Girel Oleg ~ Minimalist portraits

These Minimalist portraits by artist Girel Oleg eliminate all but a few colors to tell their story. Each image (originally a photograph) was digitally remixed, removing layer upon layer of detail to leave just contour lines and patches of richly textured color. It’s a simple, yet effective effect.

The Leshan Giant Buddha / Il Buddha gigante di Leshan

The Leshan Giant Buddha (乐山大佛) was built during the Tang Dynasty (618–907AD). It is carved out of a cliff face that lies at the confluence of the Minjiang, Dadu and Qingyi rivers in the southern part of Sichuan province in China, near the city of Leshan. The stone sculpture faces Mount Emei, with the rivers flowing below his feet. It is the largest stone Buddha in the world and it is by far the tallest pre-modern statue in the world.
The Mount Emei Scenic Area, including Leshan Giant Buddha Scenic Area has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996. It was not damaged by the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.

William Waterhouse | The Modern Pre-Raphaelite

British painter of classical, historical, and literary subjects, John William Waterhouse (1849-1917) was born in Rome, where his father worked as a painter.

In the 1850s the family returned to England. Before entering the Royal Academy schools in 1870, Waterhouse assisted his father in his studio.

His early works were of classical themes in the spirit of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema and Frederic Leighton, and were exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Society of British Artists and the Dudley Gallery.

Cha Soo Griffith | Cityscape painter

Korean painter Soo Cha Griffith lives in Knoxville, but her artist's spirit lives in the picturesque villages and gardens of Italy and France. Griffith paints and sketches a wide variety of subjects, but her favorites are old-world towns, streets, coastal areas, open meadows, flower gardens and people. Her favorite place to paint, she said, is around Lake Como in northern Italy, Griffith said.

Elena Drobysheva, 1976

Елена Дробышева is an Ukrainian painter, known for working with Watercolor in the Figurative style. Дробышева was born on 1976 in Ukraine, Russia.

Jacques Guignard, 1946 | French Surrealist painter

French painter Jacques Guignard “J.G” paints his first work at the age of 15. He studies at the renowned school l'École des Beaux Arts in Paris and as did Le Corbusier, follows the 2 careers of architect and painter.
With the turn of the century, comes his inspiration to transpose the world into a floral expression. Through a work rich in colors and precise in shapes and forms, “J.G” leads us a more detached look at the world around us. Our imagination wonders through his painting to sometimes reach poetry.

Elena Shlegel, 1965 | Romantic painter

"An artist lives partially in a dream - just like a poet does. I strive to reflect something impossible to exist…to allow an audience to see beyond the reality, to make up its own fairy-tale, to become a participator and a creator. And thus to feel happy for a moment…" says Elena Shlegel.

Jeff Nishinaka, 1981 | Paper sculpture

American sculptor - a third-generation Japanese American born and living in Los Angeles - Jeff Nishinaka is the world’s premier Paper sculptor with a prolific career that spans 30 years.

Nishinaka attended UCLA and graduated from the prestigious Art Center College of Design, where he first experimented with paper art and sculpture. Nishinaka’s commercial portfolio includes Bloomingdale’s, Galeries Lafayette, Le Bon Marché, Credit Suisse, Polo Ralph Lauren, Pfizer, Sprint, The Peninsula Hotel, Visa, Penn State University, Paramount Pictures and Coca Cola among others.

Gaston La Touche | Post-impressionist painter

French painter Gaston La Touche (1854-1913) post-impressionist painter, draughtsman and pastellist was a leading colorist of the late nineteenth/early twentieth centuries, who associated with all the important artists of the period.

He was close friends with many of the Impressionists, but chose to follow an independent path in both technique and subject matter.

His extraordinary imagination revealed itself in his wonderful depictions of monkeys, fetes, balls, theatrical subjects and interiors, all tinged with a wry sense of humor.