René Magritte | Le Préméditation, 1943

"Before the war, my paintings expressed anxiety", René Magritte explained, "but the experiences of war have taught me that what matters in art is to express charm.

"I live in a very disagreeable world, and my work is meant as a counter-offensive".

Painted during the final months of 1943, Le Préméditation is one of the earliest in a series known as Le Surréalisme en plein soleil (Surrealism in sunshine), created by Belgian Surrealist René Magritte (1898-1967) during the turbulent years of the Second World War in the hope of re-enchanting daily life.

A radiant bouquet of springtime flowers all improbably sprouting from the same plant, Le Préméditation captures a magnificent vision of optimism and hope.

René Magritte | Premeditation, 1943 | Christie’s

Rudi Hurzlmeier, 1952 | Cartoonist / Illustrator

Rudi Hurzlmeier (born in Mallersdorf Abbey, in Bavaria) is a German cartoonist, painter and author.

Hurzlmeier has been dedicated to comic art since the early eighties.

His works have also been acclaimed by classical art critics.

In 2010 he was awarded the German Caricature Prize in Dresden, the most important award for cartoonists in Germany.

Jane Crowther, 1962

Originally from York (UK), Jane Crowther studied Illustration BA(Hons) at Kingston Polytechnic.

In the early 1990’s, whilst based in North London, Jane designed a small range of greeting cards to supplement her meagre income as an artist, initially selling them at craft fairs alongside her large multi-media paintings.

The cards started to sell really well and Jane made the commercial decision to concentrate on her card designs.

Alex Gross, 1968 | Pop surrealism painter

Alex Gross lives in Portland, Oregon. In 1990, he received a BFA with honors from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.

Since then, he has had ten solo exhibitions at various galleries, and participated in dozens of museum and gallery exhibitions across the globe.

His 2017 exhibition with Corey Helford Gallery was his most recent solo exhibition.

In the summer of 2007, Alex's first retrospective museum show was held at the Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana, California.

Joseph Lorusso, 1966 | Il pittore romantico

Di origini italiane, Joseph Lorusso è stato esposto all'arte in tenera età.

Attraverso diversi viaggi iniziali in Italia, i suoi genitori lo hanno introdotto alle opere dei maestri italiani.

Lorusso avrebbe guardato a queste influenze durante il suo primo sviluppo artistico e sono ancora evidenti nel suo lavoro odierno.

Durante gli anni della scuola, Lorusso si è specializzato in acquerelli e si considera un autodidatta come pittore ad olio.

Eva Melhuish | Scandinavian Christmas cards

Eva Melhuish is an illustrator who has been published across Europe, the USA and has worked on global projects with UNICEF.

With a Swedish mother and English father, Eva is bi-lingual and has travelled extensively.

Her work reflects this diverse background and she illustrates a wide range of subjects, from natural history and horses to gardening and educational books.

Eva grew up in Sweden and her Scandinavian roots are a key influence.

Ed Wheeler | Santa Classic

In a series of self-portraits dressed as Santa Claus, Philadelphia-based artist Ed Wheeler, photographer, incorporates himself in classical paintings from Botticelli to Caravaggio to Monet.

In so doing he transforms the masterworks of art history from the Renaissance to the Surrealists. Santa Classics, his derivative art series, is based on a digital photography process.

Wheeler’s goal is to pay homage to the original paintings while offering art lovers an additional reason to smile.

Francesco Hayez | The Kiss, 1859 | Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan

Wisława Szymborska / René Magritte | A Note / Una nota

Life is the only way

to get covered in leaves,

catch your breath on the sand,

rise on wings;

to be a dog,

or stroke its warm fur;

René Magritte

to tell pain

from everything it's not;

to squeeze inside events,

dawdle in views,

to seek the least of all possible mistakes.

An extraordinary chance

to remember for a moment

a conversation held

with the lamp switched off;

and if only once

to stumble upon a stone,

end up soaked in one downpour or another,

mislay your keys in the grass;

and to follow a spark on the wind with your eyes;

and to keep on not knowing

something important.

Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska (1923-2012)

René Magritte | L'Utopie, 1945 | Cleveland Museum of Art

Wisława Szymborska | Una nota

La vita - è il solo modo

per coprirsi di foglie,

prendere fiato sulla sabbia,

sollevarsi sulle ali;

essere un cane,

o carezzarlo sul suo pelo caldo;

distinguere il dolore

da tutto ciò che dolore non è;

stare dentro gli eventi,

dileguarsi nelle vedute,

cercare il più piccolo errore.

