Can you tell us about the moment you decided to pursue a career as an artist?
After working twelve years as an art director, I realised that I needed to take a leap of faith for the things I really was passionate about. I restarted all over again, and that was the best decision I made in my life.
Robert van de Graaf (1983, born in The Hague, the Netherlands) is a Dutch visual artist living and working in The Hague, the Netherlands.
Van de Graaf received a Master of Science (MSc) degree in Architecture (Technical University Delft) in 2009. In 2005 and 2006, he worked as an intern in architecture in New York City. At Steven Learner Studio he worked on several art-related projects.
Rory Bills - Everett is a contemporary abstract painter who lives and works between Lisbon, Portugal and the West of Ireland.
She is an intuitive artist and whilst her work is informed by the coastal regions in which she resides, ultimately her paintings are a manifestation of her internal dialogue.
In allowing her emotions to be represented on the canvas, Rory provides a platform from which to converse with the viewer. In doing so, she offers a space for the audience to embody the experience.
She uses expressive brushstrokes and a vibrant, energetic colour palette to create her works of art.
Rory will be featured in the upcoming edition of the Visionary Art Collective Magazine and her work has been shown in exhibitions in London and New York. Including “What Is Art?” and “Art For Real” at Boomer Gallery London, 2022. She has had a painting acquired for the permanent collection at the Children's Museum of Arts, NYC and she was spotlighted in the new visionary art collective magazine in October 2022.
Claire Davenhall graduated from Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen with a BA(hons) Fine Art Sculpture, studied at Athens School of Fine Art & North Karelia Polytechnic in Finland. She gained a Post-Graduate Certificate in Art Education, lecturing in both Fine Art and Art & Design; she won the Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching & Learning and was nominated for two National Beacon Awards, before migrating to Australia in 2007.
Isabella is an Artist from Hemel Hempstead UK.
She studied her BA in Fine Art Photography at Camberwell college of Arts starting in 2017. Here is where she discovered more on what a multidisciplinary practice is. Her work evolved from photographs, to collages and to paintings.
Isabella then went on to complete her Masters Degree (Contemporary photography and philosophies) at Central Saint Martins in 2022. Here she developed her multidisciplinary practice further, exploring further into paint and sculpture.
Born close to Nuremberg she grew up in the city of Albrecht Dürer, a well-known German painter, and has been under the spell of this fascinating artist since she was a child. She attended a private grammar school in Nuremberg and her parents supported and strengthened her artistic and socio-political interest. She additionally absolved classes in art history and visual arts.
To improve and refine her techniques she started to study Fine Arts at the „Academy of Faber Castell“. Inspired by visits of museums all over Europe and the United States her art got influenced by „Informal Art“. Her role models are Emil Schumacher, Anselm Kiefer, Jean Dubuffet, Antoni Tapies, Alberto Burri, Gerhard Richter and last but not least she was deeply impressed by Jason Pollock and Franz Kline.
She is really into collages of all kinds. She works with acrylic and oil colours, depending on the subject. With passion she processes heterogeneous materials such as sand, fabrics, plaster, wooden parts, trash as well as any kind of plastic.
Nowadays she receives most of her inspiration from our daily life: politics, ecology, environmental destruction and many more.
Born in Boston, MA in 1952, Nira Chorev was raised and received her general studies and arts education both in United States and Israel. From 1972-1974 she attended and graduated from the Art Teachers College in Israel, receiving a BA degree, and from 1974-1978 she attended the School of the Museum of Fine Art (SMFA), in Boston, MA receiving multiple degrees -Diploma (BFA) and Fifth-Year Post-Graduate certificate.
Born in Belgium in 1978, Frédéric Demeuse is a naturalist and ornithologist by training. He lives and works in Brussels. As naturalist and visual storyteller, he is both witness and interpreter of all the diversity of this so precious and unique planet we all share. Author of several books, his work has won awards in the most prestigious international competitions, including a first prize at the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the year. His work is regularly exhibited in Belgium, France and abroad.
Markus Åkesson is a neofigurative painter on the international stage. His work has been shown in galleries and institutions in Paris, Berlin, Brussels, London, Vilnius and Stockholm. Living and working in Pukeberg in Nybro, Sweden, his home and studio are nestled in the woods where he is free to explore motives which relate man to nature and nature to the world unseen. His work is popular in public and private collections both in Sweden and abroad.
Can you tell us about the moment you decided to pursue a career as an artist?
