Giacomo Favretto | Genre painter

The Venetian painter Giacomo Favretto (1849-1887) is one of the most important masters of the Italian Nineteenth century, mainly depicting Genre subjects in his native city.

A true “innovator” of the Venetian school during the second half of the century, he both revived and modernised the unique aspects of great Veneto tradition, from Longhi to Tiepolo - that had been abandoned in the first half of the Nineteenth century in favour of paintings of history and landscape.

Born in Venice into a family of humble origin, Favretto enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in 1864, where he trained under Pompeo Molmenti. He was said to have been discovered in a stationer's shop cutting out silhouettes to make a living. By age 30, he had lost sight from one eye.

Vincenzo Irolli | Genre painter

Vincenzo Irolli (1860-1949) was an Italian painter.

Vincenzo Irolli enrolled at the of Naples Institute of Fine Arts, where his masters included Gioacchino Toma, in 1877 and graduated three years later.

The work he presented regularly at the exhibitions of the Naples Società Promotrice di Belle Arti as from 1879 comprised portraits and Genre scenes.

He became a member of the Circolo Artistico Napoletano in 1890 and worked with Giovanni Migliaro and other local artists on decorations for the Caffè Gambrinus at the end of the decade.

Muriel Dolemieux, 1954

"My life as an artist really began in 1973 when I graduated from “l’Ecole Nationale des Sciences Géographique” - National Geographic Sciences Institute in Paris, as an Artist Cartographer. But I always knew I would be an artist.

When I was a kid I never asked myself if I was able to draw, I just did it ... It was in my blood!

Some of my ancestors and parents are famous artists, such as Guillaume Coustou, Nicolas de Largillière, Nicolas and Edouard Gatteaux, Henri Viot my Great-Grand-Father, Simone de Boutray my Grand-Mother, Martine Gayet my Mother..."

Christian Rohlfs | Expressionist painter

German painter Christian Rohlfs (1849-1938) is one of the important representatives of German Expressionism.

Rohlfs was born in Gross Niendorf, Kreis Segeberg in Northern Germany.

He took up painting as a teenager while convalescing from an infection that was eventually to lead to the amputation of a leg in 1874.

He began his formal artistic education in Berlin, before transferring, in 1870, to the Weimar Academy.

Washington Maguetas, 1942 | Impressionist painter

Innocence and beauty and also the impact of different aesthetic and emotional experiences which Washington Maguetas has had in the course of a long artistic career.

Many of his work hark back to a late 19th-century world of elegance and exquisite natural settings.

Brasilian painter Washington Maguetas is a prolific artist of great versatility who has absinfuences together with the spirit of his native land Brazil to produce paintings which reflect the best elements of both traditions.

David Farrant, 1938 | Modern Impressionist painter

Born in London in 1938, David Farrant has built a reputation as one of the country’s finest figurative painters. Like Hopper or Vettriano, David is inspired by everyday scenes of human interaction, and he reproduces these against a living background of muted colors and complex shadows.

His early career was spent teaching art whilst also working very successfully as a portrait painter. He no longer paints portraits preferring to concentrate on his figurative painting.

David works in oil and acrylic; he likes to work on a fairly large format and tries to hint at a story in the composition of the paintings. He gets his inspiration from observing people in everyday situations and the impact of light, especially sunlight, is very apparent in his work.

Mr. and Mrs. Garmash | Romantic painters

Michael and Inessa Garmash are considered two of the finest Romantic Impressionists of our day.
Their incredible talent is only matched by their love and career stories.

For biographical notes -in english and italian- and other works by Mr. and Mrs. Garmash, see:

• Michael and Inessa Garmash | Romantic Impressionist painters ➦.

Leonardo da Vinci | Perché la pittura non è connumerata nelle scienze..

Trattato della Pittura - Parte prima /30

Perché gli scrittori non hanno avuto notizia della scienza della pittura, non hanno potuto descriverne i gradi e le parti. Ed essa medesima non si dimostra col suo fine nelle parole; essa è restata, mediante l'ignoranza, indietro alle predette scienze, non mancando per questo di sua divinità.

E veramente non senza cagione non l'hanno nobilitata, perché per sé medesima si nobilita senza l'aiuto delle altrui lingue, non altrimenti che si facciano le eccellenti opere di natura.

