Richard S. Johnson, 1953 | Impressionist painter

Richard S. Johnson is an award-winning contemporary American painter based in Chicago, Illinois. Johnson was born in Chicago to a family of artists. While still in primary school, Johnson was accepted as a scholar to the Art Institute of Chicago.

A graduate of the American Academy of Art, he embarked on a career as an illustrator. Johnson's style has been regarded as having the technical excellence of Pre-Raphaelite Romanticism mixed with contemporary Expressionism and Abstraction.

Johnny Palacios Hidalgo, 1970 | Surrealist painter

Peruvian painter Johnny Palacios Hidalgo was born in Lima, Peru and studied art between 1988-1998 in the National Art Museum and the National School of Fine Arts.

He has exhibited regularly since 1984, developing a surreal hyperrealism style with unique powerful images full of beauty, which emphasizes the feminine beauty and animal figures more or less merged with the environment.

Ron Di Scenza, 1954 | Romantic Figurative painter

American artist Ron Di Scenza has a fitting last name. In Italian, conoscenza means knowledge or awareness, and a knowing sense of familiarity comes through Di Scenza's canvases, giving his images special meaning and significance.

Di Scenza's deep understanding of human nature is expressed in the faces and body language of his figures, much like Spanish painter Diego Velazquez and his ability to report life as it is recalls American painter John Singer Sargent.

Especially exciting, Di Scenza's detailed realism is on par with Flemish painter Johannes Vermeer, while the soulfulness of his subjects brings to mind Italian artist Michelangelo Caravaggio.

Boleslaw Szankowski | Portrait painter

Bolesław Szańkowski (1873-1953) was an Polish painter, known for working in the Realist style.

Szańkowski studied at the academies in Cracow and Munich with Ludwig Herterich and in Paris with Benjamin-Constant, Gaudara and Jean Paul Laurens.

He went on to work in Munich, where he contributed to the periodicals, Youth (Jugend) and Simplicity (Simplicissimus).

From 1907 to 1925 he participated in the annual exhibitions of the Munich Glass Palace.

Mary Qian, 1973 | Impressionist painter

A Chicago-based fine art painter, Mary is a winner of many awards🎨, including Oil Painters of America gold Medal.

Originally from Shanghai, China, Mary went through the traditional Chinese educational system focusing on the sciences while studying Chinese painting and calligraphy on her own. Before coming to the US, she admired the ancient Chinese painters🎨 but found her true voice for painting when she discovered the western artists.

It was the realism of Rembrandt🎨, Velazquez🎨, Repin🎨 -her particular favorites- that she found to be the artistic style that she had been looking for.

Vito Campanella | Surrealist / Metaphysics painter

Although Vito Campanella (1932-2014) started to paint at the age of 14 in his native Monopoli, his love for visual arts began much earlier.

He was born in 1932 and endured the sorrow, agony and shortage that surrounded World War II.

In the aftermath of the armed conflict, daily life in Southern Italy changed forever.

Allied planes crisscrossing the sky and ceaseless bombings left indelible memories he later translated into works of art.

René Magritte | Surrealist painter

René Magritte, in full René-François-Ghislain Magritte (born Nov. 21, 1898, Lessines, Belg.- died Aug. 15, 1967, Brussels) Belgian artist, one of the most prominent Surrealist painters, whose bizarre flights of fancy blended horror, peril, comedy, and mystery.

His works were characterized by particular symbols-the female torso, the bourgeois "little man", the bowler hat, the castle, the rock, the window, and others.

Richard Schmid, 1934 | Realist / Impressionist painter

Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, American🎨 Master painter Richard Schmid became one of the foremost Impressionist painters🎨 of the Southwest in the late 20th century.

He is known for what he calls "The Grand Manner", a certain mingling of virtuosity and unrestrained joy in art.

His earliest artistic influence came from his maternal grandfather, Julian Oates, an architectural sculptor. Richard's initial studies in landscape painting, figure drawing, and anatomy began at the age of twelve and continued into classical techniques under William H. Mosby at the American Academy of Art in Chicago.

Mosby, a graduate of the Belgian Royal Academy in Brussels and the Superior Institute in Antwerp, was a technical expert on European and American realism.

Studies with him involved working exclusively from life, at first using the conceptual and technical methods of the Flemish, Dutch and Spanish masters, and eventually all of the late 19th century European and American painters.

Jane Wells Loudon | The Victorian garden

Jane Loudon was to Victorian gardening what Mrs Beeton was to cookery. Her beautifully illustrated books on gardening and plant identification sold in their thousands and women all over the country were enthused enough by them to take up gardening as a hobby.

- Loudon [née Webb], Jane (1807-1858), writer on botany and magazine editor, was born on 19 August 1807 at Ritwell House, near Birmingham. Her mother died when she was twelve, and her father, Thomas Webb, a businessman, suffered financial reverses a few years later.

