PA
Issue 78 | 100 GREAT DRAWINGS
GOSS183 Publishing House | Bloomington, Illinois
www.poetsandartists.com | Issue #78 All Rights Reserved ©2016 - 2017
Publisher Didi Menendez
100 GREAT DRAWINGS | PA#78 | December 2016 Amaya Gurpide
John Walker
Seongjin Kim
Austin Uzor
Joseph Todorovitch
Serena Potter
Batya Kuncman
Karen Kaapcke
Shane Wolf
Carol Prusa
Kay Ruane
Stephanie Rew
Casey Childs
Lauren Amalia Redding
Stephen Faulk
Daniel Bilmes
Mark Reep
Steven Hughes
Denis Chernov
Mark Tennant
Stephen Yavorski
Dorian Vallejo
Martin Campos
Sue Bryan
Edgar Jerins
Michael Mentler
Sue Tatham
Gordon Hanley
Michael Newberry
Tamie Beldue
Gromyko Semper
Nelli Levental
Tanja Gant
Isaac Pelepko
Olena Babak
Teresa Oaxaca
Jenny Reyneke
Paul Heaston
Yavora Petrova
Johan Barrios
Rebecca Venn
Zhaoming Wu
John Kennedy
Ryan Shultz
Unless otherwise mentioned all dimensions are in inches.
100 Great Drawings Selected by Steven DaLuz I was delighted to be asked once again by Didi Menendez, the publisher and founder of Poets and Artists to select artwork for an issue of her wonderful magazine. I consider it an honor and privilege to discover and select outstanding artworks that would, in my opinion, showcase and celebrate some of the finest drawings produced in 2016. It would be impossible for me to unequivocally say that these are the "best" drawings produced during the past year. That would be an arrogant assumption on my part, and I am quite certain I only saw a fraction of the great work that was produced. But, they are certainly a glimpse at some excellent drawings that I had the pleasure of seeing this year. It was decided early on that 100 drawings would be selected from among works submitted in response to an open international call, and from some artists who were specifically invited by virtue of their work that I had seen throughout the course of the year. When I announced the open call and invited specific artists to participate, I mentioned in the prospectus that, while a drawing can
be a preparatory cartoon for a painting, or a study for a more fully resolved work of art, it can also be a finished work unto itself. Sketchy, or refined with exacting detail, the 100 works published in this issue represent excellent drawings from across the globe, created in 2016. I am delighted that 44 artists are represented, from coast to coast in the U.S., Colombia, Ukraine, Nigeria, Spain, France, the Philippines, South Africa, Australia, Russia, South Korea, Bulgaria, and the United Kingdom. The drawings are primarily figurative, including portraiture, though some interior spaces, landscape, imaginative works, and a few more non-objective subjects are represented. Some were completed with an academic approach, some realistic, while still others employed a more unconventional process. Mixed mediums were allowed, so long as a preponderance of the work contained some form of identifiable drawing mediums. As you travel through these pages, you will see graphite drawings, works in charcoal, conte', pen & ink, silverpoint, pastel, colored pencil, chalk, marker, and mixed mediums. Some of the works capture the nuance of another human being's emotion and character, while
Drawing by Dorian Vallejo
others evoke moods, communicate ideas, spark feelings, or tell stories. All were well executed, despite a wide range of expression and handling. You may be asking, "Why did he choose the image on the cover?" I was truly impressed by the quality and variety of work I received. I looked at hundreds of drawings, and even received a few after the deadline that I would have liked to include in this issue, but could not. Having done this process two years ago, I expected the task of selecting just one image for the cover would be a daunting one. As before, I considered drawings where an understanding was displayed of the formal elements, such as line, weight, form, composition, rhythm, value, etc. After two days, I managed to filter these strong pieces down to about a dozen works--then six. Any one of these could have been selected as I considered the visual impact of each work. I placed all six side-by-side in Photo Shop; then studied them individually. Eventually, I began to see two works that kept insisting that they should serve as the cover.
Both works displayed exquisite technical proficiency. I placed the two works side by side and then alone, so one would not unduly influence the other. Both works connected with me. One appealed more to my personal aesthetic, while the other, despite its relative simplicity of subject, showed a level of creativity in its handling and expressiveness that finally pushed it over the top. Reading from the upper left down to the face in the lower right, the image appears as abstracted shapes, reminding me of a tattered parchment or ancient textile. Gradually, the interlocking shapes merge with lines that begin to crisscross and overlap. The marks begin to weave a tapestry, revealing a young woman, tilted head viewed slightly from below, in a dream-like state of serenity. Her hand is relaxed on her shoulder, grasping the literal marks that comprise both her hair and the surface itself, interwoven to create a splendid image that commands the viewer's attention. I hope you will appreciate this great drawing, "Interwoven", by Daniel Bilmes, and enjoy all of the other very fine works by the 44 artists contained on the pages that follow.
