Audrey Kawasaki, 1982 | The women on wood

Kawasaki's works are oil paintings painted directly onto wood panels, and her style has been described as a fusion of Art Nouveau and Japanese manga.

Kawasaki studied fine art painting for two years at the Pratt Institute in New York City, but left after two years without completing her degree.

She cites the emphasis in the New York art scene on conceptual art, an approach at odds with her figurative, illustrative style, as among the reasons she left.

Daiva Staškevičienė, 1968 ~ Symbolist painter

Daiva Staškevičienė was born in Vilnius. In 1986 graduated from secondary school in Vilnius. 1993-1995 Daiva studied at Justinas Vienožinskas art school in Vilnius. In 1995 entered Vilnius Academy of Arts to study stenography, however after a year and a half once and for all she was attracted by graphic arts specialty. Daiva studied graphic arts leaded by professor Leonas Lagauskas.

Katie Swatland, 1981 ~ Figurative painter

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. My appreciation and love for art came from her. After graduating magna cum laude from Syracuse University with a degree in mechanical engineering, I turned down two offers for a full scholarship to graduate school to pursue my passion.. painting.

Salvador Dali | Quotes / Aforismi

I believe that the moment is near when by a procedure of active paranoiac thought, it will be possible to systematize confusion and contribute to the total discrediting of the world of reality.
• If you understand a painting beforehand, you might as well not paint it.
• We are all hungry and thirsty for concrete images. Abstract art will have been good for one thing: to restore its exact virginity to figurative art.
• At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since.
• The terrifying and edible beauty of Art Nouveau architecture.
• I seated ugliness on my knee, and almost immediately grew tired of it.

Michel Ogier, 1943 | Visionary painter

Michel Ogier was born beneath aerial bombardments on the 19th December 1943 in St Etienne in France.

In 1960 he joins the Bellecour print works in Lyon to learn the trade of retoucher in heliogravure and for sole baggage at that date “a prize for an ardent disposition for gambling”.

During this period, he likes Maurice de Vlaminck for his tormented skies; Bernard Buffet for his rigid lines; George Dumesnil de Latour for his purity and Salvador Dalì for his imagination.

Mara Schasteen, 1976 | Still life painter

"Wyoming native and artist, I am dedicated to excellence in expressing the beauty of the world around me.

I work primarily in oils. The path my life has taken has not allowed for formal study of the arts, so I am teaching myself".

Alexander Zavarin, 1954 ~ Landscape painter

Aлександр Заварин lives and creates most of his artworks in Moscow, Russia. He graduated from the Stroganov Moscow State University of Arts and Industry (Stroganovka), and active member of the Russian Union of Artists. He participates frequently in various group and individual art exhibitions in Russia. Alexander actually got passion for drawing during his service in the Russian Army.

Frank Morrison, 1971 | The Urban Jazz

Born in Massachusetts then brought by his family to live in New Jersey at an early age, Frank Morrison was reared and spent his formative years there, an affable, precocious and inquisitive youngster whose curiosity about everything around him seemed limitless.

Then, as an energetic pre-teen, he was interested and enthused by the youthful fads, interests and activities which marked his world: the neighborhood D.J's with their followers and fans at neighborhood parties, the colorful ‘tags’ of local characters which were splashed across fences, parks and buildings, and the loose-jointed "B" boys and break-dancers who enlivened week-end party scenes.