Carol Cavalaris (?-2020)

Carol Cavalaris ha vissuto nel mezzo di una foresta nell'alto paese del Colorado.

Era la bellezza selvaggia dell'ambiente circostante che ha ispirato i suoi dipinti digitali di fauna selvatica e natura.

Carol espone il suo lavoro in diverse gallerie del Colorado, tra cui la Grace Gallery nel famoso quartiere artistico di Santa Fe Avenue a Denver.

Era è un artista professionista freelance, specializzata in dipinti di animali selvatici, floreali ed animali domestici.

Artista raffinata, Carol Cavalaris celebrava l'unicità di ogni essere vivente con il suo ampio corpus di lavori realizzati con tecniche miste.

Gianni Bellini (Italian painter, 1965)

Gianni Bellini è nato a Carmignano (PO) nel 1965. Autodidatta, fin da giovanissimo, ha dimostrato una particolare attitudine per la pittura: a soli quindici anni ha cominciato a partecipare a numerose rassegne estemporanee, a mostre personali e collettive in varie città, conseguendo, ovunque, numerosi attestati di stima e primi premi.

Fra le mostre più importanti in cui egli è stato protagonista, è doveroso segnalare l'"Esposizione Internazionale" al Palazzo degli Affari di Firenze (1991-1992), quella al "Jacob Javits Center" di New York, al Museo Nazionale di Stoccolma e a quello di Budapest.

Nel 1992 ha affrescato l’arcata principale della facciata della chiesa di San Pietro a Seano, presso Carmignano.

Shusaku Takaoka, 1977 | Pop Surrealist graphic designer

Japanese🎨 graphic designer Shusaku Takaoka reimagines pop culture and art in a funny and sometimes macabre way.

The artist is inspired by our modern society to juxtapose visuals who form a funny set and sometimes denouncing aspects of an ultra-consumer and over-connected world.

Using famous faces like Mona Lisa🎨, Van Gogh🎨, and Vermeer’s "Girl with a Pearl Earring"🎨, Takaoka merges them onto bodies sporting the latest fashions. The playful project gives a whole new meaning to these painted characters, who now look incredibly modern.

Serge Marshennikov, 1971

Serge Marshennikov was born in Ufa, Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia. His grandfather was the general manager of a horse breeding company, his father, an electrical engineer and his mother was in pre-school education.

Freom the earliest of times, Serge was always drawing, painting and sculpting from any material he could land his hands on.

His Mother encouraged Serge to study and from early childhood and he had a succession of private teachers and art studies he attended. After receiving a number of awards for his children’s watercolor and pastel paintings, Serge decided to become a professional painter.

In 1995 he finished the Ufa Art College and then continued education at one of the most prestigious art academies in the world, The Repin Academy of Fine Art in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Vincent Van Gogh: "I put my heart and soul into my work, and I have lost my mind in the process"..

▻ There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.

▻ The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore.

▻ I put my heart and soul into my work, and I have lost my mind in the process.

▻ Ho messo il cuore e l'anima nel mio lavoro, e ho perso la testa nel processo.

▻ It is looking at things for a long time that ripens you and gives you a deeper meaning.

▻ I would rather die of passion than of boredom.

▻ If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.

▻ I don’t know anything with certainty, but seeing the stars makes me dream.

Albert Einstein: "La creatività è contagiosa. Trasmettila!"

▻ La logica ti porta da A a B. L'immaginazione ti porta ovunque!
▻ La creatività è contagiosa. Trasmettila!
▻ L'arte è l'espressione del pensiero più profondo nel modo più semplice.
▻ L'immaginazione è più importante della conoscenza. La conoscenza è limitata, l'immaginazione abbraccia il mondo.
▻ Per perdere la testa, bisogna averne una!

Frédéric Blaimont, 1949 | Genre painter

Living in South West France, Frédéric Blaimont exhibits mainly in galleries in France and Europe.