John Kennedy (jedika) is an Australian artist and instructor born
and condition through mythology and post-colonialism. John has
in 1973. His current interests revolve around intricate pentimento
achieved a Diploma of Fine Arts (West Wollongong TAFE) and
drawings, miniature paintings and illustration for children as well as
Bachelor of Creative Arts (University of Wollongong), and has
science and natural history. His creations draw from academic and
exhibited in Australia, Turkey, England and Italy. Early in his career,
contemporary art approaches exploring the human imagination
John was mentored by the Australian abstract expressionist Ron
Illumination | copic pen and graphite on illustration board | 29x19
John Kennedy
Lambert. John furthered his drawing as an archaeological illustrator
the relationship between music and the visual arts. More recently,
working in Cyprus and New Zealand, which included producing
John has been filmed on
illustrations for academic journals. The diversity of John’s work
program Colour in Your Life hosted by Graeme Stevenson, for
extends to music collaborations. Over the last decade, He has
which he has received ongoing national and international exposure.
worked with London composer and pianist, Lola Perrin, examining
the popular international television
Horse Rider of Driftwood | graphite on paper| 8.27x11.69
The Wastelands | graphite on paper| 11.5x9.8
Leaf | graphite on paper| 13x11
Olena Babak
Winter Poem | charcoal and chalk on toned paper | 19x25
Olena Babak is an award-winning,
art atelier approach under the renown
classically trained artist, whose figurative
masters of realism. She was awarded
works and landscapes can be found in
a number of scholarships and grants
numerous public and private collections
that allowed her to attend Mims Studios,
and galleries in the U.S. and abroad.
In North Carolina. Olena was also a recipient of a Hudson River Fellowship
She was born in Ukraine where she
in New Hampshire.
received her first formal art training rooted in Russian art traditions. Later,
Formerly teaching graduate students
after moving to the US, she continued
at the Academy of Classical Design,
her art education through independent
Olena now offers private workshops and
studies that led her down the path of an
classes in her studio.
Envisage | charcoal and chalk on toned paper | 19x25
Nelli Levental
Feeling Pregnant 2 | colored pencils | 12x9
Feeling Pregnant 1 | graphite | 12x9
Nelli Levental was born in Moldova,
art, which became her escape at the
one of the republics of the former
age of 6 and later transformed into
Soviet Union . As a small child she
her profession and life endeavor.
was mostly left alone due to her weak
Levental works in various mediums
health, preventing her from following
and her projects are often some
the order of social development;
form of storytelling. She teaches
however
the
Graphic Design courses to College
conservatism and brainwashing set
students and occasionally works
the environment for her childhood.
on commissions; all in all staying
The only interesting and satisfying
creative and never forgetting to
activities were reading and making
draw.
the
ambience
of
Feeling Pregnant 1 | marker pen | 12x9
Michael Newberry
Oct 19, ‘16, Self-Portrait, Day of Third Presidential Debate | graphite on Canson Mi-Teintes paper | 22x16 Michael Newberry grew up in La Jolla, California and started painting at 11 years old. In 1974 as a fine art major, he began studying art with American Modernist Edgar Ewing at U.S.C., and has virtually painted every day since then. In 1977 he moved to The Hague, Holland and studied life drawing at the Free Academy Physcopolis. From 1990 to 1994 he taught life drawing, composition, and painting at Otis College of Art and Design. He has exhibited in Athens, Rome, New York, and Los Angeles.
Archdeacon of Durhamshire | ink on lami li paper | 8x6
Michael Mentler
Christine conte’ on canson paper 26x19
Morning Coffee Rough Ins rollerball pens & pastel pencil on cover stock 8x9
100 GREAT DRAWINGS | PA#78 | December 2016
Torso Study felt tip, rollerball and fountain pens on Italian laid paper 10x7.5
Michael Mentler of Dallas, TX, is the Founder and
Louis magazine, Communication Arts, Art Direction,
Director of the Society of Figurative Arts. He studied
Graphis, American Artist Drawing Magazine in a
at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Layton
feature article titled Learn From The Sketchbooks
School of Art in Milwaukee and Washington University
of a Modern Day Leonardo. Michael has also been
in Saint Louis, where he taught figure drawing and
featured in Juliette Aristides’, Lessons in Classical
design. Michael’s work has been featured in Saint
Drawing (Essential Techniques From Inside the Atelier).
100 GREAT DRAWINGS | PA#78 | December 2016
Martin Campos
4899 charcoal, pastel on paper 11x14 4904 charcoal, pastel on paper 14x11
100 GREAT DRAWINGS | PA#78 | December 2016
Arcenio Martin Campos attended New Mexico State University
given lectures on anatomy, figure drawing, and painting and
for studio arts, the University of New Mexico for art history,
has facilitated open figure drawing groups in both Albuquerque
and received a Certificate of Painting from the Pennsylvania
and Philadelphia. His work has received numerous awards and
Academy of Fine Arts. He began drawing on his own as a child,
has been exhibited throughout the United States and abroad.
and between schools acquired much of his fine art education from independent study and private instruction of the human
Mr. Campos currently teaches life drawing at the Pennsylvania
figure. Mr. Campos began his teaching career conducting
Academy of Fine Arts and figurative painting, plein air, and still
classes in cast drawing whilst still in New Mexico. He has
life painting at the Wayne Art Center.
100 GREAT DRAWINGS | PA#78 | December 2016
Martin Campos | 4902 | charcoal, pastel on paper | 14x11
Mark Tennant
9768 | charcoal on paper | 24x18 Mark Tennant received a B.F.A. from the Maryland
Francisco, where he had been an instructor since 1998.
Institute College of Art, in Baltimore, and an M.F.A. from
Among other exhibitions, his paintings have twice been
the New York Academy of Art, in New York City. For the
displayed in the Salon d’Automne, in Paris. He has taught
years 2008 and 2009, he was the Director of Graduate
Museum Copying at the Louvre, Paris, at the Metropolitan
Fine Art Painting at Academy of Art University, in San
in New York, and the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.
