Good morning

Elena Yushina painting

Francesca Strino painting

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Francesca Strino was born in 1979 in Naples, Italy. She comes from an artistic family. Francesca’s powerful paintings reflect the influence of her father, Maestro Gianni Strino. She began studying art at the ‘Artistic Lyceum’ and then furthered her studies by attending the Accademia di Belle Arti di Napoli with specialization in sculpture and portraiture. Strino became a pupil of the well-known master G Di Fiore whilst at the Academy. Her potential as an artist was soon recognized and she was invited to submit her work for an exhibition held in 2002 celebrating the 250th Anniversary the Accademia di Belle Arti di Napoli.

Johanna Harmon painting

Johanna Harmon 1968 | American Figurative Plein-air painter

Born in Tempe-Arizona in 1968, american painter Johanna Harmon remembers being passionate about drawing from as early as seven years old. Unsure of how to apply her vast natural talent in her adult life, she went to work at a design and fabrication firm. In her mid-twenties she began taking numerous classes at the Scottsdale Artists’ School and would also attend workshops at the Denver Art Students League and the Fechin Art Institute in Taos. In the late 90’s she moved with her husband to Colorado and at 30 she set up a studio in her home to become a full-time painter.
Johanna paints her figures both accurately and beautifully. Observations and emotions are balanced within her canvases by her mastery of the formal aspects art and her reverence and compassion for her subjects. Her models are mostly females, they differ in their ethnicity and are often times dancers, mothers with their children and young women in contemplative poses. Since committing to a career painting full-time, Johanna has enjoyed a great deal of recognition. She has won numerous awards including the Plein Air Magazine Award of Excellence at the OPA National Juried Exhibition in 2005, the William Schneider OPA Award of Excellence in 2003, and Best of Show at the Scottsdale Artist’s School’s Best and the Brightest Show in 2001. Her work has been featured in such publications as Focus Santa Fe and Southwest Art and on the cover of Arizona Trends. She currently lives just outside of Denver, Colorado.

Maria Ilieva 1973 | Bulgaria

Edward Robert Hughes

Edward Robert Hughes (1851–1914) was an English painter who worked in a style influenced by Pre-Raphaelitism and Aestheticism. Some of his best known works are Midsummer Eve and Night With Her Train of Stars. Hughes was the nephew of Arthur Hughes and studio assistant to William Holman Hunt. He often used watercolour/gouache. He was elected ARWS in 1891, and chose as his diploma work for election to full membership a mystical piece inspired by a verse by Christina Rossetti's "Amor Mundi". He experimented with ambitious techniques and was a perfectionist; he did numerous studies for many of his paintings, some of which turned out to be good enough for exhibition.

Midsummer Eve :

Alexi Zaitsev painting

Alexi Zaitsev was born in 1959 in Ryazan, Russia.
He graduated in 1983 from the Ulianov Art School and worked as a book and magazine illustrator at the Union of Journalists of the USSR.
In 1990, Alexi Zaitsev began to show his work at various fine art exhibitions and soon became one of the most talked about young Russian artists.

Alexi Zaitsev`s works are in the permanent collections of the Institute of the Russian Economy and Culture, the Russian Embassy in Ireland, the Russian Embassy in Hungary and The Art Centre of Belfast, Ireland.
Several of his works are in the fine art collections of major corporations such as Bayer AG (Germany) and Rand Xerox (USA).
He is held in the official art collection of the First President of Russia Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin (Kremlin, Moscow).

Paul Hedley 1947 | British Figurative painter

Paul Hedley, british painter, was born in 1947 spending his childhood in Chatham, Kent. He studied art at Medway College of Art from 1966-68, and then later at Maidstone College of Art where he was awarded the Diploma in Art and Design. Paul Hedley has been painting ever since he can remember. An education based on traditional art techniques of drawing and painting plus the influence the French artists Edgar Degas 1834-1917 and Edouard Vuillard 1868-1940 have influenced the development of his art works.
Paul paints with compulsion, subtly influenced by his environment and daily experiences. Hedley is technically gifted as a painter and draughtsman. His paintings and drawings show a fine skill particularly in producing figurative studies of enduring compositions. He successfully captures a fleeting moment of time and the associated feeling. Paul prefers to create his art work in natural light, using sketches and photographs. The process begins with numerous preliminary sketches which eventually leads to the application of tone and colour. His drawings are produced in a ‘classical’ manner on a toned ground in chalks often combined with watercolour and gouache.

Vladimir Volegov painting
Painted in 2005, Botanical garden in Malta

Gavlin Evgeniy painting

Oil painting by Osamu Obi