I decided to pursue a career as an artist when I realized my work was being recognized and appreciated by the art world. I opened my Instagram Account to the public about two years ago and I have had much recognition from art galleries around the world for exhibitions from books and magazines for features internationally so and I have won several international awards. This is when I realized I wanted to pursue a career as an artist.
We are delighted to announce the winners of the Faces of Peace Art Prize!
The Faces of Peace Art Prize awards distinguished artists whose work significantly contributes to peace and human development and incites changes through their talent and creativity to restore balance to the relationship between humanity and the natural environment.
Ekaterina Popova is an award-winning artist known primarily for her original oil paintings of interiors. Popova received a Bachelor's in Fine Art from Kutztown University in 2011. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at Cohle Gallery in Paris and Menorca, The Painting Center in New York, James Oliver Gallery in Philadelphia, Decorazon Gallery in New York, and Paradigm Gallery in Philadelphia, among others. She has also previously shown at contemporary art fairs such as Affordable Art Fair and Art Miami.
Within a darkened space a man stands with a toy doll. The painting is still but it Poses a question of what came before and what might emerge latter. Something Is strange, the doll, the cartoon tee shirt, his look but at the same time silence pervades the space and a mood persists of withdrawal. As if to hint further the painting is called ‘Stranger’.
Maritza Bernal, was born in Bogota, Colombia. At an early age she excelled in drawing, painting, and other art skills. Her talent has been cultivated with patience and dedication through decades. Her studies in oil on canvas began in Bogotá, while working as an Occupational Therapist.
When she moved to the United States, she entirely devoted to explore different styles of painting. She focused on oil on canvas and after that, she became actively involved in numerous exhibitions in Argentina, Ireland, Dublin, Dubai, Beijing, Colombia, U.S.A, Zurich , among others.
I am an Italian-American, multi-cultural and polyglot artist. My paintings are colourful, profound, and uplifting. I am a self-taught artist, and this is my profession. I learned a long time ago to trust the teacher within and go to my inner world to fetch ideas for painting.
My voice in fine arts has been influenced by the Impressionism and Post-Impressionism painters for my figurative compositions and some Modern artist for my abstract compositions. Sometimes, in my dreams, I am visited by the ghost of Maestro Salvador Dali, and some surreal compositions come to life.
Lise uses her art as a global voice to get attention and call for action around important issues such as sustainability. Lise Vestergaard collaborates and is represented by galleries globally.
'If we keep nature as a prisoner, we will be the ones to suffer. The best way to predict a sustainable future is to act and handle was is with love and care. Then magic will appear so strong that everything will be awakened to life...'
Since 2018 Lise Vestergaard has, through her art project, being able to donate kr. 100.000 to green NGOs. The donation has supported 500 trees to be planted, 6 fields of rainforest to be maintained and donation for the NGO Plastic Change. Today she is an ambassador for Klimatræ.dk, which means that she donates trees to be planted every time the art project er realized or sold.
What kind of an artist do you ultimately see yourself?
My dream is to spend the rest of my life in Arizona, where we moved to two years ago, work in my art studio and complete thousands of painting projects secretly stored in my mind. I know that abstract art suits me the best. I feel totally free and happy with it, although I love to exercise with landscapes and portraits.
I am a fine art painter and video artist with 30 years of experience. My current research project is based on creating visual responses to my observations of people, who are suspended in the vacuum of hypnotic repetition. I have travelled the world interviewing and recording individuals who genuinely struggle with their existence in the context of their survival. I have gathered substantial primary sources and evidence from destinations across the globe. Perhaps, the most significant research findings were from Haiti and Myanmar and resulted in producing the most spectacular paintings. They have inspired me to develop new and innovative ways of working and experimenting with image-making, which are appropriate to the subject. They combine the best of traditional achievements and the power of contemporary thinking and deep reflection.
Franco Baldazzi was born in Florence in 1969. Today he lives in the province of Sondrio. After finishing school, he abandoned the practice of painting for some years. From a very young age, he accompanies, in fact the passion for art in a parallel working life, which often involves significant setbacks in his creative journey. Periods of fervid production, alternating with deep moments of reflection, outline the stages of a painting that absorbs and intertwines the emotional life of the Tuscan, in style increasingly personal, not ascribable to schools or movements.
Can you tell us about the moment you decided to pursue a career as an artist?
I have to confess, I don't even know if I consciously decided that. However, I can still remember when, shortly before finishing my elementary school, it was a question of what you wanted to become and what goals you wanted to pursue in life. At that time I said I had one dream: I would like to officially call myself an artist one day – as I have painted and drawn since I was a young girl. So I enrolled at the Vienna School of Art and studied Multidisciplinary Art.