Mark Tennant | 9799 | charcoal on paper | 18x24
100 GREAT DRAWINGS | PA#78 | December 2016
Mark Tennant | 0066 | charcoal on paper | 18x24
100 GREAT DRAWINGS | PA#78 | December 2016
Yavora Petrova
Drawing 1 | Charcoal, Pastel, Graphite and ink on paper | 27.5x39 Yavora Petrova was born in 1957 in Sofia.In 1983. She graduated in graphics from the National Academy of Art in Sofia.She has had many solo exhibitions and participations in international shows and forums of graphic art.In 1996, Petrova received the Prize of the Union of Bulgarian Artists from the National Exhibition of Drawing, Sofia; in 1993 she was honored with a Diploma from the Print Biennial in Wakayama, Japan and in 1991 she received the Grand Prix at the International Competition of Printing “Maximo Ramos”in Ferrol, Spain. In 1990, she received the First Prize from the National Exhibition of Illustration in Sofia.
The main thing about me is music. I work with music trying to express it abstractly in color. I turn dance into drawing. The tools l use are pencil, dry and oil pastel, acrylic and oil on canvas. The line is my character, my finger print. I don’t have a single reasonable cause to be an artist, except for the will to preserve and save myself. I want to make intimate art-saturated, professional.
Agnes | Charcoal, Pastel, Graphite and ink on paper | 39x27.5 inches
Teresa Oaxaca
Teresa Oaxaca is an American born artist based currently in Washington D.C. She is a full time painter whose works can be seen in collections and galleries throughout the US and internationally. Her talent has been recognized and rewarded by museums and institutions such as the American Museum of the Cowboy, The former Corcoran Gallery of Art, The Art Renewal Center, The Elisabeth Greenshields Foundation, the Posey Foundation, and The Portrait Society of America and
the Museu Europeu D’Art Modern in Barcelona. Her training includes a four-year diploma at the Angel Academy of Art (Florence Italy, Graduate studies at the Florence Academy, an Apprenticeship with Odd Nerdrum in Norway, and studies at the Art League of Alexandria VA where she trained with Robert Liberace. Currently she teaches workshops around the United States and in Europe. In addition to her studio work she takes a variety of portrait commissions. La Primavera | charcoal, white chalk on toned paper | 26x18
Teresa Oaxaca | Spray Rose Flower Maiden | charcoal, white chalk on toned paper | 26x18
The One | graphite | 20x13
Tanja Gant
Born in Bosnia (former Yugoslavia) in 1972, Tanja Gant is a contemporary, realist portrait artist who currently resides in Mississippi. She discovered her passion for pencil and portraits very early. Being self-taught she drew throughout her childhood and later on during the Bosnian war. Since becoming a full-time artist in 2010 she has won numerous awards in regional, national,
and international competitions and has had her work exhibited in as many shows throughout the country. Her work has also been published in several books and magazines, most notably: PoetsArtists, Southwest Art Magazine, The Artist’s Magazine, and a series of Strokes of Genius books. Tanja’s drawings focus on the narrative and individual’s personality.
Tanja Gant | 1992 | graphite | 24x15
Tanja Gant | Ensueño | graphite | 20x15
Ryan Shultz
Self Portrait | graphite and ink on gessoed board | 12x7.75 Ryan Shultz is a contemporary realist painter and draftsman from Chicago, IL. His works embrace the art historical canon, borrowing compositional devices, technical processes, poses and gestures from classical painting. In this self portrait, Shultz has chosen to
eschew the modalities of “textbook photorealism,” letting the technique and style of his mark making work as visual metaphor, giving the viewer a sense of his inner psychological state through lines, scrapes, sandings, and drips.
Sue Bryan
Born and raised in Ireland, Sue Bryan has lived and worked in New York City for over twenty years. Primarily self-taught, she studied briefly in the School of Visual Arts from 1993 to 1994. She has exhibited in many national and international venues, including the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, The Edward Hopper Art Center and the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) in Dublin. Her work has been featured in many publications, including Fresh Paint Magazine, and Manifest Gallery’s International Drawing Annual Volume 9, 10 and 11 (2017).
Heart Land | charcoal, graphite, on museum board | 8x10 Fledgling | charcoal, carbon on arches paper | 8.5x10
Sue Bryan
Secrecies of Green | charcoal, carbon, pastel on arches paper | 8x10 Lone Star | charcoal, carbon on arches paper | 22x24.5
Stephen Faulk
Cicada 1 | graphite and ink wash | 31x15
My work is mainly rooted in nature themes, but also human made systems and objects: Flight, aircraft, landscape, light. I'm fascinated by the formal structures of architecture, airframes, structural openwork of many kinds, the structure of plants, animals and insects. I freely work with this information to make work that digs up metaphor, or hopefully, simply communicates the beauty, tragedy, visual seductiveness of these ideas and objects. Stephen Faulk currently resides in Akune Japan; A fishing town on the West coast of Southern Kyushu. He divides time between fulfilling custom guitar orders and drawing and painting. He is reentering the art world as an exhibitor of sculpture, drawing and painting after a long hiatus to explore and become established in making guitars.
