Mariana Stauffer | Palette knife Impressionist painter

'Art is the love of my life. I started painting and crafting at an early age. Art is something , that comes from within, it is a happy feeling, love, harmony, message to others. I am always leaving positive emotions and messages in my art works. I love painting cityscapes, landscapes, flowers, rain, nights, birds. My style is Modern Impressionism. Most of my paintings are created using a palette knife only'.

Jacob de Wit | Dutch Rococo Era painter

Jacob de Wit (19 December 1695 - 12 November 1754) was a Dutch artist** and interior decorator who painted many religious scenes.

Jacob de Wit was born in Amsterdam, and became famous for his door and ceiling paintings. He lived on the Keizersgracht in Amsterdam, and many of the buildings on the Keizersgracht still have door or ceiling paintings done by him.

Since many of the families who lived in Amsterdam in those days had country villas, de Wit also painted in houses in the fashionable areas of Haarlem and the Vecht river.
According to the RKD he was the pupil of Albert van Spiers in Amsterdam and Jacob van Hal in Antwerp where he became a member of the Guild of St. Luke in 1714.

While in Antwerp, he made a series of watercolor sketches of the Rubens ceilings in the Carolus Borromeuskerk in Antwerp.

After the church was struck by lightning in 1718 these became a historical document, and his pupil Jan Punt later engraved his sketches and published them in 1751.
His pupils were Jan de Groot (painter from The Hague), Dionys van Nijmegen, Jan Punt, Pieter Tanjé, and the brothers Frans and Jacob Xavery. Jacob de Wit died in Amsterdam in 1754. Tako Hajo Jelgersma was his follower.

Jacob de Wit fu uno dei più celebri artisti di Amsterdam del suo tempo, noto soprattutto per le sue decorazioni parietali e di soffitti nelle case del patriziato benestante.

Si era specializzato in una pittura decorativa del genere trompe-l’oeil a grisaglia, con la quale sapeva magistralmente imitare il rilievo in pietra.

David J Cunningham, 1983 ~ Figurative painter

David Cunningham's interest in art began early due in part to thei nfluence of his older brother and a cousin who are also artists. When David was 16 he started attending classes part-time at The Atelier Studio Program of Fine Art a traditional art school that ad heres to astringent French academic tradition as well as taking classes at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

Alberto Gálvez, 1963 | Figurative painter

Spanish painter Alberto Gálvez is known for his oil on linen paintings that capture an enchanted world.

His influences run from antiquity and Renaissance imagery to poetry and French avant-garde films of the 1960s.

Throughout, he reminds us that the ideals of the classical period, proportion, balance and harmony, are still operative, inspiring and engaging.

Galvez embraces this understanding to create images that exist outside of space and time.

Diego L. Rodríguez ~ Abstract illustrator

Diego L. Rodríguez is an Illustrator, Graphic Designer and visual Artist from Spain.

From his childhood, he has been always dedicated to the audiovisual !eld. He has studied Cinema Production, Publicity and Photography, working on those !elds for a few years. The arrival of new tools and the outburst of digital graphics, made Diego to focus his career into digital art and illustration.

Nicholas Hely Hutchinson, 1955 | Neo-Romantic painter

Nicholas Hely Hutchinson is a painter, based in Dorset.

Initially influenced by Dufy and Matisse, he has also drawn on the British Neo-Romantic tradition.

He settled near Blandford, Dorset, and the countryside of that county and Wiltshire, horse racing, interiors and still life were among his subjects.

He studied at Harrow School, Saint Martin's School of Art and Bristol Polytechnic.

Muriel Barclay | Figurative painter

Scottish painter Muriel Barclay has an unusual arts background.

Born and bred in Glasgow she graduated with a degree from Edinburgh University before heading to London where she initially worked in Jacques O’Hana’s Gallery in London’s Mayfair.

She returned to Glasgow to teach history and raise her family, while at the same time studying Drawing and Painting at Glasgow School of Art and History of Fine Art at the Open University.

Juan Gonzalez Alacreu, 1937 | Impressionist painter

Spanish painter Juan González Alacreu was born in Burriana, Castellón, in 1937. At eight years he took classes in Arts and Crafts and at 16 he won a scholarship to the School of Fine Arts of San Carlos de Valencia. He worked for years in the illustration for various publishers until he decided to devote himself to painting.

Andrea Kowch, 1986 | Symbolist painter

Andrea Kowch has been described as "a powerful voice emerging, demonstrating a highly sensitive consciousness that informs a culturally-laced Symbolism".

