Forest Rogers, daughter of two painters, received an MFA in Costume Design from Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Forest has an eclectic history. She has painted nine-foot angels in a cathedral dome, and sculpted creatures that may dwell in your toybox. Creating education toys, she collaborated with palaeontologists on dinosaur prototypes, and with aquariums on sea life and poison dart frog models. In recent years she has focused entirely on her own art, exploring mythology, fairy and folktale, and the surreal.
Markus Åkesson is interested in esoteric spaces, meeting points, vanishing gaps between the hidden and the show, dream and reality, life and death. It is a quest that unfolds before our eyes, a quest for meaning and a search for spiritualities. Then you can't help but think about those faces, that are always hidden from us. Faces that carry the greatest mysteries of mankind, and its most absolute thoughts. Wouldn't they be the object of this research? A painting by Magritte comes to mind, a magnificent kiss from two veiled lovers, an impersonal embrace, universal love. In all these works, hidden behind a succession of mythical motifs, lies human nature and all its secrets.
Barrett Biggers finds therapy in creation. It is the only effective way for him to truly express his desires, dreams and emotions. He have been drawing and painting for fun as a hobby for most of his life but never seriously. Barrett's love of design, art and digital came from his father who worked in graphic design and publishing while his love of wildlife, ecology and plants stem came from his mother who was a Biology teacher. After college he began his career as a Wildlife Biologist but various circumstances led Barrett to really reflect on what he ‘‘loved” to do. That turned out to be a graphic artist.
Debra Keirce works from the size of your palm to four feet tall. The true miniature pieces are less than 25 in sq and ⅙ life size or smaller. It is a genre that harkens back to the work of the scribes and European miniature portrait artists, and it intrigues me. Miniature work is so small and detailed that it invites the viewer to lean in, get closer, and experience the art with more intimacy.
For Joanne Brooker art is her language. This is how she interact, how she make comment, and reflect back the influences, experiences and situations that affect her. To do this, Joanne uses the tools she has a connection to, primarily acrylics, oils and ink. Acrylics allow her to work in semi-opaque layers, creating fine detail, working quickly to capture an exacting vision. Oils attract her with intense colors, creamy textures and unpredictability. Ink is exacting, bold, and graphic; this medium fulfils Joanne Brooker’s need for clarification, negative space and the haiku of line.
Mrs SteamCloudy started drawing from early childhood. From a young age she was first given a pencil, and since then she has never stopped creating. Self-taught, she used observation to picture her world. She was interested in any artistic field, painting on canvas, wood, various supports and sculpture.
Reinhard Riedel has been involved with art throughout his life, starting with the advanced course in high school. After studying computer science and mathematics, he was 4 decades in senior positions in the IT sector. After retiring for 2 years, he wants to professionalize his hobby. In painting but especially in sculpture he has perfected his artisan skills. He can now use the different techniques and materials so that they support his ideas in the overall composition of the work of art.
Sharon Covert is a conceptual self-portrait artist and photography teacher/mentor. She teaches photographers to explore and process their emotions and life experiences through self-portraiture and self-expression. Sharon's goal is for artists to have a creative healing outlet and voice through art and self-exploration. She creates art inspired by Fairytales, Mythology, the Tarot, nature, and all things in the magical realm. You will find hints of these elements threaded throughout her artwork.
Lorena Kloosterboer is a Dutch Argentine artist (born in the Netherlands, 1962) painting contemporary realist and hyperrealist Still Lifes. She seeks to capture the fascinating interactions between colours, light, shadows, textures and reflections, and unite them in visual poetry.
Jennifer Allnutt is an artist based in Adelaide, Australia. Art has been a pivotal part of her life since childhood nurtured by her grandfather, but it was in 2007 as a teenager, when she first discovered her love for oil painting and since then she hasn’t been able to put her paintbrush down. She graduated from the University of South Australia with a Bachelor of Visual Arts (First Class Honours) in 2011. Furthermore, she has a Master of Teaching (UniSA 2016). Jennifer has exhibited her work extensively throughout Australia as well as New Zealand and the United States.
Besides having opposable thumbs Richard A Williams have been an illustrator for many years working for many well-known publishers, and companies. After leaving that field he dabbled in portraiture for a while working for major portrait companies in the U.S. Later he developed a desire to teach and with the help of “low friends in high places” was able leapfrog from an associate’s degree in humanities to a master’s degree in Illustration and entered the education arena.
J L King was raised in a large family with a strong reverence for the arts. Watching her father’s performances on stage, and accompanying her mother to her art classes at San Francisco’s City College are some of J L’s earliest exposures to the art world which left long lasting impressions. As J L pursued a career in health and science while raising a family, she maintained her creative practice in different mediums before committing her focus to oil painting. Primarily self-taught, sharp-focus detail is a lifelong endeavor that she pursue to this day. J L King currently practises art from her studio in the SOMA neighbourhood of San Francisco, California.