100 GREAT DRAWINGS | PA#78 | December 2016
Cicada 2 | graphite and ink wash | 21x12
White Peacocks | pastel and white gold leaf on paper | 45x60 cm
Stephanie Rew
Jessica in White Gold | pastel, graphite, white gold leaf | 15x15 cm Stephanie Rew (b 1971) is a Scottish painter based in Edinburgh, UK. Her highly detailed figurative paintings are in collections across Europe with considerable international interest growing in her work. Her primary subject matter is the female figure. Always painted with a sense of ambiguity, faces half hidden with the human form often just emerging from the darkness. The kimono is a predominant motif to her work and she has developed her style by combining drapery and pattern with the figure. Tone and form as
well as strong light and colour is what inspires her, concentrating on the juxtaposition of tonality and texture whilst keeping a private, reflective mood with the work. Stephanie won the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Bursary soon after graduating and since then has exhibited in Glasgow, London, Paris, Nashville and California. In 2013 she curated the first ‘Women Painting Women’ Exhibition in the UK. She has been finalist twice in the International Artist Magazine Contest and recently won the BoldBrush Award run by FASO.
100 GREAT DRAWINGS | PA#78 | December 2016
Stephanie Rew | Fascinator | pastel charcoal on paper | 25x30 cm
100 GREAT DRAWINGS | PA#78 | December 2016
Stephanie Rew | Wishing | pastel, graphite and gold leaf on paper | 15x20 cm
Carol Prusa
Clouded | silverpoint, graphite, titanium white pigment with acrylic binder and aluminum leaf on 1/4” plexiglas | 60x60x2 Represented by galleries on both coasts as well as Taipei, Vancouver and Geneva, Florida artist Carol Prusa exhibits widely in museums and curated exhibitions. Her work has been supported by fellowships including the Howard Foundation and South Florida Cultural Consortium. Her work is in museum collections including the Perez Museum of Art, Spencer Museum of Art, Museum of Art Ft. Lauderdale, Hunter Museum of American Art and Daum Museum of Contemporary Art. Her work was selected
for the 2015 American Academy of Arts and Letters Invitational, NYC, through nomination, and received a purchase award to place her work into the permanent collection of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City. Prusa participated in a four-month funded Artist in Industry Residency at the Kohler Company, producing a large installation of sculptural work involving fiber optics and silverpoint on ceramic. She is a Professor of painting and drawing at Florida Atlantic University.
Opening | silverpoint, graphite, titanium white and mars black pigment with acrylic binder | 48x48x2
100 GREAT DRAWINGS | PA#78 | December 2016
Carol Prusa | Unknowing silverpoint, graphite, titanium white pigment with acrylic binder on 1/4” Plexiglas 60x60x2
100 GREAT DRAWINGS | PA#78 | December 2016
Carol Prusa | White Hole Universe silverpoint, graphite, titanium white pigment w/ acrylic binder on acrylic sphere w/ fiber optics, programmed LED light emitter 8x8x8
100 GREAT DRAWINGS | PA#78 | December 2016
Casey Childs
Chelsea | charcoal on paper | 18x14 Casey is a professional painter after spending more than a decade as a graphic designer. He has painted full time since 2009 receiving numerous awards and recognition during that time for his work, most recently receiving 2nd place Painting from PSA’s 2016 International Portrait Competition, as well as
First Place Drawing in the same competition in 2015. Casey is represented by Principle Gallery (Alexandria, VA), Haynes Gallery (Nashville, TN), Meyer Gallery (Park City, UT), and Waterhouse Gallery (Santa Barbara, CA). He works out of his studio in Pleasant Grove, Utah.
Daydream | charcoal on paper | 18x11
Denis Chernov
Bricks | graphite on paper | 21x21 Denis Chernov regularly participates in artistic exhibitions (above eighty), both in Ukraine, Russia and abroad. Most of Denis Chernov’s artworks are kept in private collections in Ukraine, Russia, Italy, England, Spain, Greece, Hungary, France, USA, Canada, China and Japan. Some works have been sold at “Christie’s. He works in a wide range of graphic and painting techniques, though his favorite is pencil
drawing, which covers such as landscape, portrait, nude, genre compositions, book illustration, literary and historic reconstructions and fantasy. 2008 - member of All-Ukrainian Union of Artists. Denis Chernov was awarded the medal “Talent and Vocation” by the “Peacemaker” Worldwide Alliance.International 2008/2009 ARC Salon, the Third Place & Honorable mention - Drawing Category.
100 GREAT DRAWINGS | PA#78 | December 2016
Edgar Jerins
Tom in Winter | charcoal on paper | 60x96
Edgar Jerins was born in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1958. He graduated from Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1980 with a four-year certificate. That year, he was awarded an Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant. Subsequent grants: The PollockKrasner Foundation Grant, New York Foundation for the Arts, Fellowship in Printmaking/Drawing/Artists Books, The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Grant, George Sugarman Foundation Grant (twice), and the E.D. Foundation Grant. In 2014 he received the New York Academy of Art’s Venture Fund Grant. He has
had solo shows in the Latvian Foreign Art Museum, Riga, Latvia, Museum of Nebraska Art, Payne Gallery at Moravian College, and two New York City exhibitions at Tatistcheff Gallery. His drawings have been widely exhibited in catalogue supported shows across the US. His drawing and essay are included in the recent survey of figurative art in the Rizzoli book The Figure: Painting, Drawing, and Sculpture: Contemporary Perspectives. He is represented by ACA Galleries in New York City. Jerins is an Adjunct Faculty at the New York Academy of Art.
