Jane Wells Loudon | The Victorian garden

Jane Loudon was to Victorian gardening what Mrs Beeton was to cookery. Her beautifully illustrated books on gardening and plant identification sold in their thousands and women all over the country were enthused enough by them to take up gardening as a hobby.

- Loudon [née Webb], Jane (1807-1858), writer on botany and magazine editor, was born on 19 August 1807 at Ritwell House, near Birmingham. Her mother died when she was twelve, and her father, Thomas Webb, a businessman, suffered financial reverses a few years later.

Little is known of Jane Webb's early education, but, following the death of her father in 1824, she set out to earn money by writing. In addition to Prose and Verse (1824) she published anonymously The Mummy!

A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (1827), a pioneering work of science fiction that brought together political commentary, Egyptomania, and interest in technology.

Ute Hadam, 1958 | Abstract painter

Ute Hadam paints on canvas of different sizes. She mixes herself pigments with acrylic mediums of différetes consistency in order to enhance the structure. Colors and shades are melted with subtle silk paper collages to obtain transparency and relief.

Inspiration

The universe of the artist is the endless wealth of nature. The dynamic play of shapes and lights of plant, mineral or human world becomes a pretext for an original artistic interpretation. In her compositions, you find always a research of beauty of nature.

Boris Kustodiev (1878-1927)

Boris Mikhaylovich Kustodiev / Бори́с Миха́йлович Кусто́диев was a Russian painter and stage designer.

Early life

Boris Kustodiev was born in Astrakhan into the family of a professor of philosophy, history of literature, and logic at the local theological seminary.

His father died young, and all financial and material burdens fell on his mother's shoulders.

The Kustodiev family rented a small wing in a rich merchant's house. It was there that the boy's first impressions were formed of the way of life of the provincial merchant class.

The artist later wrote, "The whole tenor of the rich and plentiful merchant way of life was there right under my nose... It was like something out of an Ostrovsky play". The artist retained these childhood observations for years, recreating them later in oils and water-colours.

Micko-Vic | Palette Knife / Cubist painter

Maltese painter Micko-Vic is a self taught artist with a flair for creativity running through his genes. He first sketches out the scene with pencil and brush, and then adds a combination of acrylic and impasto gel with a palette knife layer upon layer within each scene to get the final, textured effect.

Alonso Sánchez Coello (1531-1588) Renaissance painter

Sánchez Coello, Alonso (Benifairó del Valls, Valencia - Spain, 1531/32 - Madrid -Spain, 1588) is a fundamental figure in the history of Spanish painting🎨.

He was the first to bring portraiture to the peninsula, where he followed the model developed by Anthonis Mor in likenesses of the Habsburg family.

Some of his paintings were included in the most important portrait galleries developed during the reign of Philip II, including those at the El Pardo and Alcázar Palaces, both sadly lost to fires in 1604 and 1734, respectively.

Today, his works hang in the Museo del Prado, in Spain’s royal foundations, including the Monastery of the Descalzas Reales and in museums and collections in Austria and Bohemia.

At the age of ten, Alonso Sánchez Coello moved with his family to Portugal, where he began his first art studies.

John III, king of Portugal, was aware of his talent and in 1550 he paid the young artist’s trip to Flanders to complete his training.

There, Sánchez Coello worked for Cardinal Granvela and was a disciple of Anthonis Mor van Dashorst.

After returning to Lisbon around 1552, he probably began working for Prince John Emmanuel of Lisbon and his wife, donna Juana, whose brother was Philip II of Spain.

Following the prince’s death, Juana returned to Spain to rule the country in her brother’s absence.

Around 1555, Sánchez Coello traveled to the Spanish court, then in Valladolid, to deliver a portrait of her son, the future King Sebastian of Portugal.

Remaining in Valladolid, he painted the first portraits of Philip II’s heir, Prince Charles, and around 1560 he married Luisa Reynalte, from a family of silversmiths.

That same year, Philip II appointed him chamber painter, a post he held until his death in Madrid in 1588. He had moved to that city along with the court in 1561.

Over the course of his career, Sánchez Coello specialized in portraiture, although he also made religious works, including the altarpiece for the church of El Espinar in Segovia (1574-1577) and some pairs of saints for altars at the basilica of El Escorial (1580-1582). | © Museo Nacional del Prado

Alonso Sánchez Coello (Benifairó de les Valls, 1531 circa - Madrid, 8 agosto 1588) è stato un pittore Spagnolo🎨, pittore di camera di re Filippo II di Spagna.

Di origine portoghese, soggiornò nelle Fiandre dove fu allievo del pittore Antonio Moro ed, in seguito, entrò al servizio del re di Spagna Filippo II come ritrattista della famiglia reale.

Il stile ritrattistico risente dell'influsso del maestro Antonio Moro e di Tiziano🎨, di cui copiò numerosi dipinti. | © Wikipedia

Andrew Loomis | Realist illustrator / Art instructor

William Andrew Loomis (1892-1959), better known simply as Andrew Loomis, was an American🎨 illustrator, author, and art instructor.

His commercial work was featured prominently in advertising and magazines; however, Loomis is best known as author a series of instructional art books printed throughout the 20th century.

Long after his death, Loomis' realistic style has continued to influence popular artists. Born in Syracuse, New York, Loomis grew up in Zanesville, Ohio and spent much of his working life in Chicago, Illinois.

He studied at the Art Students League of New York under George Bridgman and F.V. du Mond when he was 19. Loomis then went back to Chicago to work at an art studio and study at the Art Institute of Chicago.

After military service in World War I, Loomis worked for a couple of advertising agencies before opening his own studio in downtown Chicago.

Marie-France Boisvert, 1976 | Abstract figurative painter

Born in Saguenay-Lac St-Jean, Marie-France Boisvert capitalizes more than twenty years of experience as a painter and a sculptress. In 1997, she obtained a bachelor in Design from Laval University in Quebec City and in 2004, she completed another bachelor in Interdisciplinary sculpture at the University of Quebec in Chicoutimi.

Finally, in 2008, she confirmed her artistic approach with a master's degree in Creation from the same university.

Now working in Montreal, Marie-France Boisvert continues with the same enthusiasm to accumulate awards, mentions and peer recognition with exhibits in Canada, the United States and Europe.

Dylan Lisle, 1978 | Figurative painter

Dylan Lisle’s work maintains a contemporary dynamism through his old masterly representations of the female form.

Knots and swathes of vibrant, passionate fabric envelope his sensuous figures, or otherwise are the subject of larger studies, which draw upon chiaroscuro, reminiscent of Caravaggio🎨, Rembrandt🎨, Vermeer🎨 and Rubens🎨.