Thomas Blackshear, 1955 | Afro-Nouveau painter

Thomas Blackshear is an acclaimed American painter, sculptor and illustrator widely recognized for his dramatic use of lighting, rich emotional depth, and his self-described "Afro-Nouveau" style.

His diverse and influential career spans commercial illustration, collectible design, fine art, and contemporary Western art.

Blackshear is considered to be one of the world's most talented artists because of his versatility, consummate skill, and extraordinary sense of color, style and design.

Blackshear grew up in Atlanta, Georgia where he pursued an interest in art throughout high school.

Charles Baudelaire / Pino Daeni | Hymn to Beauty, 1861

From heaven or hell, O Beauty, come you hence?

Out from your gaze, infernal and divine,

Pours blended evil and beneficence,

And therefore men have likened you to wine.

Christopher Cart | Figurative painter

"Painting for me is telling stories in paint" - Christopher Cart.

Christopher Cart has painted murals, countless watercolors and oils, portraits in both oils and watercolors and has illustrated many books and periodicals.

A native Mainer his work is also flavored by years in Guadalajara, Mexico and Seattle, Washington.

Cart is currently working on a 14 foot mural to commemorate historic Hallowell of the 1890′s.

And also for his home town of Hallowell, in 2012 he completed a commissioned portrait of Allen Strickland, a major donor to the Hubbard Free Library restoration fund.

Emily Dickinson | If you were coming in the Fall

If you were coming in the Fall,

I'd brush the Summer by

With half a smile, and half a spurn,

As Housewives do, a Fly.

Emily Dickinson | La natura usa poco il Giallo / Nature rarer uses Yellow, 1865

La Natura usa il Giallo più raramente

Di ogni altra Tinta -

Lo serba tutto per i Tramonti

Prodiga d’Azzurro

Tristan Elwell | Fantasy Illustrator

Tristan Elwell is an award-winning American painter, illustrator and educator based in New York.

Best known for his highly detailed oil paintings that blend meticulous traditional techniques with pop-surrealism, fantasy and dark wit, he has created book covers and promotional art for nearly every major commercial publisher.

Tristan Elwell was born and raised in New York City, where he graduated from the High School of Music and Art, now LaGuardia High School.

He attended the School of Visual Arts on a full scholarship, graduating in 1990 at the top of his class.

While at SVA he also worked as a painting assistant to noted photorealist Charles Bell.

Craig Tracy, 1967 | Body painter

Born and Raised in New Orleans La, Craig Tracy, American painter, has always been an Artist.

Craig credits New Orleans with it's authentic and vibrant culture as a significant factor in what is at the heart of his passion, creativity and bliss.

His parents and their “Hippie” nonconformist principles were instilled firmly in the young artist.

Coincidentally, it was that same hippie movement that re-ignited the soon to be interest and practice of Bodypainting in the western world.

Maria Serafina, 1955 | Impressionist / Romantic painter

Maria Serafina Tribunella is an American of Sicilian origin (born in Collesano, Palermo); raised and educated in New York City.

After receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from New York University, she married and moved to the home of her ancestors, Italy.

It is there shat she now resides making her living as an accomplished painter alongside her husband, the Neapolitian artist, Raimondi Roberti.

The return to her native land has proved to be very important in the development of her artistic work.

There is a very strong influence of The Grand Tour heritage of Southern Italy that is nostalgically rendered in her paintings.

Kay Ruane, 1956 | Symbolist painter

Kay Ruane is a contemporary American visual artist widely recognized for her intricate, highly detailed graphite drawings.

Currently based in Los Angeles, her meticulously rendered graphite-on-board and graphite-on-paper worlds often explore themes of human existence, isolation, intimacy and the cultural disconnect between interior spaces and the outside world.

Education: Earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Studio Arts from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and advanced her artistic training at Indiana State University and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Haixia Liu, 1962 | Impressionist painter

Haixia Liu is a highly successful Chinese-American contemporary painter born to a family of artists in the Hubei Province of China.

He is celebrated for his vibrant, textured oil paintings that merge realistic details with dreamy contemporary impressionism.

Encouraged and instructed by his father and grandfather, he began to draw at very early age.

He did decorative painting for local businesses at age 12.

Between 1981-1983 Liu chose to learn graphic design at the Hubei Industry Institute.

Eric Casey Baugh, 1984 | Impressionistic Realism painter

Eric Casey Baugh is an acclaimed American contemporary artist known for his cinematic figurative oil paintings and atmospheric charcoal drawings.