100 GREAT DRAWINGS | PA#78 | December 2016
Paul Heaston
The Garage | gray ink on paper | 9.75x6.75 inches
Paul Heaston is an artist and educator originally from San Antonio, Texas. He holds an MFA in painting from Montana State University. During a semester abroad in Italy nine years ago he began keeping a visual journal to record his day-to-day experiences as well as explore ideas about seeing and documenting
space. Since that time he has been a correspondent for UrbanSketchers.org, a global collective of sketchers and visual journalists, and taught numerous workshops and classes on keeping a sketchbook, perspective and drawing in pen and ink. He lives in Denver, Colorado.
100 GREAT DRAWINGS | PA#78 | December 2016
The Living Room | gray ink on paper | 11.25x8.25 inches
Union Station | gray ink on paper | 11.25x8.25 inches
Stephen Yavorski
Give You My Word | black and white charcoal on pastel paper | 19x19 New Jersey Artist, Stephen Yavorski has work that’s been featured in several exhibitions including venues such as Rehs Conteporary Galleries, Swain Galleries, Mainstreet Galleries, The Salmagundi Club, Misericordia University, and The Ice House Gallery in Monmouth University. His outspoken manner and ability to objectively look at situations with clarity and insight are the driving forces behind his work. For Stephen, it’s not just about creating artwork, it’s about communicating these thoughts
through the limitless vehicle of art. He provokes thought and insight and sees himself as an example for other people to do the same. He has received many accolades, including the Scholarship Award from the American Artist’s professional League, finalist in The annual Art Renewal Center Salon, and a feature on page 11 of “Strokes of Genius 6:The Best Of Drawing”. Stephen hosts workshops and classes through duCret School of Art and The Visual Art Center of NJ also teaches private lessons.
Taking Flight | black and white charcoal on pastel paper | 11x14
100 GREAT DRAWINGS | PA#78 | December 2016
Shane Wolf Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, Shane Wolf received his academic training at the Angel Academy of Art in Florence, Italy. Since late 2009Shane lives, works, and collects wine in Paris, France. Equipped with his Zak Morris-era Nokia phone and an internet-free studio, Shane is not exactly a
Luddite but definitely prefers spending time sans gadgets and working on large-scale compositions. In like spirit of the great forebears of the Italian Renaissance, Shane works uniquely from the live model and from his imagination to create works that seek to share his Humanistic world view.
Shane Wolf | Tronche | charcoal on paper | 30x24
Shane Wolf | Triton | 3 crayons: charcoal, sanguine, and chalk on prepared paper | 59x39
Serena Potter
Metamorphosis | mixed charcoal and pastel on cotton rag paper | 20x24
100 GREAT DRAWINGS | PA#78 | December 2016
Accommodation | mixed charcoal and pastel on cotton rag paper | 21x19
100 GREAT DRAWINGS | PA#78 | December 2016
Kyoto trip | pen (ink) on paper | 21x30 cm
Seongjin Kim
Sam Kim (Seongjin Kim) was born in 1981. He is a portrait artist who lives in Seoul, Korea. He’s been drawing and painting friends and acquaintances in oils and pen and ink. He resigned from his former company in 2012 to focus entirely on his art activity.
Austin Uzor
Heavy rains | ballpoint pen on paper | 25x35
Daniel Bilmes
Daniel Bilmes is a contemporary painter, working in Los Angeles. His approach is characterized by deep personal exploration, combining realism with elements of symbolism and abstraction. Through tactile textures and delicate expressions, his paintings weave together the magical and mundane. His work is at once hopeful and brooding. Realistic and symbolic. Somewhere between the vitality of the Russian circus and the gravitas of a Churchill speech.
Daniel began his art education at the age of 8 under the tutelage of his father, the respected artist and educator, Semyon Bilmes. Being immersed in art from such an early age had a profound impact on his personal growth and creativity, laying a lasting foundation of curiosity that continues to drive and inform his work today.
Interwoven | mixed media on panel | 30x24
100 GREAT DRAWINGS | PA#78 | December 2016
Woven In The Wind | mixed media on panel | 30x30
100 GREAT DRAWINGS | PA#78 | December 2016
Batya Kuncman
Romanticism Revisited I | ink on paper | 14x11
Romanticism Revisited 2 | ink on paper | 14x11
Rebecca Venn
Fragile | graphite on paper | 14x17
Rebecca Venn is a Wisconsin based artist. She is well known for her figurative artwork and portraits. She taught Life Studio at UW Parkside, and a variety of workshops at the Charles A. Wustum Museum in Racine, Wisconsin and The Clearing Folk School in Ellison Bay, Wisconsin. Rebecca has won various awards,
including First Place in the National Figurative Juried Exhibition in Woodstock, Illinois. She has work in the permanent collection in The New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut. Her artwork is in numerous private collections throughout the United States and abroad.
100 GREAT DRAWINGS | PA#78 | December 2016
Robert; Sunday Morning | graphite on paper | 11x14
100 GREAT DRAWINGS | PA#78 | December 2016
Sue Tatham
Portrait of Arielle | charcoal on Fabriano paper | 60x60 cm Sue Tatham is a South African painter in the genre of contemporary classical realism. Portraits and figurative works including nudes are her speciality. Oils, watercolour, drawing media and photography are her favoured media and she accepts commissions. Her art is represented in several collections and publications. She has held numerous solo as well as shown on group exhibitions and accepts commissions. Sue works full-time as an artist and photographer from her studio
near Cape Town, SA and is married with 2 daughters. Sue has achieved significant artistic recognition, notably as finalist in several prestigious national art awards, residency in Paris, award winner in several competitions and honours graduate with distinctions from the University of Cape Town. Highlighted merits and awards include being a top 5% finalist in the 2013 SPI National Portrait Award which toured SA; and a 2014 finalist in the Tollman Bouchard Finlayson Art Award, Hermanus FynArts.
