Nature
"February Moonrise"
By Ben Bauer (oil on linen, 30” x 40”)
Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, artist Ben Bauer learned the joys of outdoor life in his youth and retains a deep appreciation for the natural world its seasonal cycles. His love of drawing and painting began in grade school and later led to earning an art degree from the University of Wisconsin-Stout.
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After graduating, Bauer continued his art education by studying the work of past landscape artists as diverse as George Inness and Edgar Payne, as well as sharing information with other contemporary artists. Bauer is dedicated to preserving rural landscapes and his painting have a strong sense of place.
Bauer is represented by Rehs Contemporary and T. H. Brennan Fine Art
"Winter Whispers"
By Josh Elliott (oil, 30” x 33”)
Josh Elliott is a third-generation artist with a passion for plein air painting. His grandfather was an amateur artist who studied under Grant Wood and his father, Dr. Steven C. Elliott, was a physician who became a full-time wildlife artist. Josh Elliott aims to celebrate the beauty and truth of nature in his art: "A successful painting, to me, represents nature's truth filtered through the artist.”
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Elliott’s many honors include the Harrison Eiteljorg Purchase Award and the Artists Choice Award at the Quest for the West shows in 2016 and 2011, respectively. His art is part of several museum and society collections, including the Whitney Museum of Western Art, the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, and the Montana Historical Society.
Elliott is represented by Legacy Gallery, Maxwell Alexander Gallery, Simpson Gallagher Gallery, For Fine Art, Claggett-Rey Gallery, and Medicine Man Gallery. You can also see his artwork on his Instagram account.
"Study in Transience"
By Evan C. Abrahamson (mixed media, acrylic, ink, pumice, oil, 20” x 20”)
Evan Abrahamson is a mixed media artist working in acrylic, pen and ink, pumice, and oil to create cityscapes, figures in landscape, and florals. The featured painting, Study in Transience, encapsulates his process and goal of depicting impermanence. As Abrahamson explains, his “practice inhabits the unstable ground between intention and chance, where each mark becomes both a decision and a surrender … to hold in tension the contradictory demands of craft and concept, permanence and erasure.”
Abrahamson studied art at the Minnesota College of Art and Design (MCAD), where he received a Presidential Scholarship. His work is in both private and public collections. He is represented by Meyer Gallery in Santa Fe and Mockingbird Gallery in Bend, Oregon. He posts updates on his Instagram account.
"Autumn (Blueberry Hill)"
By Shawn Krueger (oil on canvas, 24” x 44.5”)
"Caladium"
By Eric Wert (oil on canvas, 48” x 48”, 2024)
Shawn Krueger is part of the new tonalist movement and in 2019 became a Signature Artist of the American Tonalist Society. Working both in his studio and plein air, he strives “to identify the poetry within a given landscape while seeking to discover a sense of his own place within it.” In his work, as in his life, he searches for “peace, place and quiet beauty…”
Krueger’s paintings are in numerous private and public collections, including the Michigan House of Representatives and the Grand Rapids Art Museum. His work has been exhibited at the prestigious Salmagundi Club in New York City. He is represented by several galleries: Abend Gallery (Denver), Circa Arts Gallery (South Bend, IN), Eden Compton Studio and Gallery (Saratoga Springs, NY), Groveland Gallery (Asheville, NC), Mission Guild Studio Gallery (Cooperstown, NY), and River Gallery (Chattanooga, TN).
Krueger posts updates on his Instagram account. There is an interview with him on the Groveland Gallery website.​​​​​​​​
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Artist Eric Wert paints largescale florals and still life inspired by the masters of the Dutch Baroque and Golden Age but infused with a modern sensibility. With fine arts degrees from the Art Institute of Chicago and Northwestern University, Wert has been a professional artist for a quarter-century.
Wert has participated in more than 100 group shows and seven solo shows. His paintings are in the public collections of the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation at Carnegie Mellon University, the New Britain Museum of American Art (CT), and the Illinois State Museum in Springfield. He is represented by Gallery Henoch in New York City and William Baczek Fine Arts in Northampton, Massachusetts.
Wert’s art has been featured in numerous publications. Two excellent articles that discuss his painting process, illustrated with large photographs, are available free online: “Eric Wert: Inspired by Dutch Still Life” on Realism Today and “Making It Big: Eric Wert Takes Floral Painting to a Whole New Level” on The Artists’ Network.​​
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"Autumnal"
By Sebastian Galloway (oil on copper, c. 22” x 22”, 2022)
Artist Sebastian Galloway is from Tasmania, where he resides in the forested foothills outside Hobart. Since graduating in 2014 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Tasmania, he has had four solo art shows, including at Despard Gallery, and been part of several group shows.
Galloway is inspired by the landscape and people of Tasmania, which he renders in highly realistic style. In recent years, he has favored a copper surface for his oils, which are often florals of exquisite beauty, such as the featured painting.
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Galloway’s paintings quickly gained accolades from prestigious art competitions. His self-portrait was a finalist for The Lester Prize in 2019. His portrait of Pirrin Francis won the Tony Fini Foundation Prize in 2020, which is chosen by the finalists for The Lester Prize. In 2021, his “View of Mt. Lyell through an Acid Raindrop” earned The Glover Prize for best contemporary landscape painting of Tasmania. In 2022, he won the Guy Warren Emerging Artists' Award, which is one of the annual Mosman Art Prizes.
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"Treasuring the Moon"
By Imamura Yoshio (etching and woodblock, 15” x 20”, 2020)
Imamura Yoshio was born in 1948 in the mountainous Nagano Prefecture of central Japan. In the 1970s, he began working as a graphic designer and studying printmaking. Although largely self-taught, he was mentored by Nakabayashi Tadayoshi, a renowned print artist and art professor, and attended the Atelier Contrepoint in Paris.
Imamura’s art depicts the natural beauty, transience, and cycle of the Japanese countryside. Within his abstract compositions of geometric shapes are images of the flowers, leaves, rocks, and other natural objects collected on his walks. His mixed media art includes aquatint, chine collé, collagraph, engraving, etching, copperleaf, goldleaf, silverleaf, and woodblock.
Imamura’s art is in several museum collections worldwide, including the Suzaka Municipal Print Museum in Nagano, Japan; the National Singapore Art Museum; the Museum of Arts and Crafts in Hamburg, Germany; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.; and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
Imamura’s prints are available at The Tolman Collection in New York City and Tokyo and Davidson Galleries in Seattle, Washington.
"Mist"
By Zha Sai (reduction woodcut, 24” x 27.5” )
Zha Sai was born in 1974 in Wuhan, China, where her father was a printmaker at the Hubei Institute of Fine Arts. She began her general art studies there at age 15 and, four years later, focused on printmaking. After receiving her master’s degree from Hubei Institute, she became a Professor of Printmaking.
Zha Sai’s subject is the natural world of Hubei Province with its many lakes and Yangtze River. She finds the focused, repetitive process of reduction woodcutting to be meditative and enjoyable.
Zha Sai is represented by Davidson Galleries in Seattle, Washington.