Beppe Ciardi | Drawing

Giuseppe (known as Beppe) Ciardi (1875-1932) was an Italian painter.

Born in Venice, he was the son of the painter Guglielmo and the brother of Emma, who also became a notable artist.

Beppe Ciardi studied under his father at the Venice Academy of Fine Arts from 1896.

He graduated in 1899 and his participation in the Venice Biennale began the same year with the Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte di Venezia, where his work continued to be exhibited in later years and was featured in a solo show in 1912.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo | Allegories of the Elements, 1576

Arcimboldo - The four Elements - Air

As he did in "The four seasons", in the series of "The four elements" Arcimboldo assigned to any element a face formed by the most characteristic of any of them. Nevertheless, the series possesses some elements that make it quite different, and even more interesting, than the previous one.
First, and contrary to the previous series, every face is formed by only one kind of element. The face of "The Earth" is formed exclusively by land animals, "The Air" is made of birds, and "The Water" by fish and marine animals.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo | Allegories of the Seasons, 1573

Arcimboldo Giuseppe Spring, 1573

Giuseppe Arcimboldo painted numerous series about "The four seasons" (one in a private collection in Bergamo, painted around 1572; another one, painted in 1573, in the Louvre Museum) being each of them a copy without many variations of the previous one, reflecting the success of the series. The painter represented the hypothetical faces of every season with the most typical element of any of them. Thus the face of the spring is made of flowers, the summer has a face of fruits and a body of wheat, while the autumn is a curious summary of fallen leaves, fruits and mushrooms.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo | Drawing

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, also spelled Arcimboldi (1527-1593) was an Italian painter best known for  working in the Mannerism style and for creating imaginative portrait heads made entirely of such objects as fruits, vegetables, flowers, fish, and books - that is, he painted representations of these objects on the canvas arranged in such a way that the whole collection of objects formed a recognisable likeness of the portrait subject.
For biographical notes and painting works by Arcimboldi see Part 1 - Painting.

Jimmy Lawlor, 1967 | Surrealist painter

Jimmy Lawlor was born in Wexford. He now lives in Westport, in the magnificent West of Ireland. Lawlor has been exhibiting for over 20 years.
His work is based not only on the Irish sense of humour, but on the vivid realisation that the old way of life will have vanished by our next generation.
His work takes elements from his surroundings and mixes them with the people of the place, in their environment and doing what they love best. In their own way, they have helped create the atmosphere around them, whether they be farmers, business people, students or otherwise.