Little is known of Jane Webb's early education, but, following the death of her father in 1824, she set out to earn money by writing. In addition to Prose and Verse (1824) she published anonymously The Mummy!

A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (1827), a pioneering work of science fiction that brought together political commentary, Egyptomania, and interest in technology.

Ute Hadam, 1958 | Abstract painter

Ute Hadam paints on canvas of different sizes. She mixes herself pigments with acrylic mediums of différetes consistency in order to enhance the structure. Colors and shades are melted with subtle silk paper collages to obtain transparency and relief.

Inspiration

The universe of the artist is the endless wealth of nature. The dynamic play of shapes and lights of plant, mineral or human world becomes a pretext for an original artistic interpretation. In her compositions, you find always a research of beauty of nature.

Boris Kustodiev (1878-1927)

Boris Mikhaylovich Kustodiev / Бори́с Миха́йлович Кусто́диев was a Russian painter and stage designer.

Early life

Boris Kustodiev was born in Astrakhan into the family of a professor of philosophy, history of literature, and logic at the local theological seminary.

His father died young, and all financial and material burdens fell on his mother's shoulders.

The Kustodiev family rented a small wing in a rich merchant's house. It was there that the boy's first impressions were formed of the way of life of the provincial merchant class.

The artist later wrote, "The whole tenor of the rich and plentiful merchant way of life was there right under my nose... It was like something out of an Ostrovsky play". The artist retained these childhood observations for years, recreating them later in oils and water-colours.

Micko-Vic | Palette Knife / Cubist painter

Maltese painter Micko-Vic is a self taught artist with a flair for creativity running through his genes. He first sketches out the scene with pencil and brush, and then adds a combination of acrylic and impasto gel with a palette knife layer upon layer within each scene to get the final, textured effect.

Alonso Sánchez Coello (1531-1588) Renaissance painter

Sánchez Coello, Alonso (Benifairó del Valls, Valencia - Spain, 1531/32 - Madrid -Spain, 1588) is a fundamental figure in the history of Spanish painting🎨.

He was the first to bring portraiture to the peninsula, where he followed the model developed by Anthonis Mor in likenesses of the Habsburg family.

Some of his paintings were included in the most important portrait galleries developed during the reign of Philip II, including those at the El Pardo and Alcázar Palaces, both sadly lost to fires in 1604 and 1734, respectively.

Today, his works hang in the Museo del Prado, in Spain’s royal foundations, including the Monastery of the Descalzas Reales and in museums and collections in Austria and Bohemia.

At the age of ten, Alonso Sánchez Coello moved with his family to Portugal, where he began his first art studies.

John III, king of Portugal, was aware of his talent and in 1550 he paid the young artist’s trip to Flanders to complete his training.

There, Sánchez Coello worked for Cardinal Granvela and was a disciple of Anthonis Mor van Dashorst.

After returning to Lisbon around 1552, he probably began working for Prince John Emmanuel of Lisbon and his wife, donna Juana, whose brother was Philip II of Spain.

Following the prince’s death, Juana returned to Spain to rule the country in her brother’s absence.

Around 1555, Sánchez Coello traveled to the Spanish court, then in Valladolid, to deliver a portrait of her son, the future King Sebastian of Portugal.

Remaining in Valladolid, he painted the first portraits of Philip II’s heir, Prince Charles, and around 1560 he married Luisa Reynalte, from a family of silversmiths.

That same year, Philip II appointed him chamber painter, a post he held until his death in Madrid in 1588. He had moved to that city along with the court in 1561.

Over the course of his career, Sánchez Coello specialized in portraiture, although he also made religious works, including the altarpiece for the church of El Espinar in Segovia (1574-1577) and some pairs of saints for altars at the basilica of El Escorial (1580-1582). | © Museo Nacional del Prado

Alonso Sánchez Coello (Benifairó de les Valls, 1531 circa - Madrid, 8 agosto 1588) è stato un pittore Spagnolo🎨, pittore di camera di re Filippo II di Spagna.

Di origine portoghese, soggiornò nelle Fiandre dove fu allievo del pittore Antonio Moro ed, in seguito, entrò al servizio del re di Spagna Filippo II come ritrattista della famiglia reale.

Il stile ritrattistico risente dell'influsso del maestro Antonio Moro e di Tiziano🎨, di cui copiò numerosi dipinti. | © Wikipedia

Andrew Loomis | Realist illustrator / Art instructor

William Andrew Loomis (1892-1959), better known simply as Andrew Loomis, was an American🎨 illustrator, author, and art instructor.

His commercial work was featured prominently in advertising and magazines; however, Loomis is best known as author a series of instructional art books printed throughout the 20th century.

