JoAnn Peralta | Romantic painter

Fine Artist JoAnn Peralta's fine art paintings have captivated collectors with her keen sense of mood and lush brushwork since 2004.

Each painting invokes a timeless romantic flair towards life and sets a tone of intrigue through her use of lighting and color.

The beauty of light with a contemporary, modernist touch is what Peralta describes as her inspiration.

Her passion for the West, historical and romanticized, are what dominate her vision and scope as it pertains to her hispanic and Italian ancestry and it continues to draw Masters of the American West, Autry Museum patrons and collectors.

Charles Hawthorne | Portrait / Genre painter

Charles Webster Hawthorne (1872-1930) was an American painter and a noted teacher who founded the Cape Cod School of Art in 1899.

He was born in Lodi, Illinois and his parents returned to Maine, raising him in the state where Charles' father was born.

At age 18, he went to New York, working as an office-boy by day in a stained-glass factory in New York, and studying at night school and with Henry Siddons Mowbray and William Merritt Chase, and abroad in both Holland and Italy.

Anne Sexton | Noi / Us

Ero avvolta nella pelliccia

nera, nella pelliccia bianca

e tu mi svolgevi

e in una luce d’oro

poi m’incoronasti,

mentre fuori dardi di neve

diagonali battevano alla porta.

Joseph Lorusso

Gwenneth Barth-White | Pastel painter

American-born Swiss international artist Gwenneth Barth-White is a Maître Pastelliste of the 150-year-old Société des Pastellistes de France and has served as its Vice President for many years.

She's a Master Pastelist of the Pastel Society of America, and a Signature Member of the Portrait Society of America, where she has served as faculty.

Her work has been exhibited in Geneva, Gstaad, New York, Toronto, Paris, and in many French and American venues.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox: "Ridi e il mondo riderà con te. Piangi, e piangerai da solo..."

Ridi e il mondo riderà con te.

Piangi, e piangerai da solo.

Poiché il vecchio mondo triste deve prendere

in prestito la sua allegria,

ma ha già abbastanza guai per conto suo.

Canta, e le colline ti risponderanno.

Rene Magritte | La vie heureuse, 1944

Ave Maria (Schubert)

"Ellens dritter Gesang" ("Ellens Gesang III", D. 839, Op. 52, No. 6, 1825), in English: "Ellen's Third Song", was composed by Franz Schubert in 1825 as part of his Op. 52, a setting of seven songs from Walter Scott's 1810 popular narrative poem The Lady of the Lake, loosely translated into German.

Giovanni Battista Salvi called Sassoferrato (1609-1685) | The Madonna in prayer | Christie's

Paul Cheng, 1958 | Ballet Dancers

OPA Signature Member, Art Gallery Painter, Award-Winning Artist, Sr. Illustrator in Animation and Gaming field, Paul Cheng was born in Guangzhou, China.

- "My youth was the decade of China’s Cultural Revolution", he says.

"There were no art teachers and no art teaching books.

I had to explore painting by myself and find some art loving students to draw and paint together".

Cassie Phillips | Let them

If they want to choose something or someone over you,

Let them.

If they want to go weeks without talking to you,

Let them.

If they are okay with never seeing you,

Let them.

Jack Vettriano

Cassie Phillips | Lasciali fare | La poesia

Se vogliono scegliere qualcosa o qualcuno al posto tuo,

Lasciali fare.

Se vogliono passare settimane senza parlarti,

Lasciali fare.

Se stanno bene a non vederti mai,

Lasciali fare.

Se stanno bene a mettere sempre se stessi al primo posto,

Lasciali fare.

Jack Vettriano

Theodore Earl Butler, l'impressionista americano a Parigi

Theodore Earl Butler (1861-1936) è stato un pittore impressionista Americano.

Nacque a Columbus, Ohio, e si trasferì a Parigi per studiare arte.

Conobbe Claude Monet a Giverny e ne sposò la figliastra, Suzanne Hoschedé.

Dopo la sua morte, sposò la sorella di lei, Marthe Hoschedé.

Butler fu uno dei membri fondatori della Society of Independent Artists.

David Gray, 1970 | Classical Realist painter

David's Gray signature style reveals a personal and contemporary expression of beauty and order which pays homage to the Classical Tradition in its craftsmanship.

Collectors of David's work often relate that his painting provoke a sense of peace, stillness, or a contemplative mood.