Raffaello Sanzio ~ I sonetti

Sonetto I

Amor, tu m’envesscasti con doi lumi
de doi beli occhi dov’io me strugo e [s]face,
da bianca neve e da rosa vivace,
da un bel parlar in donnessi costumi.

Tal che tanto ardo, ch[e] né mar né fiumi
spegnar potrian quel foco; ma non mi spiace,
poiché ’l mio ardor tanto di ben mi face,
ch’ardendo onior più d’arder me consu[mi].

Quanto fu dolce el giogo e la catena
de’ toi candidi braci al col mio vòl[ti],
che, sogliendomi, io sento mortal pen[a].

D’altre cose io’ non dico, che fôr m[olti],
ché soperchia docenza a mo[r]te men[a],
e però tacio, a te i pens[e]r rivolti.

Heather Arenas ~ Plein air painter

Art has been a constant for me since I was very little. I studied art through high school but also took 3 years of Latin because my goal was to become an orthopedic surgeon. I took a few classes in college to create balance while I worked on my biology degree. It was not until I was in medical school that I decided I was not cut out for that line of work since it would mean I wouldn't have time to paint!
When I left school, I tried many different careers including veterinary technician, database architect and alpaca rancher and continued drawing and painting tributes to my experiences. Ultimately it didn't matter what I did to pay the bills, I still found time to paint. Although I have painted many different subjects, I particularly love figure painting. Anatomy is still my favorite subject. Now that I am older and more settled, I can paint everyday, sometimes on location and often with a live model to keep my skills sharp.
My goal as an artist is to make beautiful art. I study art and techniques constantly to try to make that happen.

Josep Teixido, 1956 | Abstract palette knife painter

Josep Teixido was born in Calella, Barcelona, and currently resides in Vilassar de Mar, also in the province of Barcelona, Spain. He has exhibited his work for over 25 years in Spain and France.

With warm colours, and his unique palette knife technique, his exotic paintings instantly capture the attention of the viewer, allowing them to dream and take a journey of the senses. Always playing with our perception, Josep subtly oscillates between the figurative and the abstract, while transporting us to gorgeous locations reminiscent of his homeland. 

Norma Mascellani

La pittrice Italiana Norma Mascellani (1909-2009), allieva di Giorgio Morandi, Alfredo Protti, Guglielmo Pizzirani e Giovanni Romagnoli, è stata una pittrice figurativa -ritratti, nature morte, paesaggi- con qualche risvolto metafisico.
Ha partecipato alla Biennale di Venezia XXII, 1939; XXV, 1950 ed alla Quadriennale di Roma III, 1939; VI, 1951; VII, 1955, e varie personali in Italia o nel 2005 al Parlamento Europeo di Bruxelles.
Ha ottenuto diversi riconoscimenti, sia artistici che per meriti sociali (ha fatto numerose opere di beneficenza), fra cui la "Stella d'oro della bontà" conferitale dal cardinale Giacomo Lercaro nel 1962, il titolo di Cavaliere ricevuto dal Presidente della Repubblica Italiana Giuseppe Saragat 1967, e altri. È morta, centenaria, il 7 dicembre 2009, dopo una breve malattia.

Marci Oleszkiewicz 1979 | Impressionist painter

American painter🎨 Marci Oleszkiewicz-Taylor has been studying art and painting for some time, it wasn't until 2007 when things started to move forward and she began to see what the future might hold for her as an artist.

Upon entering several art competitions Marci was not only accepted in two of the top shows, The Oil Painters of America's national show and the American Impressionist Society's national show, but also received very substantial awards from both.

She received an award🎨 of excellence from the OPA and the best of show award from the AIS. Not long after, she was included in Southwest Art Magazine's 21 under 31 and had her first two man show at Gallery Russia in Scottsdale, AZ.

Johann Wolfgang Goethe | Aforismi sull'Arte

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe by Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein

• L'opera d'arte può avere un effetto morale, ma richiedere ad un artista uno scopo morale significa fargli rovinare il suo lavoro.
• L'arte è lunga, la vita breve, il giudizio difficile, l'occasione buona passeggera.
• La tecnica, alleata al cattivo gusto, è la più temibile nemica dell'arte.
• Non c’è via più sicura per evadere dal mondo che l’arte, ma non c’è legame più sicuro con esso che l’arte.
• Nell’arte, abbastanza buono è l’ottimo.

