Victor Nizovtsev was born in Russia and studied at the Ilia Repin Collge for Art in Chisinau, Moldavia and the Vera Muhina University for Industrial Arts in St. Petersburg. He now lives in the U.S. in Maryland.

His paintings have some of the narrative character of Golden Age children’s book illustration, and draw on influences from Art Nouveau, Symbolist and other 19th century painters (in particular John Singer Sargent’s Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose), but have a contemporary feel.

His subjects include repeated dream-like themes of mermaids, floating lanterns, colorful jesters, playing card kings and queens, storybook villages and playful children. These are arranged in seemingly narrative compositions and portrayed in vibrant color with wonderful elements of texture, at times reminiscent of Gustav Klimt’s decorative textural areas.

I haven’t been able to find a dedicated site or blog for Nizovtsev, but his work is represented by at least two galleries, and there are several mentions of his work on other blogs and art sites.

The McBride Gallery in Anapolis, MD, seems to be his primary gallery, offering both originals and giclee prints, and including some bio information on their site. There are several pages of images (though some links are broken).

His work is reproduced larger elsewhere, however, such at Tutt’ Art and Inspirations. I’ve listed what other sources I could find below.

[Suggestion courtesy of Tim Poorman]

On the Way between Old and New Cairo, Citadel Mosque of Mohammed Ali, and Tombs of the Mamelukes by Louis Comfort Tiffany.

Tiffany is better known for his stained glass and decorative works, but was a skilled painter in the orientalist vein.

In the Brooklyn Museum. Click “Download” under the image and choose a size.

See my post on Louis Comfort Tiffany.

Aaron Schuerr portrays the mountains, streams and woodlands of his adopted home of Montana in both oil and pastel.

His plein air works show a subtle appreciation for the fleeting effects of light, and his painterly approach demonstrates a keen awareness of the importance of edges. Though mountains are his most frequent subject, I particularly enjoy his compositions that include small streams and rivers.

When viewing the sections of work on his website for both available and archived work be aware that there are multiple pages for each, accessed from small linked dots at the bottom of the pages. yon can find additional examples of his work on his blog, and on the websites of galleries in which he is represented (listed below).

Delbert Gish is an American painter who received his master of fine arts degree from the University of Idaho, but went on from there to study with late 20th century and contemporary masters Sergei Bongart, David Leffel, Harvey Dinnerstein, Burton Silverman and Nelson Shanks.

The legacy of his study with those painters is reflected in his subtle and beautifully balanced still life, incisive portraits and crisp, fresh landscapes. His figurative work and landscapes are often from his travels in Russia, India and Rwanda.

I have been unable able to find a dedicated website of blog for Gish, but his work can be seen on the site of the Mockingbird Gallery, Art Spirit Gallery and others I’ve linked below

Cottage near the Entrance to a Wood, Rembrandt van Rijn.

If I were writing an illustrated dictionary of art terms, next to “economy of notation” I would have one of Rembrandt’s drawings.

Interestingly, for an artist whose paintings were primarily portraiture, many of Rembrandt’s etchings, and a high percentage of the drawings apparently done for his own pleasure, were landscapes.

In the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Use “Fullscreen” link and zoom or download arrow.

Still Life with Roses and Fruit, Henri Fantin-Latour.

In the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Use Fullscreen link and Zoom or download arrow.

Though I also admire Fantin-Latour’s mature work, I just love the painterly quality of this early still life — a wonderful study in brushwork and edges.

To my thinking, there is a direct line from this to the later painterly still life paintings of American Impressionists like William Merritt Chase and Abbott Handerson Thayer.

Paul Roden and Valerie Lueth are collaborative artists working in woodblock prints, and are also husband and wife.

Tugboat Printshop is their online store and gallery. The site not only showcases their work but is in large part devoted to process, and details various aspects of the creation and production of their prints.

Their work has that wonderful graphic punch that woodcuts can so nicely provide, frequently with bright, high chroma colors added in subsequent steps of the printing process. At times their compositions walk the line (if you’ll excuse the expression) between decorative and pictorial. (I’ve taken the liberty in some of the images above of cropping in on the image area and eliminating the prints actual borders in order to reproduce them larger in a limited space.)

When viewing their site, the Printshop/Store section acts as a gallery, but there is also an Archive, not a easily accessible from the main menus, within which are additional sections like Life of Leisure, Deep Blue Sea and others.

You will find a section on their working methods within Shop Info, under which the initial sub-section is Printshop and Process.

It’s worth noting, though, that when browsing the prints in the Store gallery, clicking through to the individual detail page for the work will often provide additional background information and images of the process for that individual work.

[Via Belinda Del Pesco, on @bdelpesco]

Originally from California and now living and working in Virginia, painter Armand Cabrera brings several aspects of his background into play when creating his vibrant, painterly landscapes, still lifes and figurative works.

He draws on his 20 years of experience as a visual development artist for the entertainment industry, in which his clients include LucasFilm Games, Disney, Zynga, Electronic Arts, Virgin Entertainment, Nickelodeon, Microsoft and Paramount Pictures.

He draws on his study of past masters, particularly the painterly realism of late 19th and early 20th century painters and illustrators, many of which he highlights in profiles on his widely read and always fascinating blog, Art and Influence.

Mostly, however, he draws from his own extensive experience as a plein air painter, and brings that sensibility of immediacy and economy of notation to his studio work as well.

Under the “Exhibit” link on his website you will find galleries of studio paintings, outdoor paintings, commissions and narrative paintings. (The major sections have multiple pages, linked numerically at the bottom).

His primary focus is on landscape, and within that genre he tackles a variety of subjects from both his local area and his travels in the U.S. and abroad: woodlands, rocky shorelines, mountains, vineyards, gardens, swamplands, farms and fields, as well as townscapes and marine scenes.

I particularly enjoy those landscapes in which his fascination with light effects is expressed in streaks of sunlight alternating with shadow sweeping horizontally across the composition. He also creates compositions in which value contrasts are reduced, in overcast conditions, but through all of his work is a feeling of color as an expressive element, creating a sense of mood as well as time and place.

You can also find examples of Cabrera’s work on his Art and Influence blog, interspersed with his articles about artists worth investigating (which have introduced me to a number of terrific artists) as well as how-to technical articles about painting process and problem solving, along with several step-through demos. You can find a helpful index of topics in the left column, and his articles are so extensive and interesting that I will give Art and Influence my Time Sink Warning, as you can get happily lost there for hours on end.

Cabrera also teaches workshops and classes, including one coming up this April in Athens, Georgia.

Cabrera’s work is currently on exhibit in a solo show at Interiors of Washington, in Bethesda, Maryland, that runs until April 30, 2013.