Author: Seraphina Calder

Paul Fortunato began his artistic journey in New York, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts (SVA). He spent 23 years teaching at SVA, influencing many young artists’ careers. Nine years ago, he relocated to South Korea to teach at Hanbat National University, marking a significant cultural shift. This move provided him with fresh insights, allowing him to blend Eastern and Western artistic philosophies. Fortunato views every creation as a form of drawing, whether using traditional materials or incorporating 3D objects. This philosophy underscores his belief in art as an ongoing process of exploration and…

Garda Alexander, a German artist based in Switzerland, draws inspiration from nature and people, crafting meaningful expressions through unique shapes and colors. Her artistic repertoire spans painting, sculpture, and spatial concepts, reflecting her diverse education and training across various countries. With a background in human medicine, Alexander’s work is infused with a symbolically charged formal language, bridging the gap between art and science. Her curiosity drives her to explore new materials and techniques, resulting in a versatile body of work that captivates and inspires. As a visual artist and consultant in spatial transformation, she enhances living and working spaces, collaborating…

Madeline Gardner Meryash, an award-winning artist from a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts, grew up in a large artistic family. As the sixth of fourteen children, creativity and art were integral parts of her upbringing. Madeline began painting seriously in the late 1990s and has since dedicated herself to the craft. Despite being largely self-taught, she refined her skills under the guidance of classically trained artists at the Grand Central Atelier in New York City. Madeline’s style is contemporary classical realism, and she primarily works with oils. Recently, she has been experimenting with painting on water-gilded panels, employing techniques from the…

Paul ‘Gilby’ Gilbertson is an artist using a unique technique that has become his signature style. This technique involves using salt in his watercolor paintings, a discovery he made back in the early 1970s. Over the years, Gilby has mastered this salt effect, using it to create stunning backgrounds and intricate details in his subjects. One of Gilby’s standout pieces is “Go Badgers,” a tribute to his love for the Big 10 Badger Fans. The inspiration for “Go Badgers” came to Gilby in a moment of creativity around 4 am while living in Colorado Springs. He thought it would be…

Annie Sliwka, a French artist, discovered lacquer while preparing for her future at higher art school, and it was love at first sight. This medium captivated her, intertwining with her sensitivity at the heart of her work. Her lacquers, filled with extraordinary poetic and metaphorical imagination, possess a unique charm, revealing just enough to entice viewers without giving everything away. Soft, iridescent lights, gold laminated surfaces sprinkled with precious rains, and voluptuous quivering—these elements form successive metaphors of infinite beauty, capturing the crystal of the soul. Her career has been decorated with twenty-nine prizes, including four international awards. Among these…

In a career spanning more than 50 years, British journalist Lynn Barber has interviewed numerous artists, writing in the last line of her new book A bit of art education that “they have that consuming passion that will last them a lifetime”. Barber, a self-proclaimed outsider to the art world whose memoir was turned into the acclaimed film. An Education (2009), recalls and gives away in this compilation of his encounters over the decades. She describes why she came to admire Tracey Emin but fell out with other big players, including Jake and Dinos Chapman, after a controversial interview for…

ArtMaxwell RabbPortrait of Boscoe and Geoffrey Holder, London, 1961. Courtesy of the Holder Family Archive.Geoffrey Holder, Woman on man’s shoulders, approx. late 1970s. © Geoffrey Holder. Courtesy of Geoffrey Holder Estate and James Fuentes.Dancer, choreographer, designer, actor and painter – brothers Boscoe Holder and Geoffrey Holder wore all these hats as they charted parallel paths through art and performance over careers that spanned more than half a century. Born in Trinidad and Tobago in 1921 and 1930 and settling in London and New York respectively, the brothers drew inspiration from their rich heritage and the cultures of their adopted cities…

Mary McSweeney paints the beautiful landscapes, simple events, and everyday life of the people of Ireland. The Killarney native and oil-on-canvas painter graduated from Cork College of Art and began her professional career as an artist when she opened her first studio in Tralee. Her first solo exhibition was opened by the then Tánaiste Dick Spring at the Siamsa Tire Gallery in 1984. She immigrated to North America that year and continued her career on this side of the Atlantic. Her unique realistic style bears testimony to her carefully honed talent, and her fond familiarity with her subject breathes life…

Public sculpture is having a hard time these days as the focus of a self-righteous attack. It tended to be largely overlooked, unless it fit into the standard narrative of the rise of Modernism, like Jacob Epstein’s battered figures in the British Medical Association building in the Strand, which caused Edwardian London to gasp in obscene bewilderment at its opening in 1908. Eric Gill’s 1932 figures outside the BBC’s Broadcasting House were attacked in 2022 and 2023 as the work of a pedophile; and in Cardiff, the statue of the controversial Waterloo hero, General Thomas Picton, was removed from the…

Robert M. Deschenes, a Quebec-based naturalist wildlife artist, has carved out a niche in the art world with his hyperrealistic paintings. Using watercolor and acrylic, Deschenes creates lifelike depictions of wildlife and their habitats, reflecting his profound connection with nature. His art serves not only as a visual delight but also as a poignant reminder of the vulnerability of biodiversity and the urgent need for its protection. Deschenes’ journey into the world of art began in the lush, diverse landscapes of Quebec. Surrounded by the natural beauty of his homeland, he developed an early fascination with wildlife. This fascination blossomed…