Blaimont studied at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Paris and at the l'École d’Art Graphique (Kunstgewerbeschule) of Basel, Switzerland, in the early 70s.

Through his characters, Fréderic Blaimont translates real life in a tender yet uncompromising manner.

Lucien-Victor Guirand de Scevola (Symbolist painter, 1871-1950)

Lucien-Victor Guirand de Scévola was a French painter🎨. He is known for his pioneering leadership of the Camoufleurs (the French Camouflage Department) in World War I.

De Scévola was a student of Fernand Cormon and Pierre Dupuis at the École des beaux-arts de Paris.

De Scévola was a pastellist, remarkable for his silky, velvety and smooth style.

"Making his only aesthetic concern accuracy of the most naked kind" (E. Benézit), he left an extensive body of work including scenes of alcoves, landscapes, flowers and society portraits.

Felix Mas (Spanish painter, 1935)

Felix Mas considers himself a traditionalist, obsessed with form and color, creating images that celebrate femininity and luminous beauty of the female form.

Mas uses his paintbrush to convey emotion. It is his gift. Born in Barcelona, he trained at both the Artes y Oficios and the Escuela Superior de San Jorge, then furthered his artistic education with extensive travels throughout Europe and the United States, eventually returning to his native Barcelona to work.

For Mas, painting implies color, emotion and impression. His works, he says, are “infinite”.

Ernest Hébert (1817-1908) | Academic painter

Antoine Auguste Ernest Hébert was a French🎨 academic painter.

Ernest Hébert was born into the era of Romanticism, and began his career just as Realism was emerging.

The young man from Grenoble had been expected to take up his father's profession as a notary. Lessons with his private teacher, Benjamin Rolland, a pupil of David and curator at the Musée de Grenoble, revealed his early talent.

After a classical training at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he won the Grand Prix de Rome🎨 for History Painting, he found fame with "La Mal'aria🎨" at the 1850 Salon🎨.

Vincent van Gogh | Starry Night Over the Rhone, 1888 | Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Vincent van Gogh | Starry Night Over the Rhone, 1888

"The sight of the stars always makes me dream in as simple a way as the black spots on the map, representing towns and villages, make me dream.

Why, I say to myself, should the spots of light in the firmament be less accessible to us than the black spots on the map of France?

Just as we take the train to go to Tarascon or Rouen, we take death to go to a star’, wrote Vincent to his brother Theo in 1888.

Vincent Van Gogh | The Starry Night | Saint Rémy, June 1889 | MoMa

Vincent Van Gogh | The Starry Night | Saint Rémy, June 1889 | MoMa - Museum of Modern Art, New York

"The Starry Night" is probably Vincent van Gogh🎨's most famous painting. Instantly recognizable because of its unique style, this work has been the subject of poetry, fiction, CD-ROMs as well as the well known song "Vincent" or "Starry, Starry Night" by Don McLean.

While there's no denying the popularity of Starry Night, it's also interesting to note that there is very little known about Vincent's own feelings toward his work. This is mainly due to the fact that he only mentions it in his letters🎨 to Theo twice (Letters 595 and 607), and then only in passing.

In his correspondence with his brother, Vincent would often discuss specific works in great detail, but not so in the case of "Starry Night".

Why?

It's difficult to say.

Zahi Issa (Siria, 1962)

Zahi Issa è nato ad Aleppo, Siria Zahi Issa è stato scoperto come pittore a soli 15 anni dal padre Giacobbe, maestro internazionale, Jack Issa (che ha dato permesso ad artisti del calibro di Joseph Anna conosciuto insieme a Barbera come autore di famosi cartoon) di apprendere con la grafica del disegno, i primi rudimenti della tavolozza.

Il surrealismo delle sue opere ha girato il mondo con recensioni di famosi critici e storici dell'arte.

Gustave Jean Jacquet (Parigi, 1846-1909)

Gustave Jacquet è stato un pittore Francese.

