Amit Bar

In 1950 I was born in Kibbutz Kfar Hamaccabi, Israel, where I lived until 1988. Since 1988 I live in Doetinchem, The Netherlands, and work as a freelance-photographer and painter. In my commercial work I take photographs for a stock agency and make commissioned work. Wishing to combine my photography with drawing and painting, I began to mix them in my artistic work. It began in 1992 with photo collages and took another form in 1996 with body-paintings.

For many years I am searching in my artistic work the relation between painting and photography. At first I did it by creating photo-collages. Since 1995 I do it by making body-paintings, as expression of my love to these two forms of art.

My body-paintings are made on a manner which is seldom done. The painting is no imitation of clothes or a prolonged background. By matching colours and forms in my imagination, the body gets an extra dimension.

The models have a great share in the success of the art-work. While painting they should stand unmovable and patient, even when it takes any hours. After completing the painting, they should bring all their energy in posing full elegance and charm.

The painting itself is already an artistic expression which should succeed right away, because there is no place for experiments and faults. But, if the painting is not taken on the photo, then is nothing left of all the

effort after some hours. Therefore it is the task of the photo to revive the extra dimension, which the paint gave to the bare body. Sometimes I ask the models to dance while posing, in order to create more dynamic in the photos.

Most of the photos were made, because of the climatologically circumstances in the Netherlands, in the studio. If the weather allows it, I am happy to use the nature as a reference. This had been done also with paintings which were made in Israel and France.

You can find a big selection of more than 1000 photos on my website, Amit Bar Fine Art Photography, at www.amitbar.com

Judy Graham Carter

Judy uses many techniques and mediums in her work. Her portfolio is comprehensive, from mono prints to complicated colour saturated mixed media images. Some are made using traditional methods, others are computer generated digital altered images.

From the mixed media with collage in ‘Wiltshire Landscapes’, to the abstract ‘Magic Tree’ series and the collection of magical ‘Esoteric’ digital images, all the work has hidden depth that the artist hopes will connect with the viewer.

Caroline Duncan

Caroline Ann Duncan is a Scottish Artist living in Aberdeen City. 

Since leaving School in the 80's with an A in Art & Design and 6th year Studies Art, Caroline has enjoyed many years painting and exhibiting. She worked in Finance for major Oil Companies but recently left her career to pursue an Art career. 

She is part of the Forecourt Art Group and Deeside Artists in Aberdeen. 
She displays her Artwork in and around Aberdeen in shops, galleries and hotels. She is also listed on Scotland's Artists.

My inspiration comes from one of the greatest artists Gustav Klimt.

Leigh Herndon Rozome

Leigh’s award winning mysterious rozome paintings tell a story, evoke an emotion, or give an impression and lend themselves to metaphor, and sometimes ambiguity. By being atmospheric and not being too literal, the viewer is left to complete the story as desired or needed, based on personal experiences. Leigh does not try to be too representational, and although she likes imagery, it is just a starting place. One reviewer described her work as poetic.

Leigh Herndon works daily in her Naples studio dyeing silk using rozome (Japanese kimono design techniques). Silk accepts dyes more brilliantly than any other fiber fueling Leigh’s experimentation with color and nature-inspired paintings. Rozome, or Japanese wax-resist dye painting, is infinitely more intriguing, much more flexible and painterly, and presents a new fluidity to the dye process which is captivating to Leigh and changed her creative process.

After learning traditional batik at the University of Montana, and obtaining a Master’s Degree in Fibers at Southern Illinois University, Leigh studied rozome with Kiranada (Betsy) Sterling Benjamin who learned from the Japanese kimono masters, while spending sixteen years in Japan. Mixing her own dye colors from the primaries results in custom colors that can’t easily be found elsewhere. Overlaying one transparent dye color over another creates an entirely new color, which she finds exciting. The versatility of hot wax used in creating the designs lends unique textures to the creations.

For Leigh the design process is a blend of planning, spontaneity, and experimentation with a great interest in the inter-relationship of edges of shapes within the designs. Frequently the process begins with a drawing on the silk, and progresses and changes with ideas that occur while working. This unforgiving medium doesn’t allow for covering up one’s mistakes, so some of the works are scrapped. Creating art is an exercise in problem solving and it carries into daily life with novel approaches to solving problems. She believes that art experiences are vital to children and adults, not only for personal expression, but for the lesson that there are many creative ways to solve a problem.
Leigh’s award winning works and wearable art have been exhibited in numerous juried national and international shows and solo shows in more than 12 states as well as the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. and her work is in several private collections.

Marion Towns Artist

Welcome to the vibrant pastel world of New Zealand.

artist Marion Towns. Internationally recognised, Marion has a creditable list of major exhibitions behind her and her works sell to art lovers throughout the world. The chalk pastel medium Marion works with is used with skill and her choice of colours epitomises the New Zealand summer.