Long after his death, Loomis' realistic style has continued to influence popular artists. Born in Syracuse, New York, Loomis grew up in Zanesville, Ohio and spent much of his working life in Chicago, Illinois.

He studied at the Art Students League of New York under George Bridgman and F.V. du Mond when he was 19. Loomis then went back to Chicago to work at an art studio and study at the Art Institute of Chicago.

After military service in World War I, Loomis worked for a couple of advertising agencies before opening his own studio in downtown Chicago.

Marie-France Boisvert, 1976 | Abstract figurative painter

Born in Saguenay-Lac St-Jean, Marie-France Boisvert capitalizes more than twenty years of experience as a painter and a sculptress. In 1997, she obtained a bachelor in Design from Laval University in Quebec City and in 2004, she completed another bachelor in Interdisciplinary sculpture at the University of Quebec in Chicoutimi.

Finally, in 2008, she confirmed her artistic approach with a master's degree in Creation from the same university.

Now working in Montreal, Marie-France Boisvert continues with the same enthusiasm to accumulate awards, mentions and peer recognition with exhibits in Canada, the United States and Europe.

Dylan Lisle, 1978 | Figurative painter

Dylan Lisle’s work maintains a contemporary dynamism through his old masterly representations of the female form.

Knots and swathes of vibrant, passionate fabric envelope his sensuous figures, or otherwise are the subject of larger studies, which draw upon chiaroscuro, reminiscent of Caravaggio🎨, Rembrandt🎨, Vermeer🎨 and Rubens🎨.

Eduard Zentsik, 1975 | Symbolist / Surrealist painter

The Estonian painter Eduard Zentsik is an prolific artist of many faces.

He’s developed radically different artistic personas, refusing to link his name to a single signature style, technique, or theme. Instead, Zentsik mixes genres and media and playfully subverts the traditions of old.

Zentsik’s oeuvre is as enormous as it’s diverse.

Some of his endeavors, focus on physical metamorphoses and flourishes of the flesh.

Vittorio Dangelico (Vidan), 1965 | Romantic painter

Italian painter Vidan, born Vittorio Dangelico in Perugia, showed artistic talent and a great passion for art at a very early age.

Encouraged by his parents and his uncle, world renowned artist Pino Dangelico, or Pino, he trained at some of the finest schools in Italy, including Liceo Artistico di Milano, as well as the Accademia delle belle Arti.

When Pino moved to the US in 1979, Vidan followed in 1988.

Renato Guttuso | Expressionist painter

Renato Guttuso (1912-1987) Italian painter and polemicist, the leader of the Social Realist group in Italy.

Born in Bagheria, near Palermo (Sicily).

Abandoned law studies in 1931, to devote himself to painting. In Rome 1933-4 associated with Cagli, Mafai, Fazzini and others who were reacting against Novecento neoclassicism, then lived 1935-6 in Milan in contact with Birolli, Fontana and Persico. Settled in Rome 1937.

Painted the 'Flight from Etna', his first large realist composition of contemporary Italian life, 1937-8.

Faiza Maghni, 1964 | Abstract painter

The Self-taught painter born in Oran, Algeria, Faiza Maghni lives and works in Paris.

The painting has long been a desire more or less unconscious and totally obscured that has become natural in the future.

Fascinated by Persian miniatures, Arabic calligraphy, but also by tribal art and contemporary painting, she is inspired in his work and creates his own universe.

Faiza Maghni attempts to translate through his portraits the beauty and complexity of women in his paintings symbolized the richness of costume and expression enigmatic look. His approach in the abstract expression joins the world of his portraits.

Antonio Canova | Neoclassical sculptor

Antonio Canova🎨, marchese d’Ischia, (born Nov. 1, 1757, Possagno, Republic of Venice-died Oct. 13, 1822, Venice), Italian sculptor, one of the greatest exponents of Neoclassicism. Among his works are the tombs of popes Clement XIV (1783-87) and Clement XIII (1787-92) and statues of Napoleon and of his sister Princess Borghese reclining as Venus Victrix.

He was created a marquis for his part in retrieving works of art from Paris after Napoleon’s defeat.

Canova, the son of a stonemason who died in 1761, was reared by his grandfather, also a stonemason.

A.D. Cook, 1961 | Abstract painter / Sculptor

I was born with a passion to create. I started drawing a very early age and I learned to paint with a variety of mediums while honing my skills throughout childhood. My family moved a lot from one end of the country to the other, and I often attended two or three different schools on any given year. Fortunately, pencils and paper where easy to pack.

At age 14, we finally settled in the Oregon City area (near Portland, Oregon) for a few years.

There, I discovered the airbrush and other art mediums while further developing my drawing and photography skills. Then off to Phoenix for a few years 18-22.

In the Spring of 1983, I met the love of my life, Kathryn. We married in December of that same year. The next year we moved to Oregon together.

