Brian McCarthy (Irish painter, 1960)

"I was born in Dublin and as a child loved nothing more than drawing and painting. In 1976 I started selling my paintings in local galleries.

While I attended art college (1977-80), I found the pervasive avant garde ethos and the lack of technical training in painting very d...isappointing.

Like many other artists, I've learned my craft from what I consider to be the best sources - the great artists of the past. From a young age I read books about them and visited museums and galleries whenever I could.

I have always worked exclusively in oils, producing an average of about twenty five paintings a year. Irish exhibitions include 'The Living Art' at the Douglas Hyde Gallery (1981), several annual shows at the Royal Hibernian Academy, and the Oireachtas Art Exhibition as well as many group shows in commercial galleries both in Ireland and London.

< div style="text-align: justify;">My exhibition Masquerade, opened by the late Charles J. Haughey, sold out amid enthusiastic reviews".

Ben Nicholson (1894-1982)

Ben Nicholson, all'anagrafe Benjamin Lauder Nicholson, è stato un pittore Britannico.

Figlio del pittore William Nicholson, nasce a Denham, nel Buckinghamshire, studia in varie scuole a Londra (contemporaneamente con Paul Nash, Stanley Spencer, Mark Gertler e Edward Wadsworth), a La Tour e a Milano per recarsi infine anche a Pasadena.

Rimase molto legato alle esperienze neoplastiche, imponendosi fra i pittori astratto-geometrici più importanti del suo tempo.

Nicholson si sposa per tre volte dando alla luce sei figli.

Gaetano Bellei (1857-1922)

Dopo la formazione artistica all'Accademia delle Belle Arti di Modena, sotto la guida di Adeodato Malatesta, Il maestro Accademico Italiano Gaetano Bellei si trasferisce a Roma, dove frequenta l'accademia di San Luca, successivamente quella di Francia e in contemporanea, quella spagnola.

Nel 1883 frequenta Firenze per un anno, dove porta a fine il proprio pensionato artistico. Nella città toscana entra in contatto, per il suo eclettismo, con collezionisti, mercanti e mecenati di origine inglese per lo più, che gli commissionano varie tipologie di opere. In questo periodo si avvicina e conosce Gaetano Chierici.

A ventiquattro anni vinse il Pensionato Potetti che gli permise di recarsi a Roma a studiarvi per qualche tempo. In quel periodo eseguì il quadro Rispa, opera ancor oggi considerata come il suo capolavoro.

Fu poi a Firenze dove prese parte alle locali mostre. Ritornò nella città nativa ed insegnò come professore aggiunto nell'Istituto di Belle Arti.

Disegnatore garbato, dalla tavolozza fresca e luminosa, fu esecutore di prontezza e facilità. Era anche buon ritrattista. Espose anche a Londra nel 1822 alla Royal Academy.

Pyotr Konchalovsky | The Jack of Diamonds Art Group

Петр Кончаловский (1876-1956), a Russian painter, was born in the village of Slavyanka not far from Kharkov.

His father was a well-known literary man and publisher and had a great influence on his son.

When Pyotr was seven years old, his father was arrested for revolutionary activities.

The Konchalovskies’ estate was confiscated and the family was forced to move.

Isabelle Sauvineau, 1965

Isabelle Sauvineau ha studiato infermieristica durante il periodo trascorso presso Cegep a Granby.

Lei più tardi ha iniziato a lavorare nel settore della moda dove è rimasta per 5 anni.

Dopo dalla nascita dei suoi due figli emerse la passione di Sauvineau per la pittura.

Con entusiasmo e fiducia che si è lanciata in una nuova carriera percorso, nelle arti visive.

Renoir: "Art is about emotion; if art needs to be explained it is no longer art"

"An artist, under pain of oblivion, must have confidence in himself, and listen only to his real master: Nature".

"Art is about emotion; if art needs to be explained it is no longer art".

"Be a good craftsman; it won't stop you being a genius".

"Go and see what others have produced, but never copy anything except nature. You would be trying to enter into a temperament that is not yours and nothing that you would do would have any character".

René Magritte | Le poison, 1939

From: Museum Boymans-Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

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Le poison was the first in a series of works known as L’empire des lumières (The Empire of Lights).

The gouache shows silhouettes of houses with lighted windows.

The moon shines and the stars twinkle on the walls of the houses, but at the same time the sky is as light as during the day.

The simultaneous rendering of day and night, with a light blue sky and dark façades visible because of artificial light, would inspire the artist for a long time.

René Magritte (1898-1967) made variations on this theme in no fewer than seventeen oil paintings and ten gouaches over a period of more than ten years (from the late 1940s to the early 1960s).