François Batet (1921-2015) | Art Déco painter

Spanish painter Francisco Batet Pellejero was born in Barcelona.

He studied painting at the Academia Tárrega. He meets there another painter, Angelina Lavernia, whom he will marry on January 5, 1949.

Before devoting himself to painting on the theme of the 30s, the legendary "Roaring Twenties" and this from 1977, he abandoned his long career as an illustrator -including Hachette, Gautier-Languereau, France-Soir, France Dimanche, Confidences - and became known in Spain by drawing the famous "El Coyote" until 1951.

François Batet then worked as an illustrator for various magazines (France-Soir, France Dimanche, Confidences).

He then turned to the illustration of novels for young people, first on behalf of the Gautier-Languereau editions then for that of the Hachette editions (Pink Library, Green Library and Ideal-Library collections).

It illustrates in particular numerous novels by Jules Verne as well as several classics of the adventure novel.

Giuseppe Tirelli, 1957 | Figurative sculptor

Giuseppe Tirelli was born in Tanzania and now lives and works in Piacenza, where he attended the Art Institute "Gazzola" in the late '80s.

He began his personal artistic journey by fusing together classical sculpture with a contemporary, futuristic and cibernetic atmosphere. The great art critic Edward Lucie-Smith has placed Tirelli amongst the artists of "Neofigurative Italian sculpture".

Gustave Caillebotte | Stile e contenuti

Nonostante l'impegno impressionista Caillebotte interpretò gli stilemi del movimento in modo assolutamente personale, senza abdicare alla propria formazione e ubbidendo soprattutto alla propria sensibilità.

Alla poetica dell'attimo fuggente e irripetibile, colto in un solo battito di ciglia, egli preferì infatti la solida costruttività del disegno, già appreso durante il discepolato con Bonnat: in aperta controtendenza con l'impostazione impressionista, d'altronde, egli era solito meditare a lungo sulle composizioni, realizzando talora diversi schizzi preparatori.

L'originalità del Caillebotte, dunque, sta proprio nel mirabile equilibrio con cui riusciva a fondere la sua dichiarata matrice accademica con gli spunti di modernità, intelligentemente soppesati e impiegati.

Non desta meraviglia, pertanto, che lo stile di Caillebotte non è interamente impressionista, bensì presenta anche contaminazioni accademiste e realiste.

Marilyn Simandle | Plein air painter

Marilyn Simandle has always known that she would become an artist. Learning from her mother, a musician and painter, Marilyn started painting watercolors at age 6. She received her BA Arts Degree from San Jose State Univ. and went on to share her inspiration with the world.

A native Californian, she now resides in the Santa Ynez Valley where she explores all her passions: Painting, gardening and playing the piano. The former stewardess is an avid traveler and photographer that keep her fully stocked with subject matter for painting. Her late husband and acclaimed artist, Ted Goerschner, graduated to be with the Lord in 2012.

Sir John Lavery R.A. | Plein Air / Portrait painter

Sir John Lavery R.A. (1856-1941)* was a well-known Irish-born British painter*, associated with the Glasgow Boys*, a group of artists who followed the French "En plein air*" movement.

Sir John Lavery R.A. was born in Belfast in 1856 and educated in Glasgow, London and Paris.

For biographical notes -in english and italian- and other works by Lavery see: Sir John Lavery R.A. | The Glasgow School of Art*.

Cristina Fornarelli, 1978 | Palette knife painter

Cristina Fornarelli was born in Bari, Italy.

After art school, she attended the Institute of Industrial Design in Rome where she still lives and works.

She has taken part in many national and international art fairs.

The subjects of her paintings are always women in equilibrium, hanging on swings, dangling in the air, dancing in an indefinite space emphasizing this delicate atmosphere.

Lorenzo Lotto | High Renaissance painter

Lorenzo Lotto, (1480-1556), late Renaissance Italian painter known for his perceptive portraits and mystical paintings of religious subjects.

He represents one of the best examples of the fruitful relationship between the Venetian and Central Italian (Marche) schools.

Guy Denning, 1965 | Abstract painter

Guy Denning, born in North Somerset, has been obsessed with visual art since childhood and started painting in oils at the age of eleven after receiving a set of old paints from a relative that had grown bored with them.

Through the 1980s he was repeatedly unsuccessful in his applications to study painting at degree level but continued painting whilst studying art history with the Open University and learning painting technique from older painters he knew in the west of England.