Gustave Jean Jacquet è noto come il pittore dei ritratti femminili e, molto meno, di scene storiche. Fu allievo di William Bouguereau, e debuttò al "Salon" del 1865.

Con lo pseudonimo di "Jacquet" illustrò alcune opere umoristiche, in particolare edite da Félix Juven.

Jacquet visse a Parigi cambiando sovente indirizzo.

Infatti, dal 1865-1866, abitò in rue Desbordes-Valmore; dal 1867-1874 fu al 22 di rue Saint Ferdinand, nel 1875 e 1876, si spostò in Avenue Montaigne, dal 1877-1883 in rue de Prony e infine, dal 1884 al 92° di Avenue de Wagram.

Jacques Prévert | Breakfast / Prima colazione...

Anne Christine Roda🎨

Lui ha messo

Il caffè nella tazza

Lui ha messo

Il latte nel caffè

Lui ha messo

Lo zucchero nel caffellatte

Ha girato

Il cucchiaino

Ha bevuto il caffellatte

Ha posato la tazza

Senza parlarmi

Edgar Allan Poe / Remi Labarre | My spells.. / I miei incantesimi.., 1848

To Marie Louise (Shew), 1848

Not long ago, the writer of these lines,

In the mad pride of intellectuality,

Maintained "the power of words"- denied that ever

A thought arose within the human brain

Beyond the utterance of the human tongue:

And now, as if in mockery of that boast,

Two words-two foreign soft dissyllables-

Italian tones, made only to be murmured

By angels dreaming in the moonlit "dew

That hangs like chains of pearl on Hermon hill,"-

Have stirred from out the abysses of his heart,

Unthought-like thoughts that are the souls of thought,

Richer, far wider, far diviner visions

Than even the seraph harper, Israfel,

(Who has "the sweetest voice of all God’s creatures")

Could hope to utter. And I!

Valentine Cameron Prinsep (1838-1904)

Indian-born British painter Valentine Cameron Prinsep, often known as Val Princep,was a British painter of the Pre-Raphaelite school.

Prinsep's major paintings were "Miriam watching the infant Moses" (exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1867), "A Venetian lover" (1868), "Bacchus and Ariadne" (1869), "News from abroad" (1871), "The linen gatherers" (1876), "The gleaners" and "A minuet".

In 1877, Prinsep returned to India and painted a huge picture of the Delhi Durbar. It was a commission from Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton, the Viceroy of India.

Laimonas Šmergelis (Lithuanian, 1972)

Born in Utena, Lithuania Laimonas Šmergelis is a very talented artist, with many paintings full of vivid colors, surreal elements and great portraits. Laimonas was inspired from Picasso and Gustav Klimt..

1985 - Utena Children Arts School.

1989 - repeatedly graduated from Utena Children Arts School.

1995 - Siauliai Pedagogical University, Bachelor Degree in Arts and Crafts.

1997 - Siauliai Pedagogical University, Master’s Degree in Humanitarian Sciences, Fine Arts Studies.

Worked as arts teacher in a primary school. Since 2003 organizes courses in Utena Region Association for Disabled.Organized about 20 personal exhibitions. Since 1990 participates in group exhibitions (about 40 exhibitions).

Iman Maleki (Iranian, 1976)

Iman Maleki was born in Tehran. He has been fascinated by the art of painting since he was a child. At the age of 15, he started to learn painting under the mastery of his first and only teacher - Morteza Katouzian - who is the greatest realist painter of Iran.

Meanwhile, he began to paint professionally. In 1999 he graduated in Graphic Design from the Art University of Tehran. Since 1998, he has participated in several exhibitions.

In the year 2000, he got married and in the following year he established ARA Painting Studio and started to teach painting, considering classical and traditional values.

