Lena Sotskova / Елена Сотскова, 1963

Lena Sotskova / Елена Сотскова was born in Moscow. She was discovered as a child prodigy at the age of four. A descendant of generations of the Russian aristocracy, Lena was fortunate to have a privileged upbringing and elite education in leading art schools and through private lessons from masters of painting.

Lena Sotskova was studying and working in the vaults of prestigious institutions such as The Hermitage, The Louvre, Art Fund of Russia and royal palaces and cathedrals of Moscow and St. Petersburg. She was involved in the restoration of rare pieces of art that were damaged during the Moscow fire of 1812 during the war with Napoleon Bonaparte.

Ivan Pili, 1976 | Genre painter

Ivan Pili, concert musician, composer and visual artist, born in Cagliari, Italy.

His artistic skills emerged from the earliest age, first on the kindergarten benches and then manifested themselves in his early portraiture works at the age of 9 years.

From 1986-1990 he attended painters in Cagliari asking for his presence in their labs to try to improve the technique of the little boy.

Camille Pissarro | Les paysans / I contadini..

"Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing"

Camille Pissarro.

While the Impressionists are known for their depictions of city streets and country leisure, Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) covered his canvases with images of the day-to-day life of French peasants.

His greatest work joins his fascination with rural subject matter with the empirical study of nature under different conditions of light and atmosphere, deriving from intense study of French Realism.

Claude Monet | Venice painting, 1908

The canvases Monet* painted during his sole voyage to Venice*, in the fall of 1908, are among the most popular and the best known of his art works. However, their number is relatively small: 37 canvases featuring a dozen different views, taken within short distance of one another.

"Although I am enthusiastic about Venice, and though I've started a few canvases, I'm afraid I will only bring back beginnings that will be nothing else but souvenirs for me", Monet wrote to the art seller Gaston Bernheim on October 25.

According to Monet himself, the painter did only "trials and beginnings" in Venice. Although the canvases were finished afterwards in studio, they do not have the same impasto as other works Monet had struggled with, like the Rouen Cathedral series*.

Igor Talwinski (1907-1983) | Genre painter

Igor Talwinski painted portraits and genre🎨. He was born in 1907 in Varsovie, Poland and died in 1983 in Paris, France.

After the war ended, in 1945, Igor Talwinski moved to Paris, France.

He first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1951, this was very successful and he soon became a member, without the usual procedures artists had to go through.

Irene Sheri Vishnevskaya, 1968 | Romantic Impressionist painter

The daughter of a bulgarian mother and french father, Irene Sheri Vishnevskaya🎨 was born in the Ukraine in 1968. Her art career began when Irene’s older brother, Vasily, was given a set of paints for his 9th birthday.

Told not to touch the paints, they became an obsession. Irene stole them, mixed them, and painted on paper, walls, her dress, and the bodies of her friends. She was 4 years old.

Alain Picard, 1974 | Figurative /Landscape painter

Alain J. Picard is an award-winning artist, instructor, author and speaker. His acclaimed pastel and oil paintings have been exhibited throughout the US, Europe, China and the UK.

Alain travels internationally as an art instructor, demonstrator, speaker and artistic advocate for the vulnerable.

Alain Picard earned a BA in illustration from Western CT State University and went on to study at the Art Student's League in New York City. Picard cites Sargent, Degas, and Sorolla among his artistic influences. A love of light and beauty are immediately apparent in his pastel and oil paintings.

Claude Monet | Failing sight

Monet's second wife, Alice, died in 1911, and his oldest son Jean, who had married Alice's daughter Blanche, Monet's particular favourite, died in 1914.

Their deaths left Monet depressed, as Blanche cared for him.

It was during this time that Monet began to develop the first signs of cataracts.

In 1913, Monet travelled to London to consult the German ophthalmologist Richard Liebreich.

He was prescribed new glasses and rejected cataract surgery for the right eye.

The next year, Monet, encouraged by Clemenceau, made plans to construct a new, large studio that he could use to create a "decorative cycle of paintings devoted to the water garden".