Pierre Farel, 1957 | Abstract painter

Pierre Farel was born in Orange, in the south of France. Former student at the Avignon School of "Beaux Arts", he now lives and works in the Mediterranean Island of Corsica.

To date, he has created 1600 oil paintings, 180 watercolours and oil on paper, 16 lithographs, 1 Art book with 158 pages, 2 jewellery collections, 2 jazz CD covers, 1 Corsican CD «Distinu», a bronze sculpture, a wine label, the covers of 4 novels, illustrations for poems and 35 reproductions of his oil paintings have been edited by Braun editions.

He has exhibited on numerous occasions in Paris, London, Marseilles, Lyons, Saint Paul de Vence, Avignon, Cassis, Annecy, Draguignan, Chartres, Bordeaux, Nancy, in Corsica and on the French Riviera as well as in the international cities of New-York, Miami, Barcelona, Brussels, Berlin, Lausanne, Hamburg, Beijing, Hong-Kong and Shanghai.

Terje Adler Mørk, 1949 | Figurative painter

Terje Adler Mørk was born in Odda, Norway.

He has a background within IT and programming from Bergen and later in Sarpsborg where he moved in 1987.

In 2001 he quit working with computers and started painting full time.

His favorite subject is the study of the human figure and to recreate it as thinking psychological beings.

Serhiy Reznichenko, 1968 | Abstract painter

Serhiy Reznichenko is an Ukrainian painter, known for working in Abstract style.

Reznichenko was born in Cherkasy, province of central Ukraine.

He graduated from Vira Mukhina state art-industrial college in St. Petersburg, speciality - monumental painting.

Reznichenko is a member of the Ukrainian National Society of Artists.

Charis Tsevis, 1967 | Neo-futuristic designer

Χάρης Τσέβης is an Greek visual designer living and working in Paphos, Cyprus.

He holds a Diploma in Graphic Design from the Akademie für das Grafische Gewerbe, München and a Master in Visual Design from the Scuola Politecnica di Design, Milano.

He manages a modest studio on the island of Cyprus serving clients all over the world.

Gustav Klimt | Art Nouveau painter

Klimt, Gustav (1862-1918) - Austrian painter, draughtsman, and designer, one of the leading figures in one of the most exciting epochs of Vienna's cultural history.

Early in his career he was highly successful as a painter of lavish ornamental schemes in the grandiose tradition of Makart, whose staircase decoration in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna he completed after Makart's death in 1884.

Brad Kunkle, 1978 | Symbolist painter

Brad Kunkle was born in Lehighton, Pennsylvania, and has a BFA in painting from Kutztown University.

He lives and works in New York City. N.B.

Brad’s work is a blend of conceptual art and impeccable technical skills.

He produces works that tell secret, complex stories in a mood that is influenced by his use of overcast lighting and a nearly monochromatic color scheme.

He merges realism, fantasy and psychological depth.

Victor Sheng Wang | Symbolist / Figurative painter

Victor Sheng Wang is a Chinese-born American painter and Professor of Arts at Fontbonne University.

He is best known for his blend of luminous color and buttery texture that evoke the enigmatic environment where moments of meditation originate. He uses profusely colored, thickly texturized, monumental portraits of expressive western women invariably accompanied by sunflower plant motifs representing memories from his rural upbringing.

Wang was born and completed high school in Qiqihar, excelling in visual creativity.

Victor Sheng Wang was forcibly confined by by the Maoist's Cultural Revolution to the northernmost region of Manchuria to cultivate sunflower fields for two and a half years, after which he was admitted to the Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts (Shenyang, Liaoning province) where he graduated in 1983.

Hasan Saygin, 1958 | Abstract Realist painter

Hasan Saygin was born in Karamanli, Turkey. He spent his childhood and followed his primary education in his native town, Karamanli.

In 1977, he entered the School of Fine Arts in Istanbul.

In 1982, he decided to come to Paris and settled permanently.

He organized personal exhibitions in many Parisian galleries: 26 Gallery (Place des Vosges), Vendôme Gallery (rue de la Paix) and Michèle Boulet Gallery; in the Draguignan Museum, in the castle of Gordes, in Salerno in France, in the castle of Vascoeuil in France, as well as in Belgium (Gevaert Gallery in Bruges, castle of Ingelmunster, etc ...), in Almeria, Spain and in the U.S (in Vero Beach, Florida).

RetroAtelier / РетроАтелье | Historical reproduction photos

We deeply appreciate the compelling individuality of that and try to do it justice through our own work.

As far as the figure element is concerned, we make a point of keeping it fairly subtle, with the emphasis being on referencing the more risque side of vintage beauty standards as opposed to letting bare flesh speak for itself.

We’re a team of vintage photography aficionados based in Ukraine, however unlikely that may sound.