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.