Born in Michigan, she attended Detroit's College for Creative Studies through a Walter B. Ford II Scholarship, and graduated Summa Cum Laude in 2009 with a BFA degree in illustration.

Her paintings, book illustrations, and works on paper are rich in mood, allegory, and precision of medium, reflecting a wealth of influences from Northern Renaissance and American art to the rural landscapes and vernacular architecture of her native Michigan.

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.

William Henry Margetson | Victorian-era painter

William Henry Margetson (1860-1940) is a British painter noted for his pictures of very beautiful girls, typically alone and large on the canvas, and typically with short hair and hats when they are modern subjects.

He studied at the South Kensington Schools, and then at the Royal Academy, exhibiting there from 1885.

He lived at Wallingford on Thames. As well as modern girls and portraits, Margetson also produced a few religious pictures, and some allegorical and classical/ancient ones–for example a Cleopatra, fetchingly attired, with attendants in an Alma-Tadema setting, 1890.

Agnes Slott-Moller ~ Symbolist painter

Agnes Slott-Møller, born Rambusch (10 June, 1862, in Nyboder - June 11, 1937 in Løgismose) was the daughter of the later commander in the Navy Jacob Heinrich Victor Rambusch (1825-1886) and his wife Constantine Juliane born Hansen (1834-1891). She was a Danish painter and sculptor who was influenced by Italian art before the Renaissance, British Pre-Raphaelites and the Arts and Crafts Movement in his image and style.

Agnes Slott-Møller grew up in a home where she soon became aligned with the interest of Denmark and Danish culture that came to dominate her life and art.

She read books on Danish history, and Adam Fabricius: "Illustrated History of Denmark", which is characterized by Lorenz Frølich drawings, became important for her, as she followed the road marked by the said Frølich and Niels Skovgaard, or even Christian Zahrtmann.

Benvenuto Benvenuti | Neo-Impressionist painter

Benvenuto Benvenuti (Livorno, October 5, 1881 - Livorno, 1959) was an Italian painter, mainly of landscapes.

He first trained under Lorenzo Cecchi at the School of Arts and Crafts of Livorno.

He was influenced by the Macchiaioli landscape painter, Adolfo Tommasi, who became his close friend.

Dyalma Stultus | Genre / Figurative painter

Dyalma Augusto Federico Stultus (Trieste, 31 October 1901 - Darfo, 24 September 1977) was an Italian painter.

Son of Erminia Stultus and Ralph Pacor he enrolled at Academy of Fine Arts in Venice thanks to a grant obtained from the Municipality of Trieste. In 1922 he organized his first solo exhibition at Ca 'Pesaro. He then went to Trieste and then to Florence in the spring of 1927-1928, and Rome.

In 1930, in 1932 and in 1934 he exhibited at the Venice Biennale as well as in group exhibitions in New York, Budapest, Baltimore and Barcelona.

Moses Levy ~ Post-Macchiaioli painter

Moses Levy [Tunisi, 1885 - Viareggio, 1968] was born in Tunis of a British father and an Italian mother. His son is the Tunisian-based painter Nello Levy. Moses trained in Italy - in Lucca, Florence and the studio of Giovanni Fattori - and was subsequently active in Viageggio. He spent almost the whole of his life in Tunisia, but continued to travel frequently between the northern and southern shores of the Mediterranean. He was a member of the Group of Four in Tunis in 1936, and the Group of Ten in 1947. He was a member of the Tunis School from 1950, but eventually settled in Viareggio where he died.

Carolina Serpa Marques, 1966 ~ Figurative painter

Carolina Marques Serpa was born in Porto in 1966.

In 1989 she finished her Degree in Law at the Catholic University of Porto and since 1991 teaches at the University of Porto Lusiada.

Devotes himself to painting as an autodidact, running custom portraits.

In 2010 is selected as a finalist for the Prix Carmen Miranda.

Hermann Hesse / Daniel Gerhartz | Eleanor, 1898

Le sere d'autunno mi ricordano te

I boschi giacciono bui, il giorno si scolora

ai bordi dei colli in rosse aureole.

In un casolare vicino piange un bimbo.

Il vento se ne va a passi tardi

attraverso i tronchi a raccogliere le ultime foglie.

Poi sale, abituata ormai da lungo ai torbidi sguardi,

l'estranea solitaria falce di luna

con la sua mezza luce da terre sconosciute.