Anna and Elena Balbusso | Surrealist illustrator

Italian twins Anna and Elena Balbusso are internationally recognized award winning illustrators live and work in Milan.

Since 1998 they have been working as a team freelance in Italy, France, United Kingdom, USA, Canada, Republic of Korea.

Their works have been published by major publishers and companies through out the world on various media types such as book jackets, magazines, newspapers, in house corporate, ads, children’s books and classic novels.

Gino De Dominicis

Gino De Dominicis (1947-1998) was an extraordinary Italian artist in terms of the sublime level of his works, but also in terms of his conscious ‘eccentricity’ with regard to the art world. A controversial and mystifying figure, even the news of his death was greeted with suspicion, as for years earlier he had reported his own demise in the mock conclusion to a biographical essay.

Jacques Prévert | Paris at night..

Tre fiammiferi accesi uno per uno nella notte

Il primo per vederti tutto il viso

Il secondo per vederti gli occhi

L'ultimo per vedere la tua bocca

E tutto il buio per ricordarmi queste cose

Mentre ti stringo fra le braccia.

Stanislav Aristov

Leonardo da Vinci | Parla il musico col pittore

Trattato della Pittura - Parte prima /26

Dice il musico, che la sua scienza è da essere equiparata a quella del pittore, perché essa compone un corpo di molte membra, del quale lo speculatore contempla tutta la grazia in tanti tempi armonici quanti sono i tempi ne' quali essa nasce e muore, e con quei tempi trastulla con grazia l'anima che risiede nel corpo del suo contemplante.

Michael Klein, 1980 | The Novorealism Movement

American painter Michael Klein is a bourgeoning artist in the NovoRealism Movement creating melancholic paintings that have a distinct, contemplative quality.

Klein grew up in the Midwest where he developed a special connection with nature and a desire to express himself accurately through his work.

He began his academic training at just 19 with Richard Whitney and subsequently enrolled in Richard Lack’s The Atelier in Minneapolis, MN.

Juan Fortuny, 1939 | Impressionist / Realist painter

Juan Fortuny was born in Badalona, a small fishing town near to Barcelona.
A work of art signed by Fortuny is, first and foremost, a suite of details, each and every one of which is of primary importance. A surprising and outstanding composition, fruit of long years of experience with colours, canvas, techniques, visits to galleries and museums. The route that leads to Juan Fortuny today takes the traveller backwards in time, to his childhood. Four years later his affair with drawings, his passion, triumphed and started a new career as a painter.

Dariusz Żejmo, 1966 | Fantasy /Venice painting

Dariusz Zejmo has graduated Fine Arts School and Fine Arts Faculty at Nicolas Copernicus University (painting) in Toruń, Poland under the guidance of prof. Janusz Kaczmarski. Zejmo is the author of illustration and artwork to several dozen books, publishing graphic designer, magazine covers and illustrations for children.

Van Gogh: Sogno di dipingere e poi dipingo il mio sogno!

'Bisogna aver sempre presente la meta da raggiungere e che la vittoria ottenuta dopo un'intera vita di laboriosa fatica vale più di un facile successo. Chiunque viva sinceramente e affronti senza piegarsi dolori e delusioni è assai più degno di chi ha sempre avuto il vento favorevole, non conoscendo altro che una relativa prosperità'.

John Mason ~ Visionary landscape painter

American painter John Mason is not only a brilliant artist, but also a musician, and a computer animator as well. John thinks of his images as "painting from the mind's eye". His images create visionary landscapes that "glow" with life, and John seems fascinated with ancient civilizations and the innate beauty of pristine nature.

Paul Klee: "L'arte è quello che c'è fra il colore e la tela"

'I colori, come i lineamenti, seguono i cambiamenti delle emozioni'. Pablo Picasso

Eric Wert, 1976 ~ Hyperrealist Floral Still Life painter

Eric Wert was born in Portland, Oregon. He received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA from Northwestern University. He currently paints full time from his studio in Portland.
His work has been shown across the U.S. and in Europe. In the last decade, he has had ten solo exhibits and has participated in over fifty group exhibitions. He has been featured in numerous publications, including American Art Collector, New American Paintings and Artists Magazine. Public collections include the New Britain Museum of American Art, in Connecticut, and the Illinois State Museum. 'I want to create an image that one can be lost within. To me, still life painting is about looking intensely, about intimately exploring a subject. I hope that the paintings can convey that sense of intensity and fascination'.

