Artful Painter

Jonathan McPhillips' paintings shimmer with atmosphere and sparkle with light. Each painting he creates he views as a welcome problem to solve, a delightful puzzle to piece together, and a celebration of his surroundings. Working equally in the studio and on location, his work includes the harbors, beaches, vessels, and architecture of the coastal marine environment of New England including his ho...

Nancy Tankersly approaches painting with experimentation and curiosity. The results are impressionistic paintings that are not so much about the subject as it is about shapes. Her fascination with shapes perhaps began when she excelled in geometry in school. She began her painting career as a portrait painter. However, Nancy's inquisitive and experimental nature compelled her to branch out. Today...

Patrick Saunders' paintings have won many awards and received much recognition. His studio works earned him membership in notable painting organizations, including becoming a signature member of Oil Painters of America. When Patrick began plein air painting in 2013, he won awards from numerous nationally recognized events and organizations. However, whether he paints indoors or outdoors, he does n...

Matt Ryder is an award-winning British artist living and working in Dubai of the United Arab Emirates. Matt finds inspiration in the wild beauty of the natural world – whether it's land, sea, or sky. It's astonishing that there are still wild places left in the world that have not been painted. That's the unique situation Matt finds himself in where he lives in the Middle East. Matt takes advantag...

Michael Chamberlain says that if Vincent Van Gogh were alive today, he would be a vlogger on YouTube. Van Gogh was a prolific letter writer to an audience of one - his brother Theo. However, as a vlogger on YouTube van Gogh's message would likely reach hundreds of thousands of fans. As a 21st century California-based impressionist, Michael inspires an audience on YouTube of well over 160,000 subsc...

George Van Hook is a painter adept in both oil and watercolor. What he paints is a visual response to the subject before him – whether it's the landscape, a figure, or still life. The rich textures, harmonious colors, and design of Van Hook's paintings are the ultimate expression of two converging forces – the external beauty of the world around him and his deep internal emotional response to what...

Jim McVicker imbues atmosphere and light into his paintings that stir the heart. Whether it's an expansive view of the Pacific coast near his home in Humboldt County, California, or an intimate interior still life set within his studio – his paintings are filled with a sense of solace and peace. Jim began painting full time in the mid-1970s. His early education as a painter began when working clos...

Victoria Taylor-Gore's surrealistic, luminous paintings are imaginary places at the boundary of twilight and dreams. Seemingly devoid of people, her paintings pull you into their quiet mystery. Her paintings fill your mind with questions: Who opened the motel room door? Who left the suitcase by the neatly made bed? Who is in the car whose lit headlamp spills light through the open door of the mote...

Skip Whitcomb says the subject of a painting is the painting, not the subject itself! He reasons that the viewer will never see the actual subject. Therefore, we must make that painting as captivating and poetic as possible. It's nothing more than paint on a canvas. This is what we attempt in its purest form. Skip states: "Once you internalize the language of painting, you never see the world the...

John Budicin is a painter taught by nature. He lives in California – his home since he moved from Italy when he was eleven years old. His painter's eye, heart, and mind is filled with the lessons and experiences of his many years of painting outdoors. John is drawn to the golden hours of the setting sun, and the subtle colors of the rolling California hills muted by atmospheric haze as they recede...

Anne Blair Brown describes herself as a contemporary impressionist. She is drawn to impressionism because it is an interpretation of a moment in time. Light is the subject of her paintings. The light that imbues her paintings radiates a feeling of warmth. Light glows in an open doorway, shadows accentuate warm afternoon sunlight, and, dapples of light dance upon a picnic table in the summer shade...

Bill Farnsworth, a fine art artist and illustrator residing in Venice, Florida, likes to start a story in his paintings, and let the viewer finish it. Imagine this scene: Your feet are tired from walking the beautiful streets of the Mediterranean island of Elba. Your palette is thirsty. Just ahead you see bright umbrellas signal the presence of a small street cafe. You decide it's time to enjoy a...

Phil Starke's goal as a painter is to suggest light. In this episode, he explains how he achieves this goal through simplification. When you view Phil's paintings you see that they glow with light, atmosphere, and texture. He explains that if you can focus on what is important you can paint with a stick and it should work. Phil's interest in painting began in his youth in Germany where his father...

