Geometrique
Wendy Liz entered the painting in midlife. She had spent years sketching and drawing with avid interest and creativity but entered the painting arena much later.
She studied at the Ringling College of Art and Design, and later with Sarasota artist and teacher Bill Jerdon. She worked initially in acrylic but soon developed a love for oil, which became her favorite medium.
Wendy is equally at home with realistic and abstract concepts and manifests an innate ability for portraiture. Her portfolio reflects this diversity.
When I began painting, I looked at the world in a different context. I studied faces, children, animals, trees, grass, flowers, and even water differently than I once did. Being able to communicate on canvas, as I do, is a wonderful creative outlet. There are so many beautiful things around me in everyday life to portray to the world as I see them. Whether it’s a portrait, realism, animals, or an abstract, I strive to express my feelings, energy, and emotions.
Get Lemons Get Limes Make Margaritas
I am a passionate artist, and I paint in a unique way using lots of color and expressive movements! My art is intuitive contemporary expressionism. Using lots of movement and layering of colorful paints and marks gives my art depth and expression. My abstract style expresses my feelings and experiences about life. I hope my art encourages others to sense the beauty of life all around.
EXHIBITIONS
Midwest in Springfield, MO., and Kansas City, MO, as well as in Southwest Florida in Bonita Springs, FL., Fort Myers, FL., and Punta Gorda, FL. cities, and online galleries here and abroad.
AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS
Art Show International Gallery
Finalist award ”Landscapes”. August 2022
Finalist award “Flower 4”. June 2022
Finalist Award “ Water 2” July 2022
Talent Award “Abstract 1” February 2022
TeraVera Online Gallery
Talent Award “Colors” February 2023
Global Conclave Gallery
Bronze Award “Landscapes” November 2022
Luxembourg Recognition Certificate 2021
Luxembourg Recognition Certificate 2020
Sherry is known for her use of colorful palettes and layers of paint. When she begins a piece, there are no predetermined images or forms in her mind. The beginning of each piece starts with intuitive movements of two or three color combinations, making a simplified background. The background forms the basis to begin her creation. She paints colorful strokes and blended colors, using painterly movements. Whether on canvas or board, Sherry produces vivid, colorful energy energy-filled contemporary expressive artwork. Her style is simplistic and overstated with lots of layers, which brings out her expressive feelings or emotions. Using various techniques highlights her ability to create striking and expressive pieces.
Ghost Stories II
Arlette Stella is an abstract painter with occasional work that expresses surrealism. Her work is characterized by bold colors since she is mainly color-blind and needs bold colors to see the work. Arlette’s philosophical nature is the basis for her work. Every work is the result of a conversation she has had with canvas, paints, and colors. She is self-taught, late-blooming, and unstoppable.
Arlette Stella works predominantly in acrylic paint. Because of the open nature, she is always exploring, she also experiments with gouache, acrylic ink, molding pastes, and water. Painting is, for Arlette, an exploration into the possibilities and depths of thought and feeling. Each work aims to incite, inspire, and maybe even nudge (kick you in the yeah-butt!) the viewer to experience and act on kindness. Arlette states clearly: Kindness is my brand! Arlette Stella is an artist member of the San Diego Artist Guild of the San Diego Museum and the Artist Guild of Palm Springs/Palm Desert, among other groups.
Education: Political Science BA, Juris Doctorate, Masters, Religion & Ethical Leadership; PhD Philosophy in Religion.
I’m a late blooming, self-taught artist whose entire life has pointed me to this moment, these pieces and this work. My deeply philosophical and abstract nature has finally found a safe place for expression. All the education, life experience, pursuits, and professions inform every brush stroke I make in my conversation with each canvas and every color. Each painting names itself, sometimes early in the journey but always by the end. There is a special relationship, a mutual endeavor that is nurtured and expressed in every piece. Generally, acrylic on canvas or board best supports the development of my relationship with the art. Sometimes, I play with pastels and sometimes I enjoy using a black background rather than the usual white. The moment, the canvas, the relationship tells me what’s next. It is all about deep listening.
Ghostship
Michele Bourdeau does not have a formal education in Art. She is trained as a scientist and has always been intrigued by sculpture and creating forms out of raw materials. She started working with terracotta which allows for rough textures. More recently she uses plasticine which can easily be reworked at will. Her sculpture is then generally cast into bonded bronze or bronze.