Victor Charreton | Post-Impressionist painter

Victor Charreton (1864-1936) belongs to a generation of artists who devoted themselves to ‘le paysage’, just like the Impressionists did before them, paying attention to the influence of seasons, light and colours. Furthermore, he traveled extensively and together with his wife, he visited Italy, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, England, Spain and Marocco.
His evolution tended towards a use of richer and brighter colours, notably in the mauves and violets which characterize his style. Victor Charreton is famous for his landscapes and still-life paintings, often sharing Impressionist preoccupations whilst trying to capture momentary effects of specific times of day or seasons, at sunset or in a snowy landscape.

John Murray | Abstract painter

John Francis Murray is an American painter, known for working in the Abstract style. His subject matter includes figure, landscape, still-life and portraiture. Inspired by the classical masters as a boy, his traditional training and artistic development has lead to work of quality. His paintings carry an appealing sense of clarity and color.

As a classically trained artist, Murray's choice for subject matter revolves around figure, still-life, portrait and landscape. His work is a combination of traditional subject matter, infused with bold brushwork and contemporary compositions.

Vincent Van Gogh | In the springtime a bird in a cage, 1880

Vincent van Gogh letter to Theo van Gogh, Cuesmes, 24 June 1880:

In the springtime a bird in a cage knows very well that there’s something he’d be good for; he feels very clearly that there’s something to be done but he can’t do it; what it is he can’t clearly remember, and he has vague ideas and says to himself, "the others are building their nests and making their little ones and raising the brood", and he bangs his head against the bars of his cage.

And then the cage stays there and the bird is mad with suffering. "Look, there’s an idler", says another passing bird - "that fellow’s a sort of man of leisure".

Loren D. Adams, 1945 | Surrealist painter

American Loren D. Adams, Jr. was born in Linton, Indiana.

He developed a profound interest in painting at the age of nine years old. One of these very early original Art-works found it's way into a major retrospective exhibition at the prestigious R.W. Norton Art Gallery, a Museum of Early American, European and Contemporary Fine Art in Shreveport, Louisiana in February of 1979.

His first public exhibit was at the Roseville Museum, Roseville, California in 1967. This was the same year he quit his day job as an emergency room L.P.N. to devote full time to his Art. The young Artist began to chase after his dream to become a Master.

Holly Sierra | Magic realism painter

Whether wandering through the forest or exploring an ancient crumbling castle, Holly Sierra finds inspiration all around her.

Holly has been drawn to painting things ‘mystical and magical’ for as long as she can remember.

After her fine art education at SUNY Purchase in NY, the next decade found Holly living and traveling extensively in Asia.

She now blends her marvelous multicultural memories with themes that influence and fascinate her today.

Roger Suraud | Symbolist painter

French painter and sculptor Roger Suraud (1938-2016) was born in Saint-Étienne.

The Suraud's painting are a grand spectacle where music travels with Sculpture and Architecture.

Suraud is represented in many exposures and international living rooms: Paris, Genève, Monaco, Lyon, Bordeaux, Saint-Tropez.

Federico García Lorca | Potessero le mie mani sfogliare la luna

Pronunzio il tuo nome

nelle notti scure,

quando sorgono gli astri

per bere dalla luna

e dormono le frasche

delle macchie occulte.

Leon Wyczolkowski

Pablo Neruda | In Te la terra / In you the Earth

Marc Chagall, 1927

Piccola

rosa,

rosa piccina,

a volte,

minuta e nuda,

sembra

Felice Casorati | Magic Realism painter

Born in Novara, Felice Casorati (1883-1963) spent his formative years in Padua, where he developed an interest in music and literature.

He began to paint in 1902, and read law at the University of Padua, graduating in 1906, while frequenting the studio of Giovanni Viannello (1873-1926).

Casorati's early paintings were in the symbolist mode of the Vienna Secession.

His adherence to this style was strengthened by seeing Klimt's installation at the 1910 Venice Biennale, where he met the Austrian painter.

Leonardo da Vinci | Pittore che disputa col poeta

Trattato della Pittura - Parte prima /14

Qual poeta con parole ti metterà innanzi, o amante, la vera effigie della tua idea con tanta verità, qual farà il pittore?