René Magritte

Un’occasione eccezionale

per ricordare per un attimo

di che si è parlato

a luce spenta;

e almeno per una volta

inciampare in una pietra,

bagnarsi in qualche pioggia,

perdere le chiavi tra l’erba;

e seguire con gli occhi una scintilla

nel vento;

e persistere nel non sapere

qualcosa d’importante.

René Magritte

Mahmoud Darwish | Un altro giorno verrà / Another day will come

Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008) è stato un poeta, scrittore e giornalista Palestinese.

È autore di circa venti raccolte di poesie, pubblicate a partire dal 1964, e sette opere in prosa, di argomento narrativo o saggistico.

È considerato tra i maggiori poeti in lingua araba.

Darwish ha vinto numerosi premi per le sue opere.

È stato giornalista e direttore della rivista letteraria "al-Karmel" (Il Carmelo), e dal 1994 era membro del Parlamento dell'Autorità Nazionale Palestinese.

È considerato poeta nazionale della Palestina per cui scrisse nel 1988 la Dichiarazione d'indipendenza, poi proclamata da Yasser Arafat.

I suoi libri sono stati tradotti in più di venti lingue e diffusi in tutto il mondo.

Mahmoud Darwish | Un altro giorno verrà

Shamsia Hassani | Hope is always beautiful even when you know you are the loser

Un altro giorno verrà, un giorno femmineo,

alla metafora trasparente,

compiuto, diamantino, di visita nuziale, soleggiato,

fluido, allegro. Nessuno sentirà

alcun bisogno di suicidio o di migrazione.

Poiché ogni cosa, fuori del passato, è naturale e vera,

sinonimo dei suoi attributi originari.

Shamsia Hassani

Come se il tempo oziasse in vacanza… "Prolunga il bel

tempo

della tua grazia. Illùminati nel sole dei tuoi seni di seta,

e aspetta l’arrivo della buona novella. Poi,

potremo crescere. Abbiamo ancora tempo

per crescere dopo questo giorno…"

Un altro giorno verrà,

un giorno femmineo,

dal cenno canterino e dal saluto e verbo azzurri.

Tutto è femmineo fuori del passato,

l’acqua scorre dalle mammelle della pietra.

Nessuna polvere, nessuna siccità, e nessuna sconfitta.

E le colombe dormono in un carro armato abbandonato

quando non trovano un piccolo nido

nel letto degli amanti.

Shamsia Hassani

Mahmoud Darwish | Another day will come

Another day will come, a womanly day

diaphanous in metaphor, complete in being,

diamond and processional in visitation, sunny,

flexible, with a light shadow. No one will feel

a desire for suicide or for leaving. All

things, outside the past, natural and real,

will be synonyms of their early traits. As if time

is slumbering on vacation…"

Shamsia Hassani | Love

"Extend your lovely

beauty-time. Sunbathe in the sun of your silken breasts,

and wait until good omen arrives. Later

we will grow older. We have enough time

to grow older after this day…"/

Another day will come, a womanly day

songlike in gesture, lapis in greeting

and in phrase. All things will be feminine outside

the past. Water will flow from rock's bosom.

No dust, no drought, no defeat.

And a dove will sleep in the afternoon in an abandoned

combat tank if it doesn't find a small nest

in the lovers' bed…

Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008) was a Palestinian poet and author who was regarded as Palestine's national poet.

In 1988, Darwish wrote the Palestinian Declaration of Independence, which was the formal declaration for the creation of a State of Palestine.

Darwish won numerous awards for his works.

In his poetic works, Darwish explored Palestine as a metaphor for the loss of Eden, birth and resurrection, and the anguish of dispossession and exile.

He has been described as incarnating and reflecting "the tradition of the political poet in Islam, the man of action whose action is poetry".

He also served as an editor for several literary magazines in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Darwish wrote in Arabic, and also spoke English, French and Hebrew.

Book sculptures by Jodi Harvey-Brown

- "I have always loved art, and I have always loved to read.

Books pull you into a new world, while art lets you see it.

It made sense to me that these two mediums should come together.

The books that we love to read should be made to come to life.

Characters, that we care so much for, should come out of the pages to show us their stories.

What we see in our imaginations as we read should be there for the world to see.

My book sculptures are my way of making stories come alive" - Jodi Harvey-Brown.

Cindy Hendrick | Watercolor illustrator

A love of gardening, nature and woodland animals inspire Hendrick’s artwork.

Spending time in her surroundings, she observes these friends of the forest and field and their quirky behaviors.