Ghiannis Ritsos / Christian Schloe | Un albero

Quell'albero era cresciuto nella parte superiore del giardino,

alto, solitario, slanciato - la sua altezza

tradiva forse un'idea segreta d'intrusione. Non diede mai

fiori né frutti, solo un'ombra lunga che divideva in due il giardino

e una misura inapplicabile agli altri alberi, carichi e curvi.

Marcos Damascena (Brazilian painter, 1981)

Born in Poções Bahia, Marcos Damascena settled in St. Paul, where he began his artistic career, studying with the great names in figurative art.

Made with the design of the live model and teacher Luis Alberto, the Paulista Association of Fine Arts, then studied with the master Abraham Jorge Esteves: color theory and anatomy of animals, especially horses.

Jeff Barson (American, 1966)

Barson was born in Logan, Utah. At the age of nine, his family moved to England where Barson attended Beechwood Park Preparatory School. Over the next years, Barson traveled extensively throughout Europe and was exposed to its great museums and fine artistic legacy.

He credits his early interests in Art and Literature to this move which provided an excellent education and inspiration for the creative young Barson. Barsons paintings have hung in galleries in New York, Boston and Los Angeles.

His limited edition prints are distributed nationally and have met with great enthusiasm from the press and public. U.S. Art Magazine named him one of six artists that will change the limited edition print market.

Confucio / 孔子 | Aforismi

L'uomo superiore è calmo senza essere arrogante; l'uomo dappoco è arrogante senza essere calmo.

Ciò che non vuoi che sia fatto a te, non farlo agli altri.

Mettete la lealtà e la fiducia sopra ogni cosa; non accettate l'amicizia di chi vi è moralmente inferiore; non abbiate paura di correggere i vostri errori.

Chi non cambia è solo il saggio più elevato o lo sciocco più ignorante.

Colui che desidera assicurare il bene di altri si è già assicurato il proprio.

Colui che governa per mezzo della sua virtù è... come la stella polare: rimane al suo posto, mentre tutte le stelle minori le rendono omaggio.

Fate il bene in ogni tempo, in ogni luogo, in tutte le circostanze in cui potrete farlo; e sarete, a non dubitarne, virtuosi e saggi.

Fate il bene per se medesimo, senz'alcun motivo d'interesse personale; vi sarà resa la giustizia che meritate, godrete senza contrasto della riputazione di virtù e di sapienza, che si forma da se medesima in favore di quelli che così si governano senza parere di ambirla.

Dragan Ilic Di Vogo (Serbian painter, 1962)

"Boundaries of art have no shape, colour and smell; therefore, even if they existed, we would not be able to know that we have stepped on them. If you seek art, you may find it in everything around you. Mainly in style, since man is style. I find the man to be the most perfect work of art, shaped and painted by the Creator himself.

The art is always one and the same, though it may be more or less present at a particular moment and in particular place. The art does not progress or regress, it only goes through transformations. The consciousness about art does not progress either, although we wish it would. The need for art does not grow or decrease.

Thanks to God, art is constant, while we are the ones who change, appear and disappear. Cheers!" - Dragan Ilic Di Vogo.

Z.L. Feng, 1954 | Landscape / Figurative / Watercolor painter

Growing up in Shanghai, Feng began painting at age seven and never stopped, experimenting with different mediums, including pastel, oil, and egg tempera, before choosing his favorite, watercolor.

"With watercolor you cannot cover your mistakes, so you must know what you are doing", he says.

He finds inspiration for his lovely landscapes in the countryside of the New River Valley: "Usually I go around - to the river, the forest, the lake – to try and find interesting compositions".

Those familiar with Feng’s art are also captivated by his portraits of the people of Tibet, Native Americans of New Mexico, Southern farmers, and others.

Chen Yongle (Chinese painter, 1954)

Chen Yongle was born in the Yunan Province of China. He is currently the President of the Yunnan Research Institute of Fine Art, and is a member of various art organisations and committees including the Chinese Artists Association, the Chinese Graphic Artists Association, and the Association of the Artists of Chinese Craft and Art.