Michelle Jung – methodical and keenly observant – creates expressive oil and mixed-media paintings that speak to the heart. When you first walk into a room with her paintings displayed on a wall you may see an expansive seascape, an intimate floral scene, or a quiet landscape. As you move in closer to her paintings, what was once clearly in focus begins to melt and break apart into gorgeous abstra...

Virgil Elliott is one of only 24 artists worldwide to be certified by the American Portrait Society. He is a highly sought fine artist, portraitist, teacher, lecturer, art show judge, and writer. Virgil has spent his career at the forefront of the revival of representational art. His atelier is located in Penngrove, California. Virgil's education in the arts began at a very early age under the gui...

Kathie Odom lives in Knoxville, Tennessee – not far from the beautiful Great Smoky Mountain National Park. I first met Kathie and her husband Buddy almost two years ago at the Plein Air Painters of America workshop hosted by the Booth Museum in Cartersville, Georgia. She is an exuberant painter and enthusiastic student. Her paintings are filled with light and texture that capture the nostalgia and...

David Boyd, Jr. is a Georgia-based artist who is compelled to paint Southern Impressionism. Boyd lives in the small rural town of Newnan, Georgia–located several miles south-east of Atlanta. Not only is Boyd a fine art painter, he helps run his family-owned and operated art gallery located in the beautiful, old downtown square of Newnan. A very young David Boyd decided early on that he wanted to b...

Len Chmiel's evocative paintings push the boundaries of realism, while preserving the beauty of the landscape and infusing it with palpable emotion. Chmiel makes his home in Hotchkiss, Colorado, where he not only paints, but also gardens, tends his vineyard and makes wine. Gardening profoundly affects his art. He has a strong yearning to get his fingers into the dirt. Nurturing a living thing from...

Brian Rutenberg's paintings radiate the atmospheric haze, the shimmering heat, and the rich colors of the Deep South. He describes himself as a "Southern landscape painter living in New York." Layers and details of the southern landscape have been peeled back in his paintings, leaving us with the dancing lines and shimmering pools of colors of the Carolina coastal wetlands. As I've gotten to know...

Lillian Ansley is the co-founder of the Olmsted Plein Air Invitational based here in Atlanta, Georgia. In its 5th year of operation (as of 2019), the Olmsted Plein Air Invitational is one of the most prestigious plein air painting competitions in the United States. It is held in Atlanta, Georgia each spring. Plein air painters from all over the United States and beyond are invited to this competit...

Christine Lashley is a contemporary impressionist painter whose works have been exhibited nationally and internationally, winning many First Place awards for both landscape and figurative work. One such award she received is the 2018 Best Light in the Landscape Award at Olmsted Plein Air Invitational based here in Atlanta. The co-founder of Olmsted Plein Air - Lillian Ansley - recently introduced...

Gregory Packard is an American impressionist painter. His paintings celebrate both the medium - colorful, richly textured oil paint - and the subject. He likens impressionistic painting to capturing a fleeting moment in time. The emotion of that moment and the scene are lyrically and poetically frozen in time with Gregory's expressive brushwork. His work invokes an involuntary, visceral response f...

Gàbor Svagrik is a landscape painter and instructor based in Tucson, Arizona. While adhering to the time-honored traditions and fundamentals of a long list of artists who have come before him, Gàbor readily embraces the use of technology to help design his paintings and he readily uses technology to share his knowledge of painting with other artists. Gàbor has a passion for working with students b...

Jill Carver - a fine art painter based in Southwest Colorado - paints the landscape with the keen eye of an observer of nature. She paints in order to know the land. Many painters focus on epic, sweeping vistas, stopping short of moving in closer to the subject as if they were held back by an invisible force field. Jill, on the other hand, breaks through that force field and moves the viewer in fo...

Dan Young is a fine art landscape painter residing in western Colorado - a land of beautiful diverse landscapes. Before Dan became a fine art artist, like a lot painters, he got his start in commercial illustration. His career in illustration taught him two things: 1) he drew everyday and as a result he learned to draw really well, and 2) he developed good business sense while working as a freelan...