Rodrigo Zaniboni | Plein air painter

Rodrigo Zaniboni is a Brazilian painter from the São Paulo countryside.

His brushstrokes have a contemporaneous, realistic style reminiscent of the Impressionists.

Zaniboni uses a very particular palette to emphasize the correct use of the color scale, and the technique of painting by layers is one of his strongest skills; he uses the technique in his routine work and considers it one of the most important activities for artist.

Bjorn Thorkelson, 1971 | Figurative painter

G. Bjorn Thorkelson was born in Orange, CA. He has been working as an illustrator for the last 13 years and is currently making the transition to fine art.  He currently shows at Gasov and Gurule in Scottsdale and The Wilcox Gallery in Jackson.

A native of Southern California, Bjorn lives with is wife Connie and four boys, T'Jae, Braden, Shawn and Riley in his Southeastern Idaho studio/home. Art has been his passion since early childhood and he cannot remember wanting to do anything else.

His early "crayon studies" of kindergarten took on more importance as he realized that he wanted to be an artist. "I've always loved to draw," he says, "it's as simple as that. Painting is merely an extension of that desire".

Jack Vettriano: "I don’t apologise for what I have painted.."

• "I miei dipinti raccontano le cose che ho fatto e quelle che vorrei poter fare".

• "I painted beach scenes not because I was feeling nice, but because I wanted to get a particular effect of reflection".

Fabian Perez, 1967 | Embrace series

"Art happens in the sublime moment when the human being expresses his emotions through skills" - Fabian Perez

For Fabian Perez, the purpose of art is to perpetuate beauty.

"That is what I am always striving for. God created the world and embellished it with the wonders of nature. I think it is the artist’s job to embellish it with his work".

"I am constantly fighting for a more romantic world, one where the woman and the man have defined roles and power isn’t always the goal".

Pausing, he says, "I would like to say that it is not important what you have, but how you enjoy it".

Jean Béraud (1849-1935)

Jean Béraud è stato un pittore Francese di scuola impressionista.

Si dedicò alla pittura di genere, in prevalenza dell'ambiente parigino.

Jean Béraud nacque a San Pietroburgo con la sorella gemella Melania, poiché suo padre, scultore, lavorava probabilmente alle opere della cattedrale di Sant'Isacco.

Nel 1853 suo padre morì ed il giovane Béraud rientrò a Parigi con la madre, Geneviève Eugénie Jacquin, e le tre sorelle.

Elihu Vedder | Symbolist painter

Elihu Vedder (February 26, 1836 - January 29, 1923) was an American symbolist painter, book illustrator and poet, born in New York City.

He is best known for his fifty-five illustrations for Edward FitzGerald's translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (deluxe edition, published by Houghton Mifflin).

Elihu Vedder was born February 26, 1836 in New York City, the son of Dr. Elihu Vedder Sr. and Elizabeth Vedder. His parents were cousins. His father, a dentist, decided to try his luck in Cuba, and this had a profound impact on Elihu Jr.'s childhood.

Anne-Louis Girodet | Neoclassical painter

Anne-Louis Girodet [Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson 1767-1824] is a French painter whose works exemplify the first phase of Romanticism in French art.

Girodet began to study drawing in 1773. He later became a student of the Neoclassical architect Étienne-Louis Boullée, with whose encouragement he joined the studio of Jacques-Louis David in late 1783 or early 1784.

Girodet won the Prix de Rome 1789 for his Joseph Recognized by His Brothers, which shows the influence of David’s Neoclassicism.

Todd A. Williams, 1967 | Impressionist painter

Todd A. Williams - an award-winning painter - was born in Central City, Nebraska. After high school he attended the Kansas City Art Institute, graduating with a BFA.