He is among the few contemporary Chinese printmakers who can claim a series of international exhibitions.

William Whitaker (1943-2018) | Figurative painter

William Whitaker was one of the most respected living classical-realist figure artists in the Western United States.

Whitaker describes his training as being "Most influenced by the academicians of the last century for their craftsmanship, by the impressionists for their color and life, and by the abstract expressionists for their boldness".

He earned a BA from the University of Utah where Alvin Gittins was his mentor and later studied at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles.

Stanislav Aristov / Станислав Аристов, 1982 | Flame art

Russian🎨 photographer Stanislav Aristov / Станислав Аристов, better known by his moniker Pol Tergejst is an artist from Ekaterinburk, in Russia, who decided "to play with fire", literally. He uses flame shapes to create some kind of flame-shape paintings, he composes different images of them. All this involves a lot of photographing.

Aristo made a splendid series of images with matches between 2010 and 2013. It's after taking part in a themed "line of life" photo contest from Formula foto that the idea of using lighted matches came to him.

The "stroke of genius" or as Stanislav said himself: "it's not the first idea with one things that shows another things :)" reminds us all the poetry that has fire in the collective unconscious. Thanks to Stanislav for giving us some of his time answering our questions and for sharing with us his work.

Niccolò Paganini by Johann Peter Lyser

Paganini | Cartoon Drawing by Johann Peter Lyser

Johann Peter Lyser

(German engraver, journalist, critic, miscellaneous writer; caricaturist,1804-1870)

about Paganini from the magazine "Originalien", 1830

"Paganini is an Italian artist, and an Italian artist will be never sad or misanthrope. If he become that, it is the end of the art. In the character of Paganini there is nothing exalted.

His heart bits with a strong joy of living, it is attached to this land and to all it has to offer. However great the passion for his art is, he does despise nothing, not even things of little importance if they offer enjoyment […].

Paganini is one of the strangest, indeed baroque and certainly greatest phenomena, that cross land for over a century, but there is nothing mysterious about him. He his not like the stormy sea, but he is like the quiet lake.

The Art of Photo manipulation

Photo manipulation dates back to some of the earliest photographs captured on glass and tin plates during the 19th century.

The practice began not long after the creation of the first photograph (1825) by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce who developed heliography and made the first photographic print from a photoengraved printing plate.

Charles Dickens (Victorian era Novelist, 1812-1870) | Quotes / Aforismi

Margaret Gillies | The Lost portrait of Charles Dickens found in South Africa (detail)

▻ "Lega un albero di fico nel modo in cui dovrebbe crescere, e quando sarai vecchio potrai sederti alla sua ombra".

▻ "Evitate di rimanere a bocca chiusa con coloro ai quali avete aperto il vostro cuore".

▻ "L'allegria e la contentezza abbelliscono in gran misura, e sono dei famosi conservanti dello sguardo giovanile".

▻ "There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor".

▻ "Non c’è niente al mondo così irresistibilmente contagioso come il riso e il buonumore".

▻ "Tutti gli imbroglioni della terra messi insieme sono nulla in confronto a coloro che ingannano se stessi".

▻ "All other swindlers upon earth are nothing to the self-swindlers".

Patrick Le Hech (French, 1965)

Illusionist photographer Patrick Le Hec'h began his training at the École d'Art Graphique Corvisart de Paris. On his release he worked briefly as an illustrator and graphic designer before accepting the artistic direction of a communications agency.

Inspired by the romantic and surreal, is detected in its early creations of the atmosphere that are visionary painters: Giorgio De Chirico 1888-1978, Tanguy, Bocklin, Delvaux and René François Ghislain Magritte, 1898-1967.

Invited to present his paintings at galleries renowned Parisian Avenue Matignon, rue du fg St Honore, at the Grand Palais, as well as Monte Carlo, Cannes, Palm Beach, Chicago or New York, his work now recognized as contained in number of private collections, earned him awards on the occasion of major arts events.

