Natalie Shau, 1984 | Pop Surrealism painter

Natalie Shau is mixed media artist and photographer based in Lithuania (Vilnius). She refers to herself as a mixed media artist and photographer with an interest in fashion and portrait photography as well as digital illustration and photo art.

Some go as far as to describe her as a world-famous female representative of the hi-tec avant-garde of figurative art and leading illustrator and photographer in the digital art scene.

However, none of her shorter or longer biographies published on the internet make clear whether the Lithuanian ever attended art school at all or whether she is a mere autodidact. Considering the absence of any reference to an art education in her biographies, one rather has to assume the latter.

Izumi Kogahara (Japanese, 1979)

Izumi Kogahara is a Japanese painter🎨 and graphic designer, born in Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture.

In the painting world, Izumi Kogahara is what one might call a natural-born master of color use.

Her unique use of warm, cool and neutral colors in all directions produces a singular brilliance and depth from each hue.

Kogahara is inspired by the energy of human beings that is generated not only by the instinct of life but also by the feeling generated by communicating with others.

Cristina Fornarelli (Italian, 1978)

Since she was a child, Cristina Fornarelli envisaged life as an intimate and emotional process that blooms throughout the life of a being.

As such, both in her personal evolution and her professional career, the Italian🎨 creator is deeply attached to everything that deals with delicateness, poetry and femininity.

Her figurative works, painted with oils, are produced from pure colours, directly affixed on the canvas with a spatula.

Mark Arian (American, 1947)

"To me, art is an expression of the rapture of being.. unveiling a fragment of the radiance within all form I believe that art can awaken the soul.. to the timeless presence of beauty and truth" - Mark Arian.

The exceptional work of American🎨 realist painter Mark Arian is the product of natural artistic talent, heartfelt passion, and more than fifty years of study and observation.

He was born in Des Moines, Iowa and received formal training in painting and sculpture at the Frudakis Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Barnstone Studios in Allentown, Pennsylvania, a private art academy in Florence, Italy, and the La Jolla Atheneum, and Watts Atelier in San Diego, California.

Andrew Atroshenko (Russian, 1965)

Born in the City of Pokrovsk, Russia, Андрей Атрошенко / Andrew Atroshenko became part of a gifted child program at the Children's Art School there, and was later accepted at the St. Petersburg Academy of Art, one of the world’s most prestigious art schools.

In 1999 Andrew spent the entire year in the U.S. He was invited by "Bay Arts", a New England based group, to take part in their exhibitions and activities.

Yiannis Ritsos / Praxiteles | Omens / Segni, 1968

Praxiteles🎨 (Πραξιτέλης) of Athens (4th century BC) | Apollo Sauroktonos (detail)

The statues were quickly hidden by weeds. We didn’t know

whether the statues had shrunk or whether the grasses had grown. Only

a large copper hand remained visible, like a terrible benediction,

above the tangle of unsightly shapes. Woodcutters

passed by on the road below - they never turned their heads.

Scott Burdick, 1967

Scott Burdick was born in Chicago, Illinois where his mother and father early on encouraged his interest in Art.

"I spent a lot of time in hospitals as a child and remember my mother showing me how to transform simple shapes like circles, triangles, and squares into objects like planes, helicopters, and fish.

It seemed such a magical thing and made spending so much time in casts and on crutches much more bearable".

In high school, Scott began taking life-drawing classes at the American Academy of Art under the legendary Bill Parks.