You can contact Marion through her website she welcomes commissions and sales by phone or email or studio visits.

Judy Lusted

Judy studied sculpture for two years at Chelsea College of Arts and obtained a BA.Hons in Fine Art and a Masters in Visual Art at Falmouth College of Arts. This background enabled Judy to develop a unique style. Spontaneous marking is the core of the work and from this source Judy draws out the imagery that excites her. Recently made one of the directors of the St Ives Society of Artists Judy is actively involved with local artistic events. Her work is exhibited locally and in London. 

Edie Hamblin Landscaping in Pastels

The creation of a painting that is satisfying to the eye is an exciting process. Practically everywhere I drive I see a painting possibility. Certain scenes resonate with me. I just have a sense that here is something I can get down on paper to enjoy at other times! I take snapshots and then back in my workplace I use the information as a basis for my painting. As I use the rich pigments of soft pastels I see images forming that say something about the view I enjoyed so much.

Melissa Anderson Studio

I paint flowers, still life, landscapes and figures. I am driven by the shapes and colors of the subject matter but only as a starting point. I am interested in the way the paint is applied to the canvas - brushwork and the mix of colors create the design. I am a contemporary impressionist painter. My canvas has a clear subject but I use color and tools to alter the design, softening the edges.

Usually the subject matter and source of a painting reflects the tenor of my life outside the studio. Flowers become important as they bloom in the yard, eventually making it into a vase on the kitchen counter. While drinking coffee, the vase beckons the canvas and brush. Landscapes and the magical horizon line draw me into the ocean line, the marsh, the mountain ridge. I often paint landscapes in a calm state with mystical wandering into the canvas. Figures, particularly female ones, can be especially alluring and mysterious. Who is this person and how does she fit into the room?

My paintings take on various stages. Usually the clean canvas is quickly covered in a thin layer of moving colors. The subject appears and I then start layering the paint to build the image, giving it weight. As soon as paint is applied, sometimes it is scraped and reapplied in another area. I start with brushes, often moving to pallet knives, layering the colors over one another.

Connie van Winssen

Connie van Winssen gets inspired by organic forms.

Composition, colours and contrasts are more important than the subject itself.

She abstracts by means of cropping, colour changes and the removal of/ or emphasis on certain aspects.

The pleasure of painting always comes first.

Powerful, expressive and knowingly accessible work is the result.

Monica Fallini Fine Art

It is through the art of painting that I express my feelings, passions and emotions. I work on a loose and free style. My inspiration comes from nature and I also base many of my pieces on dreams I had or someone else shared with me, mostly dreams with flowers on them. It is also important for the process of creation for me to have music I like playing as I work, and many times I dance as I paint.

 

Marilyn Allis Artist

Popular TV artist for the painting and drawing chanel, also features in a 'Splash of Paint' Marilyn won the ‘Society for all Artists’ Artist of the year 1999 with the painting ‘Ben at Weymouth’. Winning the Daler Rowney front page competition offered the opportunity to hold a trio exhibition in the Royal Commonwealth Society, London.

In 2000 she took part in The Water Colour Challenge from Bath, also a painting was accepted by the Royal Institute in-Watercolour while 2003 saw a painting reach the final of the International Artists competition.

Marilyn writes regular articles for the SAA’s Paint magazine & She has written 3 teaching books ‘ People aren’t Scary, really’ ‘Animals on the loose’ & ‘Painting Dorset in watercolour.‘plus accompanying teaching DVDs.

As well as running her own workshops in her studio on a working farm in the picturesque Dorset. Marilyn demonstrates & teaches for art groups throughout the UK & Europe.

Michael Gutteridge Arts

Michael Gutteridge is a painter based in Manchester, the North of England, best known for his distorted, sensually vibrant, urban landscapes of that city and its environs. In that respect, he is following in the tradition of Valette, L.S. Lowry and others but still with a unique, easily-recognisable voice of his own. 

His paintings have been used promotionally by the University of Lancaster, the University of Manchester, in pop videos, in magazines, on the covers of books and made into postcards by the Manchester Tourist Office. 

They are exhibited regularly in the Northwest of England, and are in private collections around the world. He will undertake commissions and some of his recent original artworks or occasionally series of limited edition giclee prints are for sale.

Big Art Directory member - Gil Formosa - Comic book artist

Smoothly morphing his skill and experience, artist Gil Formosa shape- shifts from animation to comics, cartoon to realistic, illustration to art direction.

