Good morning

Gianni Strino painting

Gianni Strino was born in 1953 in Naples, Italy where he currently resides. Strino studied fine art at the acclaimed Naples Art Institute winning the medal for the best graduate artist in 1970.After completing his studies at the Neapolitan Artistic Lyceum, he enrolled at the Faculty of Architecture. He taught art and art history in various state schools until the demand for his work allowed him to become a full time artist.
Strino knows how to treat his light and shade with an absolutely sure technique. His works today express the unique maturity of his talents. Though he is constantly seeking new expressions in art, Strino's art always sticks to the fundamentals of painting: exquisite drawing, composition and color. His obsession with form and tonal values give his work an old master rather than contemporary appearance. Expert handling of light and shade, as well as clear understanding of anatomy and composition, result in fine portraits that are compared to the company of his major influence, artist Agnolo Bronzino

Art photography by Andrey Yakovlev and Lili Aleev

Works of masters of art photography Andrei Yakovlev and Lili Aleev leave no one indifferent. At first it may seem that this is a photo-realistic painting. In the recent work of the duo photographers Russians Andrey Yakovlev and Lili Aleeva, models were transformed into living paintings. With a refined technique of light and composition, the photographs have won one aspect of the artwork.

James Tissot painting (1836-1902)

James Jacques Joseph Tissot (15 October 1836 – 8 August 1902) was a French painter, who spent much of his career in Britain.

Tissot was born in the port town of Nantes, France, Europe, to a family of Italian descent. His father, Marcel Théodore Tissot, was a successful drapery merchant. His mother, Marie Durand, assisted her husband in the family business and designed hats. A devout Catholic, Tissot's mother instilled pious devotion in the future artist from a very young age.

In about 1863, Tissot suddenly shifted his focus from the medieval style to the depiction of modern life through portraits. During this period, Tissot found himself held in high critical acclaim, quickly becoming a successful artist. Like contemporaries such as Alfred Stevens and Claude Monet, Tissot also explored japonisme, including Japanese objects and costumes in his pictures. A portrait of Tissot by Degas from these years (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) shows him with a Japanese screen hanging on the wall.

Helene Beland painting

Hélène Béland 1949 | Montreal, Canada

Tan trường / After school
Silk painting

Yuri Obukhov painting

Born in 1965 in Perm.
In 1987, he graduated from the Painting Department of the Penza Art College. KA Savitsky.
Works in the genre of landscape painting in oil painting and watercolors, continuing and developing the traditions of Russian realistic school, more precisely, the direction of "romantic realism".
Since 1989 - exhibitions in many galleries in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
1992. - An exhibition of watercolors in London.
1993 to 2006. - Participation in exhibitions of Russian artists in Finland, Sweden and the United States.
Since 1998 - the annual exhibition in the Central House of Artists in Moscow.

Watercolor by Villas Kulkami

Vladimir Volegov painting

Rolling Stones

En Vacance
Marie-Francois Firmin-Girard [French Academic Painter, 1838-1921]

Marie-François Firmin-Girard was born on 29 May 1838 in the village of Poncin, a hamlet in the Ain region of France adjacent to the Swiss border. The landscape is comprised of a surprising variety of terrains from flat marshlands to rich agricultural plains to the Jura mountains. By age sixteen, the ambitious young artist had left his hometown to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Initially he sought out the guidance of Charles Gleyre, the Swiss painter, who offered a traditional visual arts curriculum in an independent studio setting. Later, Firmin-Girard would study with Jean-Léon Gérôme, the academic master of orientalism and anecdotal history paintings.

Throughout his very long career, Firmin-Girard enjoyed considerable commercial and critical approbation. His paintings, routinely shown at the annual Salon for thirty years, received frequent and positive critical attention. In 1874, Les fiancés won a second-class medal; and at the Exposition Universelle of 1900, he was awarded a bronze medal for Le Quai aux Fleurs and Berger d'Onival.

The last decades of Firmin-Girard’s life are less well known. Although his paintings continued to sell very well in commercial galleries and auction houses, he seems to have retired to the countryside at some point in the early twentieth century. Perhaps he felt the need to escape from yet another war between France and Germany as World War I began its downward spiral into ever-increasing horror; or perhaps he simply felt it was time to return to a quieter life outside of Paris. Whatever his reasons, Firmin-Girard moved to the small town of Montluçon in the Auvergne region, and probably not coincidentally, far south of the fighting in the north. He died there at age 83 in 1921.

Yves Thos painting

Yves Thos, is an accomplished designer, painter, graphic designer, illustrator. There is continuity between all his creations. Interestingly, there are very few biographies on this artiste. His works bridge the old master painters and the new energy colours.

His painting has been nourished by the requirements of his profession and that's what gives it personality so deep.