William Blake | Lo scrittore romantico

• Il Cristianesimo è Arte e non soldi. I Soldi sono la sua Maledizione.
• Reprimono il desiderio solo quelli che lo hanno tanto debole da poterlo reprimere.
• È più facile perdonare un nemico che un amico.
• La via dell'eccesso conduce al palazzo della saggezza.
• Nessun uccello vola troppo in alto, se vola con le proprie ali.
• Chi manca di coraggio è esuberante d'astuzia.
• Una verità detta con cattiva intenzione batte tutte le bugie che si possono inventare.
• Nel tempo della semina impara, in quello del raccolto insegna, d'inverno godi.

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres | Gli aforismi

• I capolavori non sono fatti per sbalordire. Sono fatti per persuadere, per convincere, per entrare in noi attraverso i pori.

• In arte si arriva a un risultato notevole solo piangendo. Chi non soffre non crede.

• Studiate il bello in ginocchio.

• Chi non vorrà attingere ad altra intelligenza che alla sua, si troverà ben presto ridotto alla più miserabile di tutte le imitazioni: a quella delle sue stesse opere.

Leonardo da Vinci | Differenza infra poesia e pittura

Trattato della Pittura - Parte prima /18

La pittura immediate ti si rappresenta con quella dimostrazione per la quale il suo fattore l'ha generata, e dà quel piacere al senso massimo, qual dare possa alcuna cosa creata dalla natura.

Ed in questo caso il poeta, che manda le medesime cose al comun senso per la via dell'udito, minor senso, non dà all'occhio altro piacere che se uno sentisse raccontare una cosa.

Or vedi che differenza è dall'udir raccontare una cosa che dia piacere all'occhio con lunghezza di tempo, o vederla con quella prestezza che si vedono le cose naturali.

Giorgio Kienerk | Post Impressionist / Symbolist painter

Italian painter and sculptor Giorgio Kienerk (Firenze 1869 - Fauglia/Pisa 1948) born to an old Tuscan family. Kienerk began to study drawing and sculpture with the master Adriano Cecioni.

At the age of only 17, he had the opportunity to show his works at the Florentine Promotrice show for new talent.

When his teacher Cecioni died unexpectedly in 1886, Kienerk worked with Telemaco Signorini, who pushed him to master painting as well.

Kerdalo, 1962 ~ Urban street scene

French painter Kerdalo was born in 1962 in Chamalières. His paintings catch the light and dazzle at first sight as do the town of Paris from which he draws his inspiration. His works often recall the sweet memories of childhood, when time seems to stop. After his studies at the school of Applied Arts and a short passage in the world of Comic strip, he took back his brushes and studied with great interest the Impressionist Masters and so managed to create his own style. Kerdalo knows how to use the slightest lighting and the smallest ray on the street to sublimate the town and to create a serene and calm atmosphere special of Paris.

Silvestro Lega | Macchiaioli painter

Italian painter Silvestro Lega (1826-1895) was one of the leading artists of the Macchiaioli and was also involved with the Mazzini movement.

Lega was born in Modigliana, near Forlì, to an affluent family.

From 1838 he attended the Piarist College, where his skill at drawing became evident.

From 1843-1847 he attended the Accademia di Belle Arti, Florence, studying drawing under Benedetto Servolini (1805-79) and Tommaso Gazzarini (1790-1853), then studying painting, briefly, under Giuseppe Bezzuoli.

Jeanie Tomanek, 1949 ~ Allegorical/Narrative painter

American painter Jeanie Tomanek inspired by literature, folktales and Myths, she portrays tall, snow white, bald women in dreamlike settings. A couple of years ago, Jeany left the corporate life behind to follow her passion and fully focus on her artwork. As she explains, painting helps her to develop her inner voice: “I paint to explore the significance of ideas, memories, events, feelings, dreams and images that seem to demand my closer attention”.

Frits Thaulow | Skagen painter

Frits Thaulow (1847-1906) was a Norwegian Impressionist painter, best known for his naturalistic depictions of landscape.

Johan Frederik Thaulow was born in Christiania, the son of the wealthy chemist, Harald Conrad Thaulow (1815-1881) and Nicoline "Nina" Louise Munch (1821-1894). Thaulow was educated at the Academy of Art in Copenhagen in 1870-72, and from 1873-75 he studied with Hans Gude at the Baden School of Art in Karlsruhe.

Thaulow was one of the earliest artists to paint in Skagen in the north of Jutland, soon to become famous for its Skagen painters.