Robert L. Wallis (American 1927-2021) initially supported himself and his family through commercial art, eventually working up to owning his own advertising agency. However, at 58 years of age he was able to retire early and devote himself full time to his fine art career. Mr. Wallis was born in Evansville, Indiana, and later lived in the historic Meridian Kessler neighborhood in Indianapolis. In addition to his art and advertising careers, Mr. Wallis also worked as a radio announcer and taught ballroom dancing. After retirement, the artist lived and worked on a five acre property in Westfield, Indiana. One interesting facet of Mr. Wallis’ work is that he usually incorporated the current ages of his four sons in tribute somewhere in each painting, similar to the way the artist Al Hirschfeld hid his daughter’s name in each of his works. The numbers are discreetly hidden amongst flowers, as the nautical digits on the bow of a boat, or tucked in the shadows of a barn. Being a wonderful father and husband, he did this as a whimsical tribute to his family and was his way of showing that they were always in his thoughts. Collectors of his watercolors enjoy searching for the discreet ages. His final studio was on five acres in Westfield, Indiana. His favorite subjects were birds and other wildlife along with rural landscapes. His art skills were self taught and he was a member of the Indiana Watercolor Society.

Ramon Urban was born in 1958 in western Spain, where he still lives and works. Since 1980, his work has been represented in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Europe, South America, the United States and Japan. Urban has received considerable wrtitten critical acclaim everywhere he has exhibited.

Ramon Urban makes his elegant, shield-like forms by bending the wood after soaking it over a period of time. The sculptures are given interest by linear extensions that intersect the forms in various ways. He then paints, stains, and draws on the surface, rendering a sublte patina that appears both contemporary and antique at the same time. The artist’s intent is formal, but the unexpected result is absolutely magnificient.

Tula Telfair paints monumental landscapes and epic-scale vistas that are simultaneously awe-inspiring and intimate. She combines stillness with motion, solitude with universality and definition with suggestion in her bold and quiet works. An extension of the progression of landscape from the backdrops of the Renaissance through the travelogues of the nineteenth century and beyond, Telfair’s paintings are fully contemporary in their inspiration and execution. They demonstrate the spirit and potency of the genre adapted to a new century. Each painting calls attention to the power and fragility of the environment. Her work has been described as a meditation on the field itself, fueled by memories of her experiences living on four continents. Telfair shares with us her private vision of the beauty and majesty of the natural world. More than a single moment in time, each scene is a continuum that develops a narrative of past, present and future, indicative of nature itself. (From the Exhibition A World of Dreams) 

 

Telfair is a Professor of Art in the Department of Art and Art History at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. She lives and works in New York City and Lyme, Connecticut. Born in Bronxville, NY in 1961, she grew up in Africa, Asia and Europe before settling in the United States. She received her BFA as a W.W. Smith foundation Fellow from Moore College of Art in 1984 and earned an MFA in 1986 as a Graduate Fellow from Syracuse University. She has work in public collections around the world and has shown extensively in solo and group exhibitions in the United States and abroad.  

Donald Sultan has been a titan of modern art since he stepped onto the scene in the 1970s. He works in an abstract style, often on a monumental scale, to create semi-representational images of our perceived world. His subject matter ranges from stylized still life to industrial disaster, and he is known to use materials as unconventional as tar and common house paint. Sultan holds an BFA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. He now lives and works in New York City. 

A native South Carolinian, the inspiration for Brian Rutenberg’s intensely colored, abstracted landscapes can be traced back to his fascination with the unique quality of light found on the Lowcountry coast. Especially inspiring is that point when land meets the water and, for a moment, the two become blurred, he says.

Rutenberg’s work has been represented in over eighty museum and gallery exhibitions across the United States and abroad can be found in numerous public collections.

Considered a national treasure in his homeland, Manuel Reyna was born in Cordoba, Argentina in 1912, where he lived and worked until his death in 1989. Trained as a brick mason and self taught as an artist, Reyna was recently honored by the Museuo Caraffa in Cordoba with a major career retrospective.

Manual Reyna’s paintings possess a sense of selflessness as he silently and openly shares his world, his Argentina with the viewer. There is a wonderful sense of solitude within these paintings, a harmony of nature and man commmunicated through a sensitive approach to color and impeccable attention to composition.

A native of north-west Pennsylvania, where he still resides, Thomas McNickle is surrounded by Amish neighbors and a landscape that has inspired his work for decades.  

Tom’s exceptional technical ability has been evident since he first began painting in his teens. An intrinsic feature of his painting is the Zen philosophy of rapid execution. Approaching each painting in a meditative state, McNickle relies on complete and relaxed concentration for the layering of direct, spontaneous strokes of color. The power and individuality of these brushstrokes transforms archetypal motifs of land and sky into unique and personal images.   

Tom is a member of the American and National Watercolor Societies and his work has been exhibited in over fifty museum and gallery exhibitions including a mid-career retrospective at the Butler Institute of American Art. His work can be found in numerous permanent collections including the Butler Institute of American Art, the Hoyt Institute of Fine Art, Vero Beach Center for the Arts, Kansas State University, the Mint Museum, among others.  Tom is sought after for large-scale corporate and private commissions. He has also taught landscape workshops coast to coast in the United States and internationally.