The small company Hendrick started from her home in 2004, Woodfield Press has grown from humble beginnings with a handful of notecards and a couple of paper doll kits to a business with products in up to 450 stores throughout the US and the ability to print 40,000 cards at a time.

Alaa Awad, 1981 | Neo-pharaonic style art

Dr. Alaa Awad is an Egyptian painter and muralist, known for his public murals in Cairo and Luxor, Egypt.

Inspired by ancient Egyptian heritage and contemporary society, some of Awad’s most popular work includes scenes of celebration, victory, Sufism, Egyptian social life and culture.

Currently, he serves as an assistant lecturer and PhD candidate at South Valley University (SVU), Faculty of Fine Arts.

His PhD working dissertation title is, "Artistic Vision Inspired by the Murals of War and Peace in Ancient Egyptian Art" and will be released in 2019.

Balbusso Twins, le gemelle dell'illustrazione

Anna ed Elena Balbusso, gemelle, vivono e lavorano a Milano.

Diplomate in pittura all’Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, dal 1994 operano come illustratrici freelance per la pubblicità e l’editoria sia in Italia che all’estero.

Dal 1998 illustrano libri per ragazzi e copertine con varie case editrici.

Dal 2003 lavorano con testate francesi nell’ambito della comunicazione e dei magazine.

Nel 2006 hanno iniziato nuove collaborazioni nell’editoria per ragazzi in Francia ed in Corea del Sud.

Chiaki Okada | Children's book illustrator

Chiaki Okada / 岡田 千晶 is an illustrator and author of children’s books from Osaka, Japan.

Her gentle, calming artwork was selected at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in 2010 and she has since illustrated books by authors from around the world.

Her first picture book published in English, For All the Stars Across the Sky, was released in 2019. She lives in Japan.

Shamsia Hassani, 1988 | Afghanistan's First Female Street Artist

"I want to colour over the bad memories of war on the walls, and if I colour over these bad memories, then I erase [war] from people's minds.

I want to make Afghanistan famous for its art, not its war" - Shamsia Hassani.

Afghan artist Shamsia Hassani risks all to bring color to war-torn Kabul with her street art and murals.

Born April 1988, she is the first female graffiti artist of Afghanistan.

Through her artworks, Shamsia portrays Afghan women in a male dominant society.

The Tragic Life of Van Gogh by Alireza Karimi Moghaddam

Watch beauty directly;

See them through your soul’s door.

Don’t let technology snatch

the little time you have to relish real beauty.

Maybe this chance won’t repeat for us ever.

Know the value of encountering true beauties,

and don’t turn your back on them. | by Alireza Karimi Moghaddam.

Karol Bąk, 1961

Karol Bąk artista - pittore, illustratore e grafico. I suoi dipinti sono caratterizzati da illusione e surrealismo.

Si è diplomato alla Scuola Secondaria di Belle Arti di Poznań come espositore di interni.

Nel 1984 ha iniziato gli studi presso la Facoltà di Grafica della Scuola Superiore Statale di Belle Arti (ora Accademia di Belle Arti di Poznań).

Si è laureato con lode nel 1989 ottenendo due diplomi sia in grafica con il professor Tadeusz Jackowski, che in disegno con il professor Jarosław Kozłowski.

Chul-Hwan Park, 1964 | Still Life painter

Chul-Hwan Park is a Korean Still Life painter of flowers, with a Master of Painting from Hongik University Graduate School of Fine Arts in Seoul, Korea.

Park’s still-life paintings are of such vivid realism that one nearly expects his flower blooms to exude a fragrance like their real-life counterparts.

One recalls the legendary Korean painter Solgeo, whose painting of a pine tree on a temple wall was so real that it lured birds to nest. Like Solgeo, Park is a true artist of realism.

John Lennon: “Love is the flower you’ve got to let grow”

• "Love is the flower you’ve got to let grow".

John Lennon

• "Love is like wildflowers; it’s often found in the most unlikely places".

• "L’amore è come i fiori di campo; si trova spesso nei posti più improbabili".

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hafsa Idrees, 1992 | Finger painter

Hafsa Idrees is an Pakistani painter and writer born in Islamabad.

- "Art has always been close to my heart and even though I have not received a formal education in any particular genre, drawing/painting is an important part of my life. Since school, I have been experimenting with and enjoying different styles, media and techniques".

"I started with Arabic calligraphy at the age of 10 but I soon realized that I enjoyed painting and drawing too. My subjects then were things and people from my immediate surroundings but with time I started to explore different kinds of paints, pencils, materials and subjects".