Todd’s work has been exhibited across the US in gallery, museum and invitational exhibitions, including the Nebraska State Museum, Stuhr Museum, Gallery1516, Gilcrease Museum, Great Plains Art Museum, Richmond Art Museum, Montgomery Museum Of Fine Arts, Art Museum of Lafayette, Ft. Wayne Museum of Art, The Maynard Dixon Museum, Evansville Museum of Arts, and the Oil Painters of America and Impressionists Society National Exhibitions where he has been honored with the prestigious status of a Signature Member.

Wassily Kandinsky | Quotes / VideoArt

"A volte mi sembrava che il pennello, che con volontà inflessibile strappava frammenti a quest'organismo cromatico vivo, provocasse l'emissione di un suono musicale".

"Art is the mysterious expression of the mysterious".

"E come un nulla senza possibilità, come un nulla morto dopo l'estinguersi del sole, come un silenzio eterno senz'avvenire e senza speranza, risuona interiormente il nero".

"The geometric point is an invisible thing. Therefore, it must be defined as an incorporeal thing. Considered in terms of substance, it equals zero... Thus we look upon the geometric point as the ultimate and most singular union of silence and speech. The geometric point has, therefore, been given its material form, in the first instance, in writing. It belongs to language and signifies silence".

Lena Sotskova / Елена Сотскова, 1963

Lena Sotskova / Елена Сотскова was born in Moscow. She was discovered as a child prodigy at the age of four. A descendant of generations of the Russian aristocracy, Lena was fortunate to have a privileged upbringing and elite education in leading art schools and through private lessons from masters of painting.

Lena Sotskova was studying and working in the vaults of prestigious institutions such as The Hermitage, The Louvre, Art Fund of Russia and royal palaces and cathedrals of Moscow and St. Petersburg. She was involved in the restoration of rare pieces of art that were damaged during the Moscow fire of 1812 during the war with Napoleon Bonaparte.

Camille Pissarro | Les paysans / I contadini..

"Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing"

Camille Pissarro.

While the Impressionists are known for their depictions of city streets and country leisure, Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) covered his canvases with images of the day-to-day life of French peasants.

His greatest work joins his fascination with rural subject matter with the empirical study of nature under different conditions of light and atmosphere, deriving from intense study of French Realism.

Irene Sheri Vishnevskaya, 1968 | Romantic ainter

The daughter of a bulgarian mother and french father, Irene Sheri Vishnevskaya was born in the Ukraine in 1968.

Her art career began when Irene’s older brother, Vasily, was given a set of paints for his 9th birthday.

Told not to touch the paints, they became an obsession.

Irene stole them, mixed them, and painted on paper, walls, her dress, and the bodies of her friends.

She was 4 years old.

Alain Picard, 1974 | Figurative /Landscape painter

Alain J. Picard is an award-winning artist, instructor, author and speaker. His acclaimed pastel and oil paintings have been exhibited throughout the US, Europe, China and the UK.

Alain travels internationally as an art instructor, demonstrator, speaker and artistic advocate for the vulnerable.

Alain Picard earned a BA in illustration from Western CT State University and went on to study at the Art Student's League in New York City. Picard cites Sargent, Degas, and Sorolla among his artistic influences. A love of light and beauty are immediately apparent in his pastel and oil paintings.

Claude Monet and Impressionism

When Durand-Ruel's previous support of Monet and his peers began to decline, Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, and Berthe Morisot exhibited their work independently; they did so under the name the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors and Engravers for which Monet was a leading figure in its formation.

He was inspired by the style and subject matter of his slightly older contemporaries, Pissarro and Édouard Manet.

The group, whose title was chosen to avoid association with any style or movement, were unified in their independence from the Salon and rejection of the prevailing academicism.

Monet gained a reputation as the foremost landscape painter of the group.

Denis Nolet, 1964 | Night Tango in Paris

Denis Nolet, Canadian painter, was born in Quebec.

Beginning his study of art at the age of nine, Nolet was able to experiment with various styles of painting early on, finding his own unique genre in a fusion of his influences and establishing himself as an artist by the time he was only twenty.