Lauri Blank, 1969 | Romantic Figurative painter

Lauri Blank was destined to be a creative soul with a burning passion for art. Raised by an artistic mother who attended design school in NYC, and grandparents that are still performing musicians (well into their 80’s), Lauri was constantly engaged by creativity and artistic expression; the foundation of a future art career.

Her talents were immediately recognized by patrons in Washington D.C. and the Miami area, where she accepted numerous important commissions.

And then in 1999, Lauri’s career would take a different turn, one that resembled one of the masters she studied for most of her life.

Kathy Fincher, 1949 | Romantic realism painter

Kathy Fincher is one of the most licensed children's painters in America. Awarded "Life Time Achievement Award" by the Save the Arts Foundation at their Grammy Awards 2013.

Fincher was born in an artistic family. She entered in the world of drawing, painting and illustration at a very young age. She focuses on painting children using pastels.

She is the proud recipient of the Quintessence award which is given to the America’s best painter and which is organized by "Save the Arts Foundation".

Michael Cheval, 1966 | Absurdist painter

Michael Cheval, born Mikhail Khokhlachev / Михаил Хохлачев is a contemporary artist specializing in Absurdist paintings, drawings and portraits.

He is the co-founder of Cheval Fine Art Inc. and currently resides in New Jersey, United States.

His work is internationally acclaimed and has been exhibited regularly in galleries across the United States and Europe.

Michael Cheval was born in Kotelnikovo, a small town in southern Russia.

Paul Van Ginkel, 1960 | Figurative / Abstract painter

Born in St. Boniface, Manitoba, Canada, Van Ginkel moved with his family to Calgary in 1973. In search of change and new stimulation he then moved to Vancouver in 1996, however, returned to Calgary in 2001.

Prior to earning a Master of Fine Arts degree from Syracuse University in New York, he was educated at the Alberta College of Art in Calgary.

After working as an illustrator for 6 years, Van Ginkel has been a fine art painter specializing in western themes since 1990.

Some artists who inspire and influence him include John Singer Sargent, Diego Velázquez and Frans Hals. Part of Van Ginkel's growth as an artist has come from extended painting trips to major art centres including New York, Italy, Australia, Mexico and Santa Fe.

In addition to collecting endless and inspiring subject matter as a result of global travel, Van Ginkel also attends reference photo shoots in various parts of the Southwest.

Ippolito Caffi | Solar eclipse in Venice, 6 July 1842

Born at Belluno in the Veneto, Ippolito Caffi🎨 (1809-1866) was a precocious landscape - architectural subjects and seascapes or urban vedute - painter and reporter.

His light-filled paintings are unsurpassed in immortalising the soul of the places and peoples he encountered during his many trips throughout Italy, Europe and the Mediterranean basin.

For biographical notes -in english and italian- and other works by Caffi see:

• Ippolito Caffi | Romantic / Visionary Landscape painter🎨

Carlo Canella | Vedutista / Cityscape painter

Carlo Canella (1800, Verona - 1879, Milan) was an Italian painter🎨.

Having received his artistic training from his father Giovanni, a decorator and set designer, Canella took part in the Brera exhibitions on a regular basis as from 1829 with urban views, portraits and genre scenes of a Neo-Flemish character.

He also painted the occasional landscape but came to specialise in perspective views of various Italian cities, especially Milan and Verona, under the influence of his elder brother Giuseppe in the mid-1830s.

Wlastimil Hofman | Symbolist painter

Wlastimil Hofman (1881-1970) was a Polish painter, one of the more popular painters of the interwar and postwar years.

Hofman was born Vlastimil Hofmann in Prague to Ferdynand Hofmann, a Czech, and Teofila Muzyk Terlecka, a Polish woman. In 1889 Vlastimil's family moved to Kraków in Poland, where he attended St Barbara's School and then the Jan III Sobieski high school.

In 1896, he became a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, where he studied under, i.a., Jacek Malczewski.

Marion Lucka, 1963 | Surrealist painter

German painter Marion Lucka was born in Kaiserhammer near Selb.

Since her childhood she wanted to express herself through her painting.

After finishing secondary school in Bayreuth, she began a vocational training to become a litographer in the resident porcelain industry.