Providers of illustration, design, cartoons for agencies, magazines, book publishers, and all web media, based in France, Gil Formosa produced a lot of painted covers for a variety of science fiction, fantasy, comic book and game American publishers. Gil became one of France's leading commercial illustrators, with credits including film posters (Lady Hawke) and major advertising campaigns. 

Afterwards, he went to work in the advertising and animation field creating the character design of "Totally Spies". Then, Gil returned to comics, illustrating three graphic novels featuring the character of Robur created by Jules Verne published by Heavy Metal magazine. One of Gil's latest comics projects was to create Seargent-major "Bowen" published by the famous French editor Glénat .

Julia Trops Canadian Artist

I live very much in the moment when I am drawing or painting. I don't claim any special powers or thoughts or connections. I do a great deal of thinking outside of the studio and have a severe inner critic who, once I shut that studio door, is not permitted to enter and knows he is not welcome. So, as a result of that, I feel my work is fairly free, and I can tell when when it flows. I enjoy creating work, but I enjoy it more when someone else can see or feel the result. I don't have much of a goal, it's just me and the paper or canvas and the medium. All the rest is just jamming.

Sandrine Pelissier watercolor and mixed media

I grew up in France but have been living in Canada for the last 12 years, I am working from a studio located in North Vancouver.

Watermedia ( Watercolor and acrylic) is my medium of choice because of the unique way it allows me to render light. My technique involves the accumulation of many transparent layers of watercolor. Then I like to incorporate mixed media in the background, work sometimes with some contouring. I also like to have visible drawing mixed with the painting or some graphic elements.

I am inspired by the BC landscape, particularly the rain forest, I am currently working in a series of forest, marshes, trees and mountains.

Gillie and Marc Art

As husband and wife, Gillie and Marc collaborate to create art as one, applying the iconic imagery of the dog/human hybrid to celebrate the powerful spiritual relationship that exists between man and animal.

Gillie and Marc reference their own remarkable love story in their works, perpetuating a pursuit of happiness and encouraging us to challenge the status quo and the perceived safety of societal convention.Gillie and Marc’s unparalleled love is the cornerstone of what they are and of what they create.Meeting in Hong Kong, she was a nurse from England and he, a boy from the ‘burbs’ of Melbourne.
Wanting only to find a soul-mate with which to share their passions for art, travel and adventure, seven days later they were married at the foothills of Mount Everest. They not only share an unsurpassed dedication to their art but also love for their two children, whom Gillie describes as their ‘best friends’ – along with their mutt, Moby, of course.

Initially, Gillie and Marc painted and designed, but have now become very interested in sculpture – creating commissioned works for: Australia Zoo; Sydney Children’s Hospital; Australian Red Cross Blood Service; Hilton Hotel Singapore; and McDonald’s Corporate Headquarters in Singapore; and recently the Ying Ren Four Seasons Hotel in Beijing.

They produce sculptures in a variety of mediums including bronze, brass, steel, wood, fibreglass and polyresin. Awards and accolades are numerous for the Schattner’s. In 2006 they were Archibald Prize finalists.

Zakay Glass Creations

Zakay Glass Creations Gallery in Bangalow, part of the Byron Bay Shire, are the leading artisan providers of strikingcontemporary glass sculptures and inspired lighting solutions thatcapture the interplay of light created by sacred geometric codes. Unique and timeless, these stunning three dimensional art worksare resplendent of sparking gemstones: facets and symmetries shimmer ascolours of the rainbow bounce off their bevelled edges when they aretouched by natural and artificial light. Adding majesty to any space inwhich they are displayed, a Zakay keepsake regularly decorates homes,balconies, corporate foyers and hotels around the world. Founding artistAsaf Zakay's pursuit of creative and aesthetic excellence has resultedin three dimensional glass designs that capture the essence of nature.

Using the stained glass technique (a process Asaf studied whilst in hisnative Israel) each magnificent creation is a sacred symbol, evolvingfrom natural geometric patterns. Asaf's creations continue to inspireand with a new gallery in Bangalow he's aiming to continue his growth inthe comtemporary lighting space. Zakay Glass Creations already boasts aclient list that includes Jamie Durie, Austin Hospital OlivaNewton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre and artist David Bromley.

These glass formations merge the modern with the esoteric, as structuralmodernism gives form to internal reflections on love. Coming intopresence with such work is a reminder of the profound harmony of sacredratios – Zakay creations organically reference the same rules that theMona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci was painted by and the architecturaldesign of the Parthenon was built. The company portfolio now includes 20different shapes using a variety of intricate bevelled methods – andhas now also expanded to incorporate ground-breaking lighting within thesculptures along with a new range of handblown German glass bespokerange. On his new relationship with light the artist only says ‘It islike coming out of the shadows, a light is like a companion, you livewith it, you build a relationship. It's much more than a source of lightto me.’