Artists in Action

American A painter of landscape and figurative subjects in Pennsylvania and Maine, Andrew Wyeth became one of the best-known American painters of the 20th century. His style is deceptively realistic with compositions based on natural abstract elements in natural light. His richly pigmented and direct, highly textured watercolors are his playground for finding images that strike a resonance within. In Wyeth's more formal egg tempera paintings he can freeze crisp shards of daily rural life in time with meticulous detail and technique. He was born in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, and was trained by his father, American illustrator and muralist Newell...

American Frank Wilcox was a native of Cleveland, Ohio who became a prominent American Scene watercolorist. In 1906 he enrolled in the Cleveland School of Art and later studied with Henry Keller exploring his artistic boundaries. Between 1910 and 1916, Wilcox and Keller experimented with plein air painting and the techniques of the Impressionists. Wilcox developed his signature style which was American Scene or regionalist genre in a transparent watercolor technique. Using fluid and sometimes calligraphic washes Frank Wilcox chronicled the historic lives of the people and scenery of Northern Ohio. — Watercolor Masters: Frank Nelson Wilcox © 2010 Greg...

American Tony Couch holds a BA degree in Art from the University of Tampa, with followup work at Pratt Institute in New York while he was an artist for Associated Press. He freelanced for years and studied with noted artist, Edgar A Whitney, ANA. Tony is a noted author with many titles available. His book, "WATERCOLOR: You Can Do It!" first published in 1987 is now in its Fifth printing, and is the textbook in several college art departments. Tony's watercolor instruction articles have appeared in most major artist magazines. His 10 "how to" videos are a favorite check-out item...

American "William Sommer was the key person in bringing European modernism to Northeast Ohio. He was born in Detroit, Michigan and in his youth apprenticed for seven years to a lithographer. He briefly studied at an art academy in Germany and then worked as a lithographer in New York before moving to Cleveland, where he was awarded a major contract with the Otis Lithography Company. In 1911, Sommer co-founded a group in Cleveland called the Kokoon Club, and held exhibitions and lectures and organized an annual masked ball that became the focus of Cleveland's bohemian life. In 1913, he and...

American Millard Sheets grew up in California in the Pomona Valley east of Los Angeles and by the age of 19 he was an elected member of the California Watercolor Society. At age 20, he was still a student at the Chouinard Art Institute when the school asked him to teach their watercolor class while he was completing his other studies. By the 1930s Mr. Sheets was exhibiting and selling work at major cities across the US. and Europe. His sales enabled him to travel and paint on location in the US and abroad. When the Great Depression hit he...

Charles Sheeler, an American artist American artist Charles Sheeler, was a "precisionist" who used precisely defined forms and smoothly brushes surfaces to reveal the appearance and experience of American life. Always aware of the importance of abstract design, Charles Sheeler's paintings reflect, as subject matter, the industrialization and isolation of American life. Using photography to isolate the abstract design in realistic images, Sheeler needed "a complete conception of the picture" in his mind before he began painting. His paintings and fine art photography are in numerous international collections. — Watercolor Masters: Charles Sheeler © 2010 Greg Conley — Charles Sheeler,...

Irving Shapiro an American painter known for his nature sketches Irving Shapiro was born in Chicago. He studied painting at the Art Institute and the American Academy of Art, both in Chicago. He taught art at the Academy from 1945 until he retired. Many artists working in watercolor today mention Shapiro as one of their influential teachers. — Watercolor Masters: Irving Shapiro © 2010 Greg Conley —

John Singer Sargent, an American portrait painter "John Singer Sargent is considered worldwide one of the finest, inspired and most important American expatriate painters of the 19th and early 20th centuries. He was a master of the bravura brushstroke in oil and an exquisite draftsman whose drawings and watercolors were completed with simplicity and fluid splendor. The portraiture of Whistler and Sargent were in great demand by members of high society worldwide during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and together with Boldini, the threesome formed a triumvirate that was internationally influential and respected. Among Sargent’s most famous devotees...