Steven Hughes
Elusive Persuasion | graphite and white chalk | 5.78x8.25 Steven Hughes received his training at Kent State University, earning an MFA in Visual Communication Design with a concentration in illustration. He operates a freelance art studio, Primary Hughes Illustration, and serves as Associate Professor responsible for the Illustration program at Northern Michigan University. His work has been used by The New York Times, American Greetings, Toronto Blue Jays Care Foundation, Light Grey Art Lab, Case Western Reserve University, Ohio Magazine, and been displayed
in numerous gallery exhibitions around the US. Recently, one of his paintings was acquired by director Martin Scorcese. Hughes’ illustrations have won numerous awards, including a Silver Award from the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles (SILA) in 2014, Merit Awards from 3x3 Magazine’s Annual Show, Creative Quarterly 100 Best 2013, Art Renewal Center 2013/2014 International Salon Finalist, and a Silver Medal in painting from The National Art Museum of Sport.
Tamie Beldue
Born in upstate New York, Tamie Beldue is a contemporary American artist focused in mixed media drawings. Beldue received a BFA at the Columbus College of Art & Design and earned her MFA at the University of Cincinnati. Beldue has exhibited extensively in the US in group and solo exhibitions, including the Fort Wayne Museum of Art Realism Biennial, Southern Ohio Museum, North Carolina Museum of Art, Mobile Museum of Art, the Arnot Art Museum’s
Re-Presenting Representation and the Fontbonne University Fine Arts Gallery. Her works are in the permanent collections of the Arnot Museum of Art, The DeYoung Museum, Howard & Judy Tullman Collection, James T. Dyke Collection of Contemporary Drawings and the Sandy & Diane Besser Collection. Currently she is represented by Blue Spiral Galleries in Asheville, NC and is an Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina Asheville.
Transitory | graphite, charcoal, encaustic | 18x24.5
100 GREAT DRAWINGS | PA#78 | December 2016
Tamie Beldue | First Self Portrait After Separation | graphite, natural gesso on paper | 14x10
Tamie Beldue | Stairway | graphite, charcoal, encaustic, watercolor | 14.75x9.75
Zhaoming Wu
Musician | charcoal | 24x18 Zhaoming Wu was born in Guangzhou, China. He graduated from Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art where he earned a BFA in painting and was as an assistant professor there for seven years. After moving to San Francisco, California, he received his MFA in painting from the Academy of Art University where he is currently an instructor. Active for many years as both an artist and a teacher, Zhaoming has works exhibited in museums
and private collections around the world. Many national and international publications have highlighted his vibrant career and technique, major awards and honors have been given to Zhaoming Wu. For 3 consecutive years, he was a juror of an international art contest at the Museum of Modern Art in Barcelona, Spain.
100 GREAT DRAWINGS | PA#78 | December 2016
Pigeon | charcoal | 24x18
Amaya Gúrpide
Born in Spain, Amaya formally began studying art at the age of 16 in the School of Arts of Pamplona. She moved to New York City in 1999 to broaden her studies in figure painting and drawing at the Art Students League, the National Academy of Design and the Grand Central Academy, all of which awarded her several scholarships.
In 2014 Amaya was invited to move back to the U.S. to take part in the creation of the U.S. branch of The Florence Academy of Art in Jersey City, where she currently has a studio and is a Principal Instructor. In 2016 she taught as an adjunct Professor at The New York Academy of Art.
From 2009 to 2014 Amaya returned to Spain to concentrate on her painting and offer figure drawing, anatomy and painting classes.
Amaya's work has exhibited internationally. Her drawings and paintings are in private collections throughout Europe and the U.S.
Reverie | graphite, white chalk, black conté and gouache on hand toned paper | 17x17
Jenny Reyneke
The Gift | ink on fabriano | 29x31 Born in South Africa in1968 to parents who loved to travel, Jenny Reyneke learnt the love of the open road from a young age. Never settling in one place for longer than two to three years for most of her childhood and adult life, she came to associate places and their trees with the people she connected with and her paintings are often a visual representation of this deep love and respect while her ink seascapes are her concerns for the destiny of her country.
A self-taught painter, she paints to remember the interconnectedness between all things and sees her works as conversations with the lands, trees, oceans and skies that find her. She sees herself not as an artist but as a painter whose purpose is to make visual the often overlooked but sacred and mystic truths to be found in the contemplation of nature. And that these truths more often than not, translate to messages of hope and love.
Enchantment | ink on fabriano | 39x27.5
Silver Tide | ink on fabriano | 27.5x39
Poseidon’s Rage | ink on fabriano | 27.5x39
Possessed | ink on fabriano| 59x59
Isaac Pelepko
Antonia in leather jacket | graphite on bristol board | 11x14
Isaac Pelepko is a painter and draughtsman whose work is primarily focused on the figure. He received his B.F.A. from the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design where he was awarded most outstanding student fine art his senior year and his M.F.A. from the New York Academy of Art where
he received a merit scholarship award. He also studied at Grand Central Academy and the Art Students League of New York. He was awarded the Phyllis and Frank Mason grant for painting in 2011. Isaac has been in shows in Paris France, New York City, and the eastern United States.
