Artist Profiles

Although it’s been many thousands - if not millions – of years since ancient civilizations and some extinct animal species flourished, their legacies continue to fascinate and live on through the creative vision of artist James Gurney. Welcome to Dinotopia and other lost worlds.

It took William Nichols some time to develop a visual vocabulary that accurately expressed what he saw and experienced emotionally in nature. However, once discovered, the creativity — and paint — flowed in ways that continue to enthrall viewers and collectors.

Learning more about the creative process of this painter, one could get the sense he’s simply a conduit of pure inspiration. Focusing on technique, his pictures frequently result in beautiful works with unconventional narratives.

Pastel artist Nancie King Mertz works from photo references and from life en plein air. Known for her cityscapes of Chicago, here she explains how she takes a dull reference photo and creates from it a lively scene.

Max Ginsburg is a painter with a conscience, using traditional realism and exquisite technique to explore his feelings about the human condition. Unafraid to paint the provocative and controversial social issues of our times, Ginsburg is helping bring representational painting into the contemporary age — a venture that began some 70 years ago.

Created in a diverse range of wet and dry media, Jon Sours’s subjects have a freshness that sets them apart from their abstract surroundings.

“Community Garden New Year’s Day” by Bethann Moran-Handzlik a winner in the bi-monthly Plein Air Salon. Here, the artist tells about how the oil painting came to be.

Many view making art as a meditative practice that calms the nerves, provides clarity, and is fulfilling. For painter Sergio Roffo, that feeling of serene sanity is often achieved with brush in hand and beauty in mind.

Congratulations to Richard Boyer, whose cityscape oil painting, "Last Light" won First Place in the June 2020 Plein Air Salon. We asked him to tell us about his winning work in this exclusive feature.

For Saint Cloud, Minnesota, native Dan Mondloch, personal connections with all things Midwestern and family tradition have allowed him to blossom into an accomplished watercolorist.