His work bridges the gap between traditional realism and hyper-modern, narrative-driven impressionism.

His signature style blends strict anatomical accuracy with dreamlike, blurred, and atmospheric backdrops.

Born in Lookout Mountain, Georgia, Eric Casey Baugh’s earliest art instruction came around the age of four from his father and aunt who were artists by hobby.

Lennette Newell, 1959 | Naturalist photographer

Lennette Newell is an acclaimed American fine art and commercial photographer based in San Francisco, California.

She is world-renowned for her bold wildlife portraits and conceptual body-painting series that explore the blurring lines and evolutionary kinship between humans and the animal kingdom.

Lennette Newell channels a lifelong passion for Earth’s biodiversity and the magical wonder of the natural world into compelling animal portraits that afford viewers an intimate glimpse of creatures large and small.

Richard Ramsey, 1954 | Portrait photographer

Richard Ramsey is a highly celebrated, award-winning portrait photographer based in Memphis, Tennessee, who is best known for his mastery of digital portrait painting.

Spanning a career of over four decades, he blends traditional portrait photography with classical painterly aesthetics.

He has been honored eleven times with the prestigious title of "Photographer of the Year".

Randolph Rogers | Nydia, the Blind Flower Girl of Pompeii, 1859

"Nydia, the Blind Flower Girl of Pompeii" by Randolph Rogers (Waterloo, New York 1825-1892 Rome) was the most popular American sculpture of the nineteenth century.

According to Rogers, it was replicated 167 times in two sizes.

The subject was drawn from "The Last Days of Pompeii" (1834), a widely read novel by Lord Edward Bulwer-Lytton, which ends with the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in a.d. 79.

Rogers’s evocative portrayal of Nydia highlights her heroic attempt to lead two companions out of the burning, ash-covered city.

Eugene Paprocki, 1971 | Modern impressionist painter

Eugene J. Paprocki is an internationally collected American contemporary impressionist painter celebrated for his vibrant en plein air landscapes, cityscapes and seascapes.

Born in Chicago, Illinois, his artwork captures the essence of light, color, and nostalgic atmosphere across ordinary subjects.

He has always dabbled in painting, even in his childhood.

He formally studied Fine Art at Loyola University in Chicago.

To augment his already considerable skill, he traveled the world extensively, visiting the work of the great masters.

Sandra Bierman, 1938 | Figurative painter

The magic of American painter Sandra Bierman lies in her soulful, larger-than-life figurative oil paintings that evoke an immediate sense of tranquility, strength, and emotional warmth.

Working entirely from her imagination without models or photographs, she channels what critics and collectors often describe as "pure magic" directly onto the canvas.

Her signature subjects are stylized, exaggerated women with bare, earthy feet and disproportionately large, caring hands.

These figures are deeply nurturing, often seen cradling babies, tending to plants, or holding companion cats.

Bierman approaches her canvases like an abstract painter, focusing on space, shapes, and fluid lines.

Michael Parkes, 1944 | Sculptures

Michael Parkes is an American-born artist living in Spain who is best known for work in the areas of fantasy art and magic realism.

He specializes in painting, stone lithography and sculpture.

He also creates limited-edition Giclée images.

He studied graphic art and painting at the University of Kansas and then travelled for three years throughout Asia and Europe.

Numerous international exhibitions underline the importance of Parkes' work.

Leo Stans | Naturalist painter

Leo Stans (April 12, 1953 - March 22, 2011) was a celebrated American wildlife and landscape painter known for his meticulous detail, rich colors and deep commitment to environmental conservation.

Born and raised in Chaska, Minnesota, his background as an avid outdoorsman heavily influenced his artistic career

Stans held a degree in forestry and initially worked in life insurance sales before choosing to pursue a professional art career full-time in 1980.

To hone his talent, he took art classes at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

His professional legacy continues to be recognized through his versatile array of realistic wildlife depictions and impressionistic period pieces.

Daniel Garber | Impressionist painter

Daniel Garber (1880-1958) was an American painter and member of the art colony at New Hope, Pennsylvania.

He is best known today for his large impressionist scenes of the New Hope area, in which he often depicted the Delaware River.

He also painted figurative interior works and excelled at etching.

Maya Angelou | Come and be my baby

The highway is full of big cars

going nowhere fast

And folks is smoking anything that'll burn

Some people wrap their lives around a cocktail glass

And you sit wondering

where you're going to turn.

Angeles Anglada