Kei Mieno, 1985

Kei Mieno 三重野慶 è un artista Giapponese🎨 nato a Hiroshima che dipinge professionalmente da oltre 10 anni.

Questo pittore è specializzato nell'iperrealismo e utilizza principalmente pittura ad olio per creare i suoi capolavori.

Bev Jozwiak (American, 1953)

"Emotion plays an important part in every successful painting, so I choose only subjects that call to me and that gives my work energy and excitement" - Bev Jozwiak.

Award winning Artist Bev Jozwiak was born in Vancouver, Washington. She graduated from Western Washington University in 1976 with honors. Bev Jozwiak paints very directly, placing watercolor paint on the paper with very little mixing on the palette.

Bev Jozwiak has earned her signature status in the American Watercolor Society, the National Watercolor Society, Watercolor West and others, too numerous to mention.

She has been included in countless "Best of Art Books", including numerous times in the well know series by North Light, "Splash".

Has had a plethora of magazine articles, including one emagazine cover, the cover of Sept. 2017 North Light Watercolor Magazine, and the Cover of the Palette magazine in 2019.

Oscar Wilde / Rene Magritte | Quotes / Aforismi

Rene Magritte | A la rencontre du plaisir | Christies

▻ Avere avuto una buona educazione è un grande svantaggio. Ti esclude da tante cose.

▻ Nulla invecchia come la felicità...

▻ 'Esperienza' è il nome che tutti danno ai propri errori.

▻ «Come definiresti l'uomo malvagio?»

    «Quel tipo d'uomo che ammira l'innocenza».

    «E una donna malvagia?»

    «Quel tipo di donna di cui un uomo non si stanca mai».

▻ «Dicono che, quando muoiono, gli americani buoni vanno a Parigi.»

    «Veramente? E dove vanno gli americani cattivi, quando muoiono?»

    «Restano in America».

▻ Qual è la differenza tra la letteratura e il giornalismo? Oh! Il giornalismo è illeggibile e la letteratura non viene letta.

▻ A dire il vero, se le classi inferiori non ci danno il buon esempio, a che cosa servono? Esse tuttavia sembrano essere assolutamente prive del senso di responsabilità morale.

▻ A durare son soltanto le qualità superficiali. La natura più profonda di un uomo si scopre molto presto.

▻ A questo mondo vi sono solo due tragedie: una è non ottenere ciò che si vuole, l'altra è ottenerlo. Questa seconda è la peggiore, la vera tragedia.

Rembrandt in detail

Rembrandt's contributions to art came in a period of great wealth and cultural achievement that historians call the Dutch Golden Age, when Dutch art (especially Dutch painting), although in many ways antithetical to the Baroque style that dominated Europe, was extremely prolific and innovative and gave rise to important new genres.

Like many artists of the Dutch Golden Age, such as Jan Vermeer of Delft, Rembrandt was also an avid art collector and dealer.

When he was just 18 he bought a studio and shared it with a colleague after training under two influential artists of the time, Jacob Van Swanenburgh and Pieter Lastman.

Mike Savad | American photographer

Mike Savad is an photographer. His style of digital manipulation of images and the addition of color to old images, to achieve that personal cyberpunk effect is fantastic. Mike has achieved a unique style that makes him recognizable all over the world.

"Mike Savad: Photo realistic is what people think of first. There are many themes, flowers, porches, and local Suburban Scenes, some city, some urban.

My style is not really photography and not really a painting.I create images that resemble paintings, a cross between Rockwell, and the paintings of the Renaissance.

I don't like plain photos. I found that over time every photographers work will look the same. Its hard to set yourself apart from everyone else if your work looks like everyone else's".

Perugino | The Delivery of the Keys, 1481-1482

The wall paintings of the Sistine Chapel are among the most important examples of the type of painting developed in Florence in the later fifteenth century.

