Lena Sotskova / Елена Сотскова, 1963

Lena Sotskova / Елена Сотскова was born in Moscow. She was discovered as a child prodigy at the age of four. A descendant of generations of the Russian aristocracy, Lena was fortunate to have a privileged upbringing and elite education in leading art schools and through private lessons from masters of painting.

Lena Sotskova was studying and working in the vaults of prestigious institutions such as The Hermitage, The Louvre, Art Fund of Russia and royal palaces and cathedrals of Moscow and St. Petersburg. She was involved in the restoration of rare pieces of art that were damaged during the Moscow fire of 1812 during the war with Napoleon Bonaparte.

Camille Pissarro | Les paysans / I contadini..

"Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing"

Camille Pissarro.

While the Impressionists are known for their depictions of city streets and country leisure, Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) covered his canvases with images of the day-to-day life of French peasants.

His greatest work joins his fascination with rural subject matter with the empirical study of nature under different conditions of light and atmosphere, deriving from intense study of French Realism.

Igor Talwinski (1907-1983) | Genre painter

Igor Talwinski painted portraits and genre🎨. He was born in 1907 in Varsovie, Poland and died in 1983 in Paris, France.

After the war ended, in 1945, Igor Talwinski moved to Paris, France.

He first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1951, this was very successful and he soon became a member, without the usual procedures artists had to go through.

Irene Sheri Vishnevskaya, 1968 | Romantic ainter

The daughter of a bulgarian mother and french father, Irene Sheri Vishnevskaya was born in the Ukraine in 1968.

Her art career began when Irene’s older brother, Vasily, was given a set of paints for his 9th birthday.

Told not to touch the paints, they became an obsession.

Irene stole them, mixed them, and painted on paper, walls, her dress, and the bodies of her friends.

She was 4 years old.

Alain Picard, 1974 | Figurative /Landscape painter

Alain J. Picard is an award-winning artist, instructor, author and speaker. His acclaimed pastel and oil paintings have been exhibited throughout the US, Europe, China and the UK.

Alain travels internationally as an art instructor, demonstrator, speaker and artistic advocate for the vulnerable.

Alain Picard earned a BA in illustration from Western CT State University and went on to study at the Art Student's League in New York City. Picard cites Sargent, Degas, and Sorolla among his artistic influences. A love of light and beauty are immediately apparent in his pastel and oil paintings.

Claude Monet and Impressionism

When Durand-Ruel's previous support of Monet and his peers began to decline, Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, and Berthe Morisot exhibited their work independently; they did so under the name the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors and Engravers for which Monet was a leading figure in its formation.

He was inspired by the style and subject matter of his slightly older contemporaries, Pissarro and Édouard Manet.

The group, whose title was chosen to avoid association with any style or movement, were unified in their independence from the Salon and rejection of the prevailing academicism.

Monet gained a reputation as the foremost landscape painter of the group.

Claude Monet | L'idillio di Giverny: tra covoni, giardini e cattedrali

Dopo la mostra organizzata da Petit, Monet poté godere del sostegno economico e morale di un pubblico finalmente svincolatosi dalle pastoie della pittura accademica.

La gloria, tuttavia, non offuscò né la sua umiltà né le sue ambizioni pittoriche, finalizzate a rendere «l'immediatezza, l'atmosfera soprattutto e la stessa luce diffusa ovunque».

Volendo indagare in maniera più accurata i problemi della luce e dalle sensazioni di colore, dunque, Monet intraprese le cosiddette serie, nelle quali uno stesso soggetto viene ripreso in decine e decine di tele, in modo tale che l'unico fattore cangiante è proprio la luce: si trattava di una escogitazione pittorica ottimale per dimostrare come la sola luce riuscisse a generare percezioni visive sempre mutevoli e stimolanti.

Denis Nolet, 1964 | Night Tango in Paris

Denis Nolet, Canadian painter, was born in Quebec.

Beginning his study of art at the age of nine, Nolet was able to experiment with various styles of painting early on, finding his own unique genre in a fusion of his influences and establishing himself as an artist by the time he was only twenty.