100 GREAT DRAWINGS | PA#78 | December 2016
Cassandra | graphite on bristol board | 8x6
Kay Ruane
All the drawings I’ve made over the years are like a map of my life’s journey so far. I love the feel of pencil on paper and drawing has been a constant ever since I can remember. Recently, I’ve been working on larger scale landscapes, like Wave. I completely immerse myself in them, knitting together all of the tiniest details across the page with my pencil, working with the tensions between the static hardness of graphite and the softness and movement of the wave.
Kay Ruane is a Los Angeles-based artist who received her BFA from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and continued her studies at Indiana State University and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has exhibited widely in galleries and museums nationally with a focus in the northeast, most recently the Julie Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art in Auburn, AL, and The Baker Museum in Naples, FL. Her work is included in both private and public collections, and has been featured in several publications, including Flaunt Magazine and ZYZZYVA: West Coast Writers & Artists Journal.
Kay Ruane | The Wave | graphite on paper | 36x60
Mark Reep
No Lonely Way | charcoal & graphite on paper | 8x8 Mark Reep is an artist and writer whose work has appeared in American Art Collector, Endicott Journal, Bluecanvas, Metazen, and many other publications. He has exhibited regularly for over twenty years. Mark’s moody, detailed charcoal, graphite, and ink
drawings blur natural and architectural elements, often in isolate, dreamlike context. Mark says, “I value exploration, discovery at the drawing table, and I also enjoy refining detail and depth at an intimate scale.
100 GREAT DRAWINGS | PA#78 | December 2016
Dream Logic | charcoal & graphite on paper | 14x17
100 GREAT DRAWINGS | PA#78 | December 2016
Mark Reep | Calling The Dream Into Being | charcoal & graphite on paper | 8.5x4.5
Mark Reep | The Faithful Nightlight | charcoal & graphite on paper | 11x4.5
Lauren Amalia Redding
Chicagoan Hatuey | silverpoint and silverleaf on panel | 30x24 Lauren Amalia Redding (b. 1987, Naples, Florida) is an artist and writer living and working in Astoria, Queens, New York. She received her B.A. from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois and her M.F.A. from the New York Academy of Art in New York, New York. Her poems have
been published by the Pen + Brush in Manhattan and currently in PoetsArtists magazine, and she is anticipating a solo show at Menduiña Schneider Gallery in Los Angeles in 2017. She primarily creates silverpoint drawings paying homage to her mother’s Cuban family.
100 GREAT DRAWINGS | PA#78 | December 2016
Joseph Todorovitch
Joseph Michael Todorovitch is a contemporary painter, immersed in figurative subject matter, who is exploring painting through the lens of a naturalist perspective. His paintings are searching for a breathing sense of light, space, time, and subtle narratives that are personal but allow the viewer to ponder and create meaning. His concern for
excellence of craftsmanship is balanced with a freedom to explore the playful side of paint application. He simultaneously pushes to create interest with surface abstraction and visual fidelity. The concert of the technical narrative, along with the implied narrative of the subject matter, requires the viewer to complete the experience of a Todorovitch work of art.
Joseph Todorovitch Kristin charcoal on paper 18x24
Val charcoal on paper 18x24
Katrina | charcoal on paper | 24x18
Gromyko Semper
Gromyko Semper is an artist based in Cabanatuan City, Philippines. Largely self taught, his work has been exhibited in Singapore, France, Spain, Germany, Poland, Austria, Mexico, the United States, Portugal, and the United Kingdom. Semper’s drawings are executed to imitate woodcut prints, embody a personal, invented mythology after the fashion of William Blake in the early nineteenth century; the symbolists, surrealists and decadents; and the forerunner of Vienna School of Fantastic Realism, the influential visionary painter, Ernst Fuchs. Semper’s woodblock style has some affinities with Albretch Durer’s, but is quite unique, drawing heavily on both the Roman Catholic and supernatural folk traditions of the Philippines, quantum mechanics, alchemy, world mythology, classical art, occult, art nouveau, and the gamut of erotic drawing from Japanese Ukiyo-E to Aubrey Beardsley.
His works are also included in numerous publications particularly related to the Visionary/Fantastic/Surreal art Genres, the latest of which was Liba Warring Stambollion’s colophon/book Divining the Dream, published in winter 2012 on Paris, France, where his work is published alongside the top names of the aforementioned genre. He was also included in the Latest encyclopedia of surrealism, published in Vienna,Austria, the Lexicon Surreal, edited by emeritus Prof. Gerhard Habarta. In 2013, he co edited the book Encyclopedia of Fernal Affairs (Published in 2015) with Liba WS, Bruce Rimmel and others. He represented the Philippines in the recent X Florence Biennale, along with other Filipino Artists as part of the Philippine Delegation under Artesan Gallery of Singapore. He is recognized internationally as an active voice of the Visionary Art movement.
