Tina Garrett, 1974

In 2012, after a career as a freelance cartoon illustrator and graphic designer, the Scottsdale Artists’ School awarded Tina the first of two merit scholarships based on a handful of self-taught pastel portraiture, and she began learning how to paint, dedicating herself to the full-time practice of understanding oil painting.

By 2014 Tina earned the first of four Purchase Awards in the 11th and 12th International ARC Salons. Tina’s works, “City Blues”, “String of Pearls”, "Melancholy" and "Bravado" are now part of the Art Renewal Center's renowned permanent collection.

Tina’s recognitions also include Best of Show in the 51st National Women Artists of The West Show, Oil Painters of America Online Showcase 1st Prize, The International Artist Magazine People and Figures Grand Prize, NOAPS Best of America People’s Choice Award and Second Prize awards and Portrait Society of America International Art of The Portrait Competition Select 50.

The Giverny Art Colony, 1885-1915

Between 1885 and 1915, the village of Giverny attracted more than 350 artists (Americans accounted for the majority) from at least eighteen countries around the world (including Argentina, Australia, Canada, Great Britain and Poland) - transforming from a sleepy community to a vibrant and important Artists' Colony.

The presence of master Claude Monet (known to the American artists through both Parisian and American exhibitions), who settled in the village in 1883, attracted a small band of artists, including Theodore Robinson, Willard Metcalf, Louis Ritter, Theodore Wendel and John Leslie Breck.

John Leslie Breck | Garden at Giverny, 1887-91

Louis Ritter (1854-1892)

Born: 1854, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States of America.

Died: 1892, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.

Biography

Louis Ritter’s landscape paintings of scenes in Europe and on the New England coast demonstrate the influence of new trends in European art that were just beginning to infiltrate American painting in the 1870s and 1880s.

Born in Cincinnati, he studied at the McMicken School of Design in 1873-74.

In 1878 he went to Munich, Germany, like many of his fellow compatriots, to enroll in the prestigious Royal Academy of Munich, where he won a silver medal in drawing.

Ritter studied with influential American painter and teacher Frank Duveneck, a native of the Cincinnati area.

Rupert Bunny | Colorist / Symbolist painter

Australian painter Rupert Charles Wulsten Bunny (1864-1947) was one of the most successful expatriate artists of his generation.

No other Australian artist achieved the critical acclaim that he enjoyed in Paris. An erudite painter of ideal themes, and the creator of the most ambitious Salon paintings produced by an Australian, Bunny is an exotic in the history of Australian art.

An exhibition, Rupert Bunny artist in Paris, curated by Deborah Edwards, Senior Curator of Australian Art, will honour the work of this great Australian artist.

The exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales will showcase more than 85 of his most significant paintings, many unseen in Australia, including works from the Musée d’Orsay and Fonds national d’art contemporain in Paris and private lenders including Kerry Stokes, Jeffrey Archer and Dame Elisabeth Murdoch.

George Underwood, 1947 | Fantasy painter

George Underwood was born in Bromley Kent. George Underwood joined Beckenham Art School in 1963. At art school George Underwood became more and more interested in music. As a result he pursued a career in the music world.

Along with life long friend David Bowie he made one record -The King Bees- and also a solo record under the name Calvin James. After deciding that the music business was not for him, George returned to art studies and then worked in design studios as an illustrator. Initially he specialised in fantasy, horror and science fiction book covers.

Many of George Underwood's colleagues in the music business asked him to do various art works for them. This led to George becoming a freelance artist. Art work for the first T Rex album and later David Bowie’s Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust album covers established him as a leading and creative art illustrator.