His award winning works have been covered by major art publications including Southwest Art, Art of the West, and American Art Collector.

Anna Klumpke | Catinou knitting, 1887

Encouraged by an independent, educationally oriented mother, Anna Elizabeth Klumpke (1856-1942) was a copyist in the Luxembourg Museum and studied at the Académie Julien in Paris.

She enjoyed an education guided by the concept that women artists could compete with their male counterparts.

In her memoirs of 1940, Klumpke cites a most influential moment in her childhood: receiving the gift of a Rosa Bonheur doll.

Her admiration of Bonheur, the French painter of animals, led her to paint the aging woman’s portrait - which is considered a companion piece to her portrait of leading suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

David Bowers, 1956 | Surrealist painter

David Michael Bowers was born in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania and graduated from art school in Pittsburgh in 1979.

He began working as a staff artist at various studios in the Pittsburgh, PA area.

Two years later, David began teaching his craft at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh where he lectured for ten years and was honored as the Keynote Speaker for the Class of 2003.

In 1991, David began his illustration career working mostly with book publishers in New York City in which he completed over one hundred book covers in the span of over ten years.

Meadow Gist, 1975 | Impressionist painter

Meadow Gist chooses the subject matter she paints to express a love and respect of a simpler life, when you grew your own food and more things were crafted by hand.

This is what attracted her to being an artist in the first place, "crafting a unique item that has a piece of me in it, and I can say "I made that".

She enjoys presenting a romantic view of bygone days, and sharing a little of this optimism with all who view her paintings.

Her inspiration comes from the painting of the Russian Impressionists and the way they paint daily life, as well as the Orientalists and the pride they bring to the simple man.

Nancy Boren, 1955 | Impressionist painter

Nancy Boren’s first painting, a watercolor, was done at age 12 while sitting next to her artist father, James Boren, as he painted at the Grand Canyon.

Since then she has branched out to original print making and oil painting, depicting a variety of landscape and marine subjects, and is often captivated by scenes in which the figure fills the canvas.

She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Abilene Christian University and cites the influence of notable traditional painters such as Sargent, Sorolla and Fechin.

William Faulkner: "I believe that man will not merely endure he will prevail!"

William Faulkner’s speech at the Nobel Banquet at the City Hall in Stockholm

December 10, 1950

Ladies and gentlemen,

I feel that this award was not made to me as a man, but to my work - a life’s work in the agony and sweat of the human spirit, not for glory and least of all for profit, but to create out of the materials of the human spirit something which did not exist before.

So this award is only mine in trust. It will not be difficult to find a dedication for the money part of it commensurate with the purpose and significance of its origin.

Antonio Nunziante

Emily Dickinson | Marzo: Mese di attesa / March: Month of expectation, 1877

Marzo: mese di attesa.

Le cose che ignoriamo -

E le persone del nostro presagio

Sono in cammino -

Ci sforziamo di fingere fermezza -

Come si deve, ma la gioia solenne

Claude Monet | Strada Romana at Bordighera | Museum Barberini

Tamara de Lempicka | Russian Dancer, 1924

Russian Dancer was created in 1924 by Tamara de Lempicka (Polish Art Déco painter, 1894-1980).

The painting is part of the Collection of Polish businessman and art collector Marek Roefler/ Villa la Fleur, Konstancin-Jeziorna, Poland.

Russian Dancer, posthumously titled in reference to the Ballets Russes - the troupe founded by Serge Diaghilev, which took Paris by storm in the 1910s and 1920s with its innovative choreography and gleaming costumes and sets designed by Russian artists-portrays a woman dressed in folk attire from southern Russia.

Tamara de Lempicka | Russian Dancer, 1924

Charles Baudelaire | Inno alla bellezza / Hymn to Beauty

Vieni dal cielo profondo o esci dall’abisso,

Bellezza? Il tuo sguardo, divino e infernale,

dispensa alla rinfusa il sollievo e il crimine,

ed in questo puoi essere paragonata al vino.

Daniel Gerhartz | Green velvet

Trish Biddle | Art Déco painter

American artist Trish Biddle studied at the Dallas Institute of Art, before beginning her career as an illustrator and textile designer.

Trish Biddle is published internationally, and is collected around the world.

Her process of drawing, painting and designing eventually melded onto canvases, creating romantic images and her unmistakable Art Déco figurative paintings.