Michèle Bourdeau has always been fascinated by sculpture and the three-dimensional form and that limitless compositions can be created out of raw material. She likes the texture of clay and enjoys feeling a form take shape under her fingers. She gets inspired by a variety of sources and tends to prefer stylized, abstract figures and forms. Apart from representing the figure, the artist is much inspired by the wildness of nature and the un-tameness of the ocean in creating abstract forms or colorful paintings. Her art pieces do not result from careful planning. She tries to experiment with something new each time. The artist lets the idea evolve as she works along and likes to leave the creation to speak for itself.
Gifts From The Lilac City
Carol Schmauder was born and raised in Spokane, Washington, where she currently lives with her husband, Glenn. Like most artists, she showed interest in art at an early age and has experimented with several media over her lifetime.
She is a graphic designer that entered the world of fine art in 1988 after taking watercolor classes from Stan Miller and MaryAnn Figgins. She began using acrylics for most of her work in 2017. Her professional life has led to participation in over a hundred exhibitions; both solo and in groups. She has paintings in collections nationwide and has won numerous awards.
Because she “doesn’t know what she wants to be when she grows up”, Carol experiments with different styles of art. She has experienced great success with her Shattered Reality series and is best known for this fun style of starting with a traditional subject and creating sections of warm and cool colors playing off of each other. Dark and light sections also add life to these paintings. She enjoys painting in different forms of abstract art as well as traditional forms. She has no desire to quit exploring different
techniques and art forms.
Carol enjoys painting themes that are happy in nature. Even though she has experienced many very rocky patches in life she has no desire to incorporate feelings of angst into her work.
My life has been full of many rocky patches, and through diligent attention to the problems, I have overcome many obstacles. My go-to activities during these times are both creating art and writing. These creative outlets allow my mind to expand, and solutions to problems seem to be released from within.
I enjoy the beauty of nature and the study of color and design in sweeping landscapes. I am blessed to live in an area of the country where there is no limit to the subjects I can paint, whether realistically or in abstract form.
I love the calm painting brings to my soul. Life’s problems seem to evaporate when I have a paintbrush in my hand and soothing music on the stereo. If my paintings bring happiness to others, then I have accomplished my goal.
Giggling Girls
Karen Safer is an international, award-winning California photographic artist, writer, and poet. As a native Angelino, she was given a camera and crayons at 3 and exposed to dominant California motifs: light, palm trees, the ocean, music, and vernacular architecture that helped define and influence her left-handed aesthetic. Fortunate to begin a life of travel as a pre-teen, it shaped her love of the exotic, accidental, and unusual that jiggled the lens/frame of her eye; subsequently, she has traveled and photographed in over 230 countries and territories. She was influenced by her dad who developed black & white photos in their back washroom/turned darkroom and by her mother’s thirst for knowledge and travel. She has a master’s degree in art, a career in design and architecture, and is the principal of ArtFocus International. She’s been in 12 solo shows, exhibited in over 500+ international/national venues, received over 430+ awards, is in private collections, featured in over 100 publications including Who’s Who In Professional Women, and is a self-described “romantic soul” with intellectual cravings living in a digital world.
Influenced by everything, she has been honored with the Paris International Street Photography Awards 2024, ReFocus and Exposure One B&W Awards, National Photographic Society Awards, Julia Margaret Cameron FotoNostrum Awards, B&W Spider Awards, Botticelli International Prize (Florence), International COLOR awards; featured in Dodho, Docu, LENS, Women United, Spotlight, ArtTour and Artist Talk Magazine, The Holy Art, etc.; and continues exhibiting in Amsterdam, Athens, Budapest, Barcelona, Paris, London, Glasgow, Rome, Berlin, Basel, Dubai, Venice, Sao Paulo, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, etc. from California to NY, member of IAA-USA, LA Art Association, LA Center for Photography, etc.
I’ve always been an artist. I embrace the natural world and man-made as well. I am influenced by everything from the ancients to Cindy Sherman and while I embrace color, I revere black and white. I am a student of the universe, history, art, architecture, music, literature, and all the arts.
Karen Safer Condensed Statement:
I got a camera and some crayons as a kid,
journeyed along a path in life – far from what I’d expected,
moved from youth to middle age,
did some work, had some fun, got high, got low,
and just continue doing it – never tiring of the next visual surprise.
– Life is still a mystery, after all. – kjs
Ginger
I am a self-taught photographer and digital collage artist. What I seek to share are images with which I have a strong and instinctive personal connection. I have exhibited widely and have earned recognition in local, regional, and national exhibitions. My works are also included in several corporate and private collections.
My goal is to create images that evoke a story of some kind that often moves far beyond the relatively literal boundaries of traditional photography. Images may be simply documentary, invoke a sense of time and place, or resonate as an abstract blend of color, shape, or form. Others provoke an indefinable question that does not readily yield answers without further study and reflection.