Tristan and Isolde | ink,acrylic,distemper on canvas | 60x36
Gordon Hanley
Zen Ballet | goldpoint on prepared arches 300 gsm HP paper | 72x52cm
100 GREAT DRAWINGS | PA#78 | December 2016
Light Moves | goldpoint on prepared arches 300 gsm HP paper | 60x45cm
Gordon Hanley began his professional life as a scientist, and became a full time artist in 1993 following his first two solo exhibitions. In 2009 his art shifted focus from watercolors to drawings in the Renaissance medium of silverpoint. He draws highly realist images in 24ct gold on paper that has been coated with grounds of his own design. An entirely self-taught artist, he is highly experimental moving this ancient art form into previously unexplored territory. He is now recognized as one of the world’s leading artists in this medium. His work has been featured on all major TV channels in Australia and he has been widely published in many art magazines around the world. In 2014 the ARC awarded him the status of “Living Master” (ARCLM). He exhibits widely and usually has at least one solo exhibition a year featuring his unique goldpoint drawings.
Dorian Vallejo
Small Kingdoms Rise and Fall | mixed media | 12x18
100 GREAT DRAWINGS | PA#78 | December 2016
Hold It Against Your Bones | mixed media on panel | 15x25 Born into an artistic family, Dorian Vallejo’s career began in his late teens when he began illustrating book covers while attending the School of Visual Arts in New York. As the field increasingly began to incorporate the use of computer-generated images, Vallejo felt the need to pursue other avenues with his art. His love of traditional media and the figure, drew him to portraiture and to focus on personal work, which shows in galleries. These days Vallejo spends most of his time creating paintings and drawings for sale through galleries.
John Walker
Essence 2 | graphite with colored pencil on paper | 18x24
John Walker’s work is usually centered around a core of imagined narratives, as with his recent series of faux antiquities from an invented culture. Born in Aurora IL, he attended the College of DuPage and the American Academy of Art in Chicago before beginning a long career as an airbrush artist and illustrator working from his home studio. Much of his work is executed in a realistic manner that
often includes elements of graphic design and stylization. He has has won numerous awards including Best in Show at the Richeson 75 International Portrait and Figure Competition and the National Society of Painters in Casein and Acrylic Award at the 59th Annual NSPC&A Exhibit. His work has appeared in the “AcrylicWorks Best of Acrylic Painting” annuals, Spectrum art annual and Acrylic Artist magazine.
Echoes of Azure | graphite with acrylic on paper | 18x12
Moonflower Maiden | graphite on glazed paper mounted to canvas | 24x18
Scrim 3, With O | graphite and silverpoint ground on matboard | 13x10
Karen Kaapcke
Eyepatch Off 2 | graphite and silverpoint ground on matboard | 18x22 Born in New York City, Karen Kaapcke began painting and drawing while completing her Masters degree in Philosophy. She then studied at the Art Students League in New York City, the Ecole Albert Defois in France, and at the National Academy of Design where she won a full scholarship. Karen has taught with Parson’s School of Design, the Crosby Street Painting Studio, and currently teaches privately out of her studio. She is also the founder and director of the Young Urban Artists - a drawing and painting workshop for teens in New York City. Karen has exhibited extensively, both in galleries and in museums such as
The Butler Institute and Fontbonne University, has won many awards for her work including a first place award from the Portrait Society of America, and is in private collections throughout the country and in Europe. Her work has been written about in the Huffington Post, PoetsArtists, International Artists Magazine, Professional Artist Magazine and Fine Art Connoisseur among others. Most recently, her work was selected for inclusion in the 50 Memorable Painters 2016 issue of PoetsArtists. Karen and her family currently share their time between her home and studio in New York City and in France.
100 GREAT DRAWINGS | PA#78 | December 2016
Johan Barrios
Born in 1982 in Barranquilla, Colombia. Artist Johan Barrios graduated with his BFA from the University of Antioquia in Medellin, Colombia. His work has been evolved from drawing and painting exploring the artists ongoing enquiry into concepts of time, movement and space, as well as notions of self-disclosure and intimacy. From a balance between the materiality of graphite and paint, and its emotional and figurative resonances. Johan Barrios recently moved to and currently lives and works in Houston, TX. He is presently working on his first solo show, in this city, scheduled for early spring 2017.
Johan Barrios | Somnambulo | graphite and watercolor on paper | 12x9
Johan Barrios | The Wait | graphite and watercolor on paper | 12x9
Johan Barrios | Untitled | graphite and watercolor on paper | 12x9
100 GREAT DRAWINGS | PA#78 | December 2016
Johan Barrios | Diptych | graphite and watercolor on paper | 12x9 each
These drawings are a series of small works on paper that have an otherworldly, haunting quality, exploring my ongoing inquiry into concepts of time, movement and space, as well as notions of self-disclosure and intimacy. From a distance they read as photographs, but up close their intricate surfaces become visible, striking a subtle balance between the materiality of graphite and paint, and its emotional and figurative resonances.
100 GREAT DRAWINGS | PA#78 | December 2016
Steven DaLuz focuses primarily on the sublime, using mixed mediums in his work. Born in Hanford, California, Steve lived 13 years abroad, completed a BA in Social Psychology, and an MA in Management, before earning the BFA in 2003. A featured speaker at The Representational Art Conference, 2014, he was invited to participate in the International Masters of Fine Art exhibition in
2014. Internationally exhibited, his work has been published in art books, and magazines, such as Art in America, American Art Collector, The Huffington Post, Professional Artist, Fine Art Connoisseur, PoetsArtists, Encaustic Art, International Drawing Annual, and The Artists. He is represented by two galleries in the U.S. He works out of his studio in San Antonio, Texas.