Quale sarà quello che ti dimostrerà i siti de' fiumi, boschi, valli e campagne, dove si rappresentino i tuoi passati piaceri, con più verità del pittore?

Marty Bell | Vintage style painter

With her passion for beauty, color and style, American painter Marty Bell [1931-2003] was a prolific and influential artist. Her work has been internationally collected and she enjoyed the respect of both her peers and fine art collectors.
In her lifetime, Marty painted more than 3,000 oil paintings ranging from old English cottages and California landscapes to impressionistic pieces and colorful still lifes.

Leon Richman ~ Figurative sculptor

Beginning in medium to large-scale marble figures, his passion to explore the beauty of the human form in all dimensions soon led him to a more pliable medium, allowing more freedom in the creative process. The result has been an inspired body of work, each piece possessing its own unique spirit and personality.
Leon Richman is a California artist with a formal education from the renowned Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, and years of practical experience in the field of commercial art, but his soul and passion have always been deeply rooted in the finer arts. He has almost as many years experience in drawing and painting as he’s been living and breathing. Now he has directed his creative ambitions towards the art of sculpture.
Chosen to study under the tutelage of the internationally acclaimed sculptor Richard MacDonald, Leon Richman has since become even more skillful at the physical interpretation of the human spirit, not settling for a simple duplication of a posing body, but instilling his sculptures with the same passion he feels in their creation.

Eva Gonzalès | Les grandes dames of Impressionism

Eva Gonzalès (1849-1883) was a French Impressionist painter.

She was one of the four most notable female Impressionists in the nineteenth century, along with Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), Berthe Morisot (1841-95) and Marie Bracquemond (1840-1916).

Gonzalès began her professional training and took lessons in drawing in 1865, from the society portraitist Charles Chaplin, who was also Mary Cassatt's teacher.

Martin Johnson Heade and the Hudson River School

Art historians have come to disagree with the common view that Martin Johnson Heade (-1819-1904) is a Hudson River School painter, a view given wide currency by Heade's inclusion in a landmark exhibition of Hudson River School landscapes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1987.

The leading Heade scholar and author of Heade's catalogue raisonne, Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., wrote some years after the 1987 Hudson River School exhibition that "...other scholars-myself included-have increasingly come to doubt that Heade is most usefully seen as standing within that school".

Albert Carrier-Belleuse | Chryselephantine sculpture

Carrier-Belleuse is the name used by this sculptor -born Carrier de Belleuse- on his mature pieces, after initially signing works "A. Carrier". His career began firmly in the applied arts, with his apprenticeship at thirteen to a Parisian ciseleur today known as Bauchery (or Beauchery), and he did subsequent work for Jacques-Henri Fauconnier and Fannière Frères. His formal education took place at the Petite Ecole - chosen after an unhappy stint at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1840 under the direction of David d'Angers, his official master.

While at the Petite Ecole in the 1840s, Carrier-Belleuse began his lifelong practice of providing commercial houses with models for edition, as statuettes or as ornament for functional pieces. Around 1850, the sculptor moved to England as a designer for Minton China Works, at Stoke-upon-Trent, as well as for Wedgewood, Coalbrookdale Ironworks, and Graham Jackson furniture makers.

Even after returning to Paris in 1855, he continued to send models to British firms throughout his life.

He began to garner acclaim as a fine-arts sculptor after ten years of showing in the Salon, beginning with two portrait medallions in 1850 and a flurry of busts and groups with mythological or historical subjects between 1857-1861, the latter of which earned him a third-class medal.

Catherine Calcagni | Ed intanto fuori piove..

Assorta nella penombra

delle pagine gialle della mia vita

mi siedo con l'abbandono

con le mani raccolgo il vuoto

e mi conforta la pena

non guardo fuori...

sento solo....confesso

il rigurgito fuso delle mie angosce

eppur..... c'era il sole

Jeremy Mann

The fountain of the Four Rivers / La Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi, 1651

Quattro enormi allegorie sedute in pose contrastanti agli angoli delle rocce in marmo bianco che rappresentano i maggiori fiumi di ciascuno dei quattro continenti noti, secondo le cognizioni geografiche del XVII secolo:

Il Danubio per l'Europa, scolpito da Antonio Raggi;

Il Gange per l'Asia di Claude Poussin;

Il Rio della Plata per l'America di Francesco Baratta;

Il Nilo per l'Africa di Antonio Fancelli.