The five artists brought to Rome to execute them came from various different art centres: Botticelli, Ghirlandaio and Rosselli from Florence, Perugino from Umbria, Signorelli from Cortona.

Perugino's contribution was the largest, with the altar wall paintings and three additional pictures.

Recent scholars have concluded that it was he who was in charge of the whole project and who produced the overall design.

It is true that in "the Christ Handing the Keys to St Peter" his portraits appears next to those of the architect and builder.

Cristo Redentore (Rio De Janeiro, 1931)

La statua del Cristo Redentore di Rio de Janeiro è uno dei monumenti più conosciuti al mondo. Il monumento, alto circa 39.6 metri, raffigura un grande Gesù Cristo dalle braccia aperte, a simboleggiare il calore e l'accoglienza del popolo brasiliano verso i visitatori.

Situato sulla montagna del Corcovado, all'interno del Parco Nazionale di Tijuca, sorge proprio sulla cima del monte, a più di 700 metri sul livello del mare, a picco sulla città e sulla baia di Rio de Janeiro, è alta 38 metri, di cui 8 metri fanno parte del basamento, in posizione dominante rispetto alla città.

Dall'alto della sua posizione si apre una splendida veduta sul panorama circostante, che comprende la città di Rio de Janeiro con la sua baia. Da qui sono inoltre visibili il Pan di Zucchero e la Baia di Guanabara e Niteròi, così come le spiagge di Copacabana, di Ipanema e la Laguna Rodrigo de Freitas.

Genre painting

Genre painting (or petit genre), a form of genre art, depicts aspects of everyday life by portraying ordinary people engaged in common activities.

One common definition of a genre scene is that it shows figures to whom no identity can be attached either individually or collectively - thus distinguishing petit genre from history paintings (also called grand genre) and portraits.

A work would often be considered as a genre work even if it could be shown that the artist had used a known person - a member of his family, say - as a model.

In this case it would depend on whether the work was likely to have been intended by the artist to be perceived as a portrait - sometimes a subjective question.

The depictions can be realistic, imagined, or romanticized by the artist. Because of their familiar and frequently sentimental subject matter, genre paintings have often proven popular with the bourgeoisie, or middle class.

Vincent van Gogh | The reaper after Millet, 1889

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (French, 1864-1901)

Throughout his career, which spanned fewer than 20 years, Toulouse-Lautrec created 737 canvases, 275 watercolours, 363 prints and posters, 5.084 drawings, some ceramic and stained glass work, and an unknown number of lost works.

His debt to the Impressionists, in particular the more figurative painters Claude Monet 1840-1926 and Edgar Degas 1834-1917, is apparent. His style was also influenced by the classical Japanese woodprints which became popular in art circles in Paris.

In the works of Toulouse-Lautrec can be seen many parallels to Monet's detached barmaid at A Bar at the Folies-Bergère and the behind-the-scenes ballet dancers of Degas.

Ignacio Zuloaga y Zabaleta (Spanish, 1870-1945)

Ignacio Zuloaga y Zabaletawas was a Spanish Genre and portrait painter noted for his theatrical paintings of figures from spanish culture and folklore depicting of traditional spanish characters, including peasants, gypsies and bullfighters.

Ignacio Zuloaga y Zabaleta born in Eibar, near the monastery of Loyola. He was the son of metalworker and damascener Plácido Zuloaga and grandson of the organizer and director of the royal armoury in Madrid. In his youth, he drew and worked in his father's workshop. He was educated by the Jesuits in France.

His father wanted him to be an architect, and with this objective in mind, he was sent to Rome, where he immediately followed the strong impulse that led him to painting.

Ognian Kouzmanov (Bulgarian, 1979)

Ognian Kouzmanov is a professional artist who lives and works in Pleven, Bulgaria.

He has made many exhibitions in France, Germany, Austria, Slovakia and Czech Republic, Marocco, Serbia and Bulgaria.

