Hazel Soan, 1954 | British Watercolor painter

British painter Hazel Soan grew up in the UK and graduated with a BA hons in Fine Art after studying painting at Camberwell and Leicester Art Colleges.She was awarded the Holbrook Trust Prize from Nottingham Museum and Art Gallery in 1976 and within a year of her graduation, she was earning a living by her paintings, and her watercolors sold out within the first hour of her first exhibition in London. Hazel has since held over 20 solo exhibitions, heeding the advice of one of her college professors- ‘Always have an exhibition on the horizon’. She has held exhibitions from as far afield as the Namibia, Venezuela, South Africa and Zimbabawe to closer to home in the UK. She took advice from the same lecturer when he told her to have a studio of her own where she could work uninterrupted and also to travel in order to avoid getting in a rut. She now has a studio in West London and another in Cape Town.

Jean-Pierre Augier, 1950 | Metal sculptures

French sculptor Jean-Pierre Augier, was born in Nice, he lives and works in Saint-Antoine-de-Siga, between Levens and Saint-Blaise (Alpes-Maritimes, France).

As a child, he created with various materials. From 1963, he got interested in disused old tools and learned how to weld them. From that time on, he would only shape iron and then exhibit at «La Maison du Portal» in Levens, in several other French regions, but also in Paris, New York, Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland.

The Leshan Giant Buddha / Il Buddha gigante di Leshan

The Leshan Giant Buddha (乐山大佛) was built during the Tang Dynasty (618–907AD). It is carved out of a cliff face that lies at the confluence of the Minjiang, Dadu and Qingyi rivers in the southern part of Sichuan province in China, near the city of Leshan. The stone sculpture faces Mount Emei, with the rivers flowing below his feet. It is the largest stone Buddha in the world and it is by far the tallest pre-modern statue in the world.
The Mount Emei Scenic Area, including Leshan Giant Buddha Scenic Area has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996. It was not damaged by the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.

William Waterhouse | The Modern Pre-Raphaelite

British painter of classical, historical, and literary subjects, John William Waterhouse (1849-1917) was born in Rome, where his father worked as a painter.

In the 1850s the family returned to England. Before entering the Royal Academy schools in 1870, Waterhouse assisted his father in his studio.

His early works were of classical themes in the spirit of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema and Frederic Leighton, and were exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Society of British Artists and the Dudley Gallery.

Cha Soo Griffith | Cityscape painter

Korean painter Soo Cha Griffith lives in Knoxville, but her artist's spirit lives in the picturesque villages and gardens of Italy and France. Griffith paints and sketches a wide variety of subjects, but her favorites are old-world towns, streets, coastal areas, open meadows, flower gardens and people. Her favorite place to paint, she said, is around Lake Como in northern Italy, Griffith said.