From his birthplace in Mexico City to his current home in North Carolina, José Jiménez has held a passion for colors found in nature and the creative process of transforming individual colors into stimulating works of art.  Even as a young boy, Jiménez’s eyes were open to the dynamic experience of creating, of experimenting with the aesthetics of color, and of re-creating the world through his own eyes with the medium of sketching and painting.  Vastly independent and resourceful, Jiménez developed his artistic skills through self-education and self-discipline.  Jiménez draws his inspiration for art from the natural world around him, focusing on landscapes in his various series of paintings.  The beauty of landscapes compels him to recollect and generate the magnificence of nature in ways that invite the eye to examine environmental scenes at an in-depth perspective.  The most invigorating incentive for Jiménez in painting landscapes is that he can create a scene that captures a specific moment in time that will never be seen again, a magnificent blend of colors, wind and weather than occur but once a lifetime.  Through his unique personal style of various techniques, mediums, colors, and shapes, Jimenez can immortalize and share a special moment in time with the world. Jiménez has shown his artwork in galleries across the Carolinas, where they have been enthusiastically accepted by the public. According to Qué Pasa, the Latino newspaper of the Carolinas, Jiménez has influenced and inspired the Latino community to have a greater interest in art.

Born in 1976, John-Mark Gleadow had already achieved gallery representation by the time he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Delaware in 1999. Renowned for his skill as a draftsman and ability for creating hyperrealstic oil paintings, he has gone on to garner various awards, solo shows and grants and has been met with commercial success in the numerous galleries carrying his work from coast to coast in the United States and beyond.

Early influences on the young artist were Rene Magritte, Salvador Dali and VerMeer. “I fell in love with the beauty of their imagery and have always been in awe of their amazing gift for depicting reality, or their version of it. My desire is that my abilities would be used for creating works that are beautiful and that, when viewed as a whole, convince the viewer not only that what they’re seeing is real but that there’s truth in it. For that reason I find strict photorealism a somewhat unsatisfying undertaking.”

Beginning with still lives, John-Mark’s paintings soon came to have portraiture as their backbone. With his mastery of the medium his trademark use of vibrant colors has come to the fore – an element of his work made the more fascinating due to his having to cope with his own colorblindness. His most recent series has fused the centuries old theme of painting book spines with his love of doing figurative work and has allowed him to broaden the thematic horizons of his paintings. “The wonderful thing about working in this vain is how limitless the subject matter can be and how it makes for a logical way of juxtaposing entirely different topics, producing a work of art that’s beautiful as a whole, not just aesthetically, but thematically as well.”

A professional art career came late to Peter O’Neill but in truth, it was close to not coming at all.  After two failed marriages and a botched suicide attempt, Peter O’Neill felt he had nothing and found himself in a New Jersey hospital hopelessly despondent and in treatment for acute depression.  Then something clicked within him.  He looked around at the others with truly severe mental impairments and realized that he did not belong where he was.  He checked out of the hospital and literally, checked himself back into life.  Peter’s childhood dreams had been to become an artist; but he received little in the way of positive re-enforcement.  “I liked to draw when I was a kid, but art classes weren’t even offered and when I’d sketch in my notebook, they’d tell me, ‘stop drawing, and pay attention!’”  With no positive influence, he took a job in real estate with the lure of riches and prestige.  Still, Peter could never shake the feeling that art was his true calling in life.  When his career crumbled along with his second marriage, he found himself at a crossroads.

So, in April 1996, with only his inner resolve, a heart filled with creative need and relatively empty pockets, he boarded a Greyhound bus for Florida determined to become an artist.  “I think I was too numb to know the risk I was taking,” he said.  It was just something I did.”  At age 36, he arrived in St. Augustine with under $200 in his pocket and nowhere to stay.  For a year, he eked out a living as a street artist, doing pencil portraits.  His first commission earned him $15.00 – not a lot of money, but proof positive that people would pay for his work. Peter worked as a street artist for about a year and then moved into a small gallery on Treasury Street where he began exploring other mediums.  He, like the Old Masters, finally settled on oils and continues to use them today.  Mr. O’Neill is entirely self-taught, a fact of which he is quite proud.  “I haven’t had to unlearn the garbage poured on students in art school,” he said.  “I never had to shed the concept and design theories.  I could immediately make art that connected with people and their emotions.”  For him, art is a communication between the viewer and the creator.  “It should never be judged.

The Reaction to Jaline Pol’s work is immediate and intense.  She is one of the finest contemporary French impressionists of our time.  Jaline has been influenced by the many places she has visited or lived.  These places include France, Cameroon, New Caledonia, the Middle East and Bora Bora.  Jaline Pol was born in Northern france in 1946.  She studied at the school of Fine Arts in Paris.  Her colors are bright and daring…they represent the seasons: spring yellows, summery reds, autumnal ochre and sienna, winter blues and whites.  These latter ‘cold colors’ are particularly effective as they create a resposful, comforting ambience and mood.

Jaline Pol works exclusively with a palette knife which renders a 3-dimentional relief, giving the illusion of sculpted paint.  One is attracted to the tactile nature of her works and this often provokes a desire to ‘pick flowers’.  Movement suffuses her work.

Today, many important private art collections include Jaline Pol’s paintings.  Wherever her works are exhibited in France, the USA and throughout the world from the South Pacific to the Middle East, they are admired and appreciated by all for their striking originality and vibrancy

The distinctive paintings of Robert Brasher arise from a solid grounding in the rich tapestry of art history and literary reference. The inclusion of representational objects is employed in an abstract way. These emphasize the formal qualities which present themselves assertively on the canvas. Field work, including sketches, photos, and oil studies in and around the Loop area of Chicago, provide a wealth of inspiring forms, textures, and lighting conditions that continually inform the work. Relationships between the imposing structural surroundings and the human element that inhabits them are explored and distilled as well as purely formal problems dealing with two dimensional space and color. Contemporary life and the influence of history, or lack of influence, make interesting counterpoints in the work. Within the context of the painting, there is an attempt at immediacy; therefore, the brush strokes are applied quickly and boldly. Thick, colorful brush strokes are allowed to stand unaltered, conveying an abstract texture, and expressive beauty. Color as emotion, evocative, and expressive. Robert has studied at several universities in the Chicagoland area. These include the Art Institute of Chicago, Indiana University, Purdue University, Loyola University, and Roosevelt University. He has received several art scholarships leading to his Bachelors Degree. The Gonska Award for exhibiting exceptionally creative potential from Loyola, The Smith Scholarship from The Art Institute of Chicago, and The Mulchy Scholarship from Loyola University are among the awards attained during his college career.