Collections

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  Claudette comes from a large family filled with artistic talent. The ninth of 11 children, she held a paintbrush in her hand from the time she could walk. She studied at the College of Marin in Kentfield, California; the San Francisco Art Institute and the Gerrit Reitveld Art Academy in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. In Amsterdam she learned to mix the old with the contemporary. Although her colors are muted, Claudette uses more than 85 of them in each of her works. She enjoys painting people as they are difficult and provide a narrative quality to her art. However, even when she paints a pattern there is a story behind it. To add modern qualities to her work, she paints more loosely in some areas while leaving other areas more representational.

  Claudette

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  Capture that Coastal & Tropical feeling with our collection of swimmers, surfers, beach scenes and nautical art including photography and hand-embellished giclées in styles from photorealistic to abstract.

  Coastal & Tropical

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  Colio was raised in Kazanlak, Bulgaria. At age 13, he was sent to a school for fine arts, securing one of the few coveted spots available for the truly talented, despite his parents’ lack of political connections in what was, at that time, communist Bulgaria. He was later chosen solely on merit to attend the College of Fine Arts. Upon graduation, he went on to the National Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia. After the fall of communism, Colio was able to leave Bulgaria and support himself through his art in the West. His works are shown throughout Europe and the United States today.

  Colio

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  The hand-embellished details of these giclée prints capture the spirit of the collages on which they are based. 

  Collage

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  Lisa Cuscuna studied photography and painting at The Cooper Union in New York. Though influenced by other painters such as Helen Frankenthaler, Paul Jenkins, Turner and Van Gogh, she has developed a unique way of pouring backgrounds to look like landscapes and beaches, to which she then adds detail with pallet and brushwork. She loves the way poured paint takes over and creates layers of textures and surfaces as it runs over more solid applications of paint.

  Cuscuna, Lisa

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  Laura Dargan grew up in Columbia, South Carolina. She is a self-taught artist who loves to experiment with different techniques and products. Each body of work she creates is an evolution of her process and is influenced by various sources of inspiration. Her work explores the interaction between unexpected color combinations and irregular shapes. Her goal is to create visual energy that is specific to the viewer. By composing designs without any suggestion of representation, each viewer has a chance to connect with the painting in their own way. Dargan’s work embodies the very idea that art is subjective.

  Dargan, Laura

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  Joe Davis is a painter, illustrator and graphic artist whose work has been exhibited in New York, Los Angeles and Tokyo, among other cities. His Tokyo exhibitions include several installations with Seibu as well as the American Pop Culture Today exhibition at the Laforet Museum. Davis’ work can also be found in many collections and has appeared in publications including The New Yorker Magazine and The New York Observer. It was also featured in the film Batteries Not Included. His animation has been broadcast on Nightline and included in numerous festivals.

  Davis, Joe

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  Elige attended the Art Institute of Pittsburgh for graphic art, but eventually ended up as an apprentice in the studio of fellow RFA Decor artist Robert Robinson. While Elige’s style was initially similar to Robert’s, he has now developed a unique style of his own: organic, vigorous compositions full of energy and movement. Influenced by art from Mid-century Modernism to Contemporary, Elige compares paint to clay and uses heavily laden paint that allows color to be manipulated and mixed directly on the surface of the canvas. His paintings’ surfaces are often so heavily laden with oil paint that they can take up to four months to dry.

  Elige

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  Born in Russia, Ekaterina Ermilkina graduated from the School of Art of F. Vasiliev in 1991 and received her M.F.A. from the State Art and Industry Academy in 1998. Saint Petersburg inspired her to paint cityscapes. When she moved to the United States, seeing skyscrapers for the first time had an enormous impact, and the effects continue to reverberate in her subjects and technique. Modern pointillism was also a revelation. She applies distinct dots of color with a palette knife, building a pattern that can only be seen from a distance and blended in the eye and mind of the viewer. This stippling technique allows subtle gradation of color, allowing her to create great depth and dimension to capture the interior nature of her subjects.

  Ermilkina, Ekaterina