Artists in Action

American In his five award winning PBS television series and numerous videos, Tom Lynch has been happy to share his expertise and knowledge with his students. He has written five books on watercolor, and his latest "Tom Lynch's Watercolor Secrets" has reached international acclaim. Perhaps it is in technique that Tom shows his greatest genius. Using several varieties of spray bottles, sometimes an electric eraser and always a lot of bravura, Tom lifts off and melts away the paint, producing the type of ethereal, light quality that is associated with the Old Masters. In Tom's books, TV series, tapes and...

American "Born and raised in New York City in a cultured French family, John LaFarge became a leading figure in the arts in New York in the late 19th century, known for his exquisite murals, stained glass designs, and innovations of technique. He also was a noted writer and lecturer on art. He graduated from Mount St. Mary's College in Maryland and then went to Europe where he was much impressed by the stain glass in the medieval architecture. In Paris, he studied with Thomas Couture, and in London, he was much influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites led by John Ruskin,...

Paul Klee, a Swiss-born German artist German-Swiss artist Paul Klee brought his personal expression about in the form of fantasy and whimsy. His perception of the "modern" world was rendered in brevity with a simplistic, primitive style which he drew from children's and primitive art. A member of the Blue Rider School, he believed in the unity of nature and emotion and derided illusionistic art. Using simple line and forms of men, animals, and fantastic creatures, his gentle commentary on human weakness and folly exploited the symbols, signs and archaic patterns of the collective unconscious. Klee's works are replete with...

American Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Henry G. Keller had an accomplished forty-year career as a teacher at the Cleveland School of Art. His summer workshops in Berlin Heights, Ohio were popular with his students who had included Charles Burchfield, Paul Travis, and Frank Wilcox. Although he became the first artist in Ohio to achieve distinction as a watercolorist, few remaining examples of his work have been located. Keller was know for experimentation in techniques of mixed media painting including watercolor, tempera, and goauche. The influences of decorative Japanese design motifs, Henri Matisse, and Paul Cézanne are apparent in...

Hungarian/American Ted Kautzky began his studies as an architect student at the Royal University of Hungary in his hometown of Budapest. An avid draftsman, he developed a knack for perspective and an understanding of forms in space. He could draw well. At age 27 he moved to the United States and began to work as an architect for the New York City Parks Department. Ted's skill as an artist became known and he began teaching art. He became a much sought after teacher in the Pratt Institute, New York University, University of Toronto, and the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Kautzky...

American The 19th century landscape painter, George Inness, saw the artist's aim as "simply to reproduce in other minds the impression which a scene had made upon him." He was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1825 and regardless of the virtual lack of support from his father and no formal training, became a member of the National Academy of Art in 1868. Inness traveled extensively during his life, and works from these trips included Yosemite and Monterey Peninsula paintings. Innes focused on a light-infused tonalism and relied on glazes for his desired effects. He was a master of both...

American "'My aim in painting has always been the most exact transcription possible of my most intimate impressions of nature.' Few artists have painted so honest and revealing a portrait of America as did Edward Hopper. His timeless images of the wayside night cafe, the empty movie theatre, and the Victorian house by the railroad track all live in memory as the ultimate rendering of those subjects. Born in Nyack, New York, along the Hudson River, Hopper began to study art in the local schools before seeking instruction in commercial art in New York City in l899. From l900 to...

American Born in Boston is 1836, Winslow Homer is one of the most notable figures in Civil War era American art. Working as an apprentice to a local lithographer at age 19, and being entirely self-taught, Homer's drawings were in high demand in leading periodicals of the day. After the war Homer then devoted his talents to recording man in the natural beauty of the great outdoors. His Maine seascapes, woodland scenes in the Adirondacks and watercolors of the Bahamas, brought him much acclaim as an accomplished naturalist artist. He died at Prout's Neck, Maine, September 29, 1910. — Watercolor...