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

Edwin Herde, 1951 | Figurative painter

Edwin Herder is an accomplished American painter and illustrator, born in Pennsylvania. He has lived most of his life close to his childhood home in Bryn Athyn.

He is widely recognized for his prolific commercial illustration career alongside his fine art focus on landscape, figurative portraiture and romantic scenes.

He graduated from the Tyler School of Art in 1975 and jumped right into a freelance illustration career.

In fact, instead of attending his graduation ceremony, he was in New York in a meeting with John Berg, the art director for Columbia records.

Katie Swatland, 1981 | Figurative painter

The paintings of Katie Swatland are an intrinsic dance between reality and rêverie.

She approaches the canvas through means of discovery, imparting a sense of playful curiosity throughout a broad range of subject matter.

Gestural brushwork combine with areas of transparency, offset by passages of thick impasto paint, all intermingle in a symphony of lost and found edges.

- "Painting has been a part of my life since I was very young.

There were always brushes and paint in the house growing up; and my mother was always at work painting.

Nathaniel Skousen | Figurative painter

Nathaniel Skousen is a highly accomplished artist whose primary focus lies in the creation of oil paintings encompassing portraits, figurative works, landscapes, and still life artworks.

However, his true artistic passion is rooted in the study and application of classical skin tones, meticulously derived from extensive research conducted within renowned museums across the globe.

His dedication to understanding the techniques and colors employed by master artists such as Rembrandt, Bouguereau, Titian and numerous others has earned him numerous accolades from prestigious organizations dedicated to realism, including the Art Renewal Center, Oil Painters of America, the Portrait Society of America and the MEAM (Museo Europeo de Arte Moderno).

Andrea Orr Clague | Figurative painter

Traditionally trained at Pensacola Christian College in Florida, Andrea Orr Clague received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Commercial Art in 2006, and a Master of Fine Arts in 2009.

While at PCC, Clague learned the importance of accurate drawing, strong value patterns and variety in edgework, essentials for a successful painting, under the masterful teaching of her mentor and instructor, Brian Jekel.

Clague’s paintings reveal her fascination with light and the beauty it bestows upon seemingly ordinary objects.

Clague credits her talent as a gift from God, and desires to use her art to bring glory to Him.

Erica Hopper, 1949 | Impressionist Figurative painter

American painter Erica Hopper was born in Kansas City, Missouri, studied graphic and industrial design at San Diego State University, and continued her art education at the University of The Americas in Puebla, Mexico.

During the 70's and 80's she was a successful illustrator with many published works in national periodicals.

Today Hopper concentrates on oil media and textile design.

It is clear one influences the other by the rhythm and texture found in her paintings.

Mark Keller, 1955, il pittore narratore

American painter Mark Keller is a self-taught artist from San Francisco who provokes the imagination with masterful subtlety and grace.

Multi-award winning with widespread International acclaim, Mark’s work is about telling stories - intrigue for the audience to unfold.

The depth and superb execution of his work, full of cryptic clues and mystery, has established him as one of the world’s leading artists.

From Buenos Aires tango bars to New York street musicians he evokes audible and visual emotions like few others.

Michael Page, 1979 | Pop Surrealism painter

Michael Page, American painter, art paints oil and acrylic paintings that are abstract and surreal with animals and bright colors.

Living and working in San Francisco, CA, Page creates vibrant dreamscapes using eye-popping colors and a focus on the spirit that breathes inside every living organism, the Pneuma.

With a trademark technique of using bold brush strokes and vibrant color palettes, Page’s paintings seem to jump off the canvas as they question new life, science, and the infinite variations of consciousness.

He has shown his work nationally and internationally throughout both Europe and the United States including the cities of Reykjavik, Berlin, Bristol, Rome and Montreal.

Holly Sierra, 1962 | 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.

Jeffrey Watts, 1970 | Impressionist painter

Jeffrey R. Watts is an acclaimed American fine artist, illustrator, and educator based in Southern California.

He is best known as a Living Master of classical realism and impressionism and as the founder of the prestigious Watts Atelier of the Arts

Growing up in rural San Diego county with an artist father, Watts demonstrated an early aptitude for the visual arts.

But it was competitive sports that held his interest as a teenager.

After an injury cut short his budding career in professional cycling, Jeff turned his focus back to art, enrolling at the California Art Institute in Calabasas.

Egidio Antonaccio, 1954 | Impressionist painter

Italian painter Egidio Antonaccio is an Impressionist whose oil paintings express his love of nature and a man gifted with a rare talent.

Having studied with some of the great Italian masters of fine art, he has developed a brilliant and commanding style.

Born in Castelluccio, Italy, Egidio Antonaccio graduated from the Institute of Fine Art in Castrovillari, Italy, in 1973.

Then in 1978, he graduated with honors from the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, Italy.

Aaron Coberly, 1971 | Figurative Impressionist painter

Aaron Coberly, American painter, was born in Seattle.

He has been drawing for as long as he can remember.

He started taking art seriously as a teenager after being invited to attend a life drawing class.

Living and traveling in Europe further inspired him.

He began oil painting in 1999.

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.

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.