullivan is an Australian Realist painter who focuses on portraiture.

She is a member of Portrait Artists Australia and the Melbourne Society of Women Sculptors and Painters founded in 1902, has participated in National and International exhibitions with her portraits, and has been a finalist in several Art Renewal Center International Salon Competitions.

Giovanni Boldini | La Belle Epoque

From: The British Museum

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Born in Ferrara, the son of the painter Antonio Boldini (1792-1872), from whom he received his first artistic training, Giovanni Boldini studied at the Civico Ateneo di Palazzo dei Diamanti in his native city, where he had established a reputation as an accomplished portrait painter by the time he was 18.

In 1862 he went to Florence, where he met artists in the Macchiaioli circle at the Caffé Michelangiolo, while attending the Scuola del Nudo at the Accademia di Belle Arti.

Michele Gordigiani (1830-1909), the leading portrait painter in Tuscany, passed on some of his commissions to Boldini.

Boldini saw and admired the paintings of Courbet and Manet at the Exposition Universelle in 1867 on a visit to Paris, where he met Degas, who became a lifelong friend.

Olga Krimon / Ольгa Кримон, 1972

Born in Odessa, Ukraine, Olga Krimon / Ольгa Кримон received academic art education in Kazan, Russia.

She continued to grow and develop her skills later in America, through drawing classes with Glen Orbik and painting classes with Jeremy Lipking.

Olga also holds a BA in Art History, and she credits it with providing her the rich visual vocabulary that is instrumental for defining her path as an artist.

She also received an MBA making her well grounded in the business side of an artistic career.

Aaron Abraham Shikler | Portrait /Figurative painter

Aaron Abraham Shikler | Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, 1970

By William Grimesnov: - Aaron Abraham Shikler (1922-2015), an artist whose portraits of America’s economic, political and social elite included a brooding John F. Kennedy, a sorrowful Jacqueline Kennedy and a buoyant Ronald Reagan in jeans and work shirt, died on Thursday at his home in Manhattan. He was 93.

The death was confirmed by his daughter, Cathy Shikler van Ingen.

Mrs. Kennedy became an admirer of Mr. Shikler after seeing the paintings he had done of the children of the actor Peter Lawford and Patricia Kennedy Lawford, one of the president’s sisters. In 1967 she asked him to do pastel portraits of her children, Caroline and John, and a group portrait of all three. A commission to do official White House portraits of her and (a posthumous one) of her husband followed.

John Michael Carter, 1950 | Impressionist Figurative painter

John Michael Carter was born in Chicago. He showed an interest in drawing at an early age and began his studies at 15 with his father E. L. Carter, a commercial artist and illustrator.

After graduation from high school he attended the American Academy of Art in Chicago.

In 1970 Carter continued his studies at the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles.

There he studied the major classical schools of drawing and painting with Reynolds Brown, Harry Carmean and Lorser Feitelson.

Pontormo | Portrait of Maria Salviati, 1543-1544

Portrait of Maria Salviati is an oil on panel painting attributed to Pontormo, executed c. 1543-1544, in the Uffizi, Florence.

It was acquired by the Uffizi early in the 20th century as a work by Domenico Beccafumi.

Soon afterwards Lányi identified it as a portrait of Cosimo I's mother Maria Salviati by Pontormo mentioned in Lives of the Artists by Giorgio Vasari.

Jacopo Pontormo | Portrait of Maria Salviati de' Medici, 1543-1544 | Uffizi, Florence

Pietro Annigoni | Realist painter

Pietro Annigoni (7 June 1910 - 28 October 1988) was an Italian portrait and fresco painter. He is best known for his portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, 1956.

Life

Born in Milan in 1910, Annigoni was influenced by the Italian Renaissance. From the end of the 1920s on, he lived mainly in Florence where he studied at the College of the Piarist Fathers.

In 1927, he was admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, where he attended the courses given by Felice Carena in painting, Giuseppe Graziosi in sculpture, and Celestino Celestini in etching.

Tamara de Lempicka's 120th Birthday

'Among a hundred paintings, you could recognize mine,

my goal was:

Do not copy. Create a new style...

colors light and bright,

return to elegance in my models'..

Tamara De Lempicka

Yuqi Wang, 1958 | Portrait painter

Yuqi Wang / 王玉琦 was born in China, 1958. He now lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

His work has been collected by many public institutions, including: the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C. , the Art Museum of Harvard University, China National Gallery, as well as by private collectors all over the world.

His work has been recognized with awards both nationally and internationally, winning the "Grand Prize" at The International Portrait Competition of the Portrait Society of America and "Second Prize" at The Portrait Competition of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C., among others.