Many of his art works are possession of different European private collectors. He paints mainly abstract paintings.

Alexandre Debrus (1843-1905) | Still lifes painter

Alexandre Debrus was an Belgian painter🎨 of still lifes, flowers and portraits; watercolourist.

Alexandre Debrus was born in Spa in 1818 as the son of Jean Nicolas Debrus. He also died there in 1905.

He worked in England for some time and participated at the International Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876.

His work is well recorded although little is known about his life. He exhibited in France and died in 1905.

Nicoletta Tomas Caravia (Spanish painter, 1963)

"Painting and I are a community, it has me, I have it. I go hand in hand with painting, because it is the intimate language between me and my soul.

I learn from painting. I express my deepest feelings in such a form of world. From my world to the outside world, both inside and outside are expressed in a mirror way. The inner world is always fighting. The patterns I draw, the light of human existence, the fragility and his greatness, all of which are accompanied by my imagination.

Nicoletta Tomas Caravia was born in Madrid. She is a long-standing international painter and illustrator.

She travels the world with exquisite skills, rich colors, gentle and keen touch.

The purest aspect of human beings also attracts the audience into their own experience.

La donna implorante...| Camille Claudel (1864-1943)

L’Implorante, fa parte del gruppo scultorio L'Âge Mûr - L'età matura, una delle sculture più conosciute della Claudel, sia per lo stile che per la maestosità di cui vi è una versione in gesso ed una in bronzo. Richiestale dallo stesso Auguste Rodin 1840-1917 nel 1895, l'opera fu messa in mostra nella versione gesso nel 1899.

Il gruppo scultoreo fa richiamo al Rodin stesso indeciso fra le sua prima compagna, che poi sposerà e Camille -divenuta sua amante dall'età di 18 anni- che nel gruppo scultoreo è simboleggiata dalla figura che tenta di trattenere il "vecchio" amante che ormai si sta rivolgendo verso la sua futura sposa dimostrando comunque un che di esitante.

Jacques Prévert / Jeremy Mann | Bussano...

Chi è

Nessuno

E' solo il mio cuore che batte

Che batte troppo forte

Per causa tua.

Ma di fuori

La piccola mano bronzea sulla porta di legno

Non si sposta

Non si muove

Non muove neanche la punta del dito ...

Ancient Buddhism and Buddhist Art

Buddha, Probably Amitabha Amituofo | Early 7th century | China | Metropolitan Museum of Art

The history of Buddhism spans from the 6th century BCE to the present. Buddhism arose in the eastern part of Ancient India, in and around the ancient Kingdom of Magadha (now in Bihar, India), and is based on the teachings of Siddhārtha Gautama.

The religion evolved as it spread from the northeastern region of the Indian subcontinent through Central, East, and Southeast Asia. At one time or another, it influenced most of the Asian continent.

The history of Buddhism is also characterized by the development of numerous movements, schisms, and schools, among them the Theravāda, Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna traditions, with contrasting periods of expansion and retreat.

Josephine Wall (British, 1947)

"The art of painting is more than a career to me", she says, "it is an all consuming obsession and a love of colour and form. In fact, if I am away from my easel for too long I become restless and anxious to paint again" - Josephine Wall.

Wall's paintings are mainly influenced and inspired by Arthur Rackham, with lesser influences from surrealist artists such as Magritte and Dalí, and the romanticism of the pre-Raphaelites.

A number of her works were exhibited in Teheran and Tokyo during 1974 and her first solo exhibition took place the following year in Swindon. Josephine and her paintings were the subject of a special feature on Southern Television in 1990.

Following a visit to the Spring Fair in Birmingham in 1993 she signed contracts with firms in Britain and Switzerland to publish her work as prints, posters and cards for worldwide distribution.

Her originals and limited edition prints by are often sold through Courtenay's Fine Art and Courtyard of Romance.