I draw from a wide range of photographic subjects such as landscapes, botanicals, and wildlife as well as urban environments and people. I follow an intuitive yet somewhat ordered process of layering or merging portions of photos until an image that speaks to me emerges. Most often this is more likely a random bit of serendipity than deliberate intent. Images often suggest a sense of time and place or reflect a rich and ethereal interplay of color, shape, or form. Images may provoke an indefinable question that does not readily yield answers without further study and reflection. Ultimately, my images provide a vehicle to stimulate both my imagination and that of the viewer, leaving one free to interpret and create an individual sense of meaning and value.
Ginger Frogs
Gayle Faulkner, with over 35 years of artistic exploration and creativity, stands as a seasoned watercolor, acrylic, and mural artist. Her journey has been marked by constant exploration, a playful engagement with diverse media, and an unwavering commitment to growth in the world of art.
Her academic journey, rooted in a BA in Sociology from William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, initially led her to work with children, integrating art into their day-to-day experiences. Gayle’s passion for art eventually pulled her into a more immersive pursuit. She delved into Art and Design courses at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, unlocking her artistic soul. The willingness to ”put herself out there”, coupled with years of hard work and a penchant for thinking outside the box, allowed her to undergo a major growth period.
Finally, the challenges posed by the COVID-19 quarantine became a catalyst for Gayle’s artistic metamorphosis, leading her to focus on acrylic paintings on canvas. Engaging in an online course.
In my art practice, I describe my creations as Textural Acrylics. This term represents the exciting experience of observing paint flow from the palette knife, forming captivating textures and colors. Each stroke channels emotion, and every canvas captures a moment of creative inspiration.
My process is spontaneous – I start with a loose outline, sketch the composition, and then fully immerse myself in the act of creating. Throughout the process, music is my closest companion, its volume soaring. I dance to the rhythm, losing myself in the beats, and, on occasion, even letting out a song. My painting process is a multisensory experience, an immersive journey into the fusion of sound and color, where each note becomes a brushstroke, and every stroke on the canvas is a dance of creation. I often liken my paintings to cherished children—it’s a relationship that involves nurturing, engaging in heartfelt conversations, and weathering the challenges of creative adolescence with boundless love and patience.
Giraffes Gaze
Drawing inspiration from the kaleidoscope of hues found in nature and the depths of his own imagination, Michael’s palette is as diverse as the landscapes he paints. From the serene tranquility of a sun-dappled meadow to the mysterious depths of an underwater kingdom where mermaids swim among coral reefs, each piece transports viewers to a world of wonder and awe.
With a keen eye for detail and a passion for storytelling, Michael captures the essence of wildflowers dancing in the breeze and the enchanting allure of mythical creatures beneath the waves. His art is a celebration of the natural world and the fantastical, blending elements of reality and imagination in a harmonious symphony of color and form.
Through his art, Michael invites you to wander through lush forests teeming with life, to dive into the depths of the ocean and discover hidden treasures, and to let your imagination soar on wings of whimsy. So step into the canvas and let the beauty of Michael Iradi’s world surround you, where every stroke of the brush is a brush with magic.
Welcome to my world of vibrant imagination and fantastical realms, where colors come alive, and every stroke is a journey into the extraordinary. As an acrylic painter, I find joy in transforming canvases into portals of whimsy, where reality dances with fantasy, and imagination knows no bounds.
In my artistic exploration, I embrace the richness of acrylics, using them as a vibrant palette to breathe life into enchanted landscapes, mythical creatures, and dreamlike scenarios. Each brushstroke is a step into the fantastical, where every hue tells a tale and every composition unveils a new adventure.
My passion lies in the creation of worlds that transcend the ordinary—realms where the skies may be painted in hues unknown to our Earth, and where flora and fauna take on ethereal forms. I revel in the interplay of colors, infusing my paintings with a kaleidoscope that mirrors the boundless spectrum of fantasy.
Through my work, I invite you to explore the magical tapestry woven from dreams and colors. It’s a celebration of the extraordinary, an escape into realms where imagination takes flight. From vibrant landscapes to mystical beings, each piece is a testament to the belief that art has the power to transport, inspire, and evoke emotions beyond the tangible.
Join me on this fantastical journey where acrylics become the language of enchantment, and every canvas is a door to the extraordinary. Together, let’s immerse ourselves in the wonder of vivid hues and the limitless realms of fantasy, where the only rule is the boundless imagination that colors our world