21st Century and Contemporary More Art

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Artist Yangzi Xu depicts an iconic view of LaSalle Street in Chicago, facing south from the bridge. She rendered this piece in a warm muted palette, setting the stage to highlight sporadic lights and reflections on wet concrete. "My focus was to convey the mood and feeling a rainy day brings to my beloved city," shares Yangzi.

About the Artist
Artist Yangzi Xu captures a nostalgia for Chicago and its dramatic seasonal changes in her expressionist cityscapes. Having a full-time job and being a wife and mother, Yangzi makes a habit of painting everyday to keep her passion exciting and fresh. She keeps a queue of ideas and reference photos that she takes throughout the year. She looks through her references, tweaks and adds elements to them. Once inspiration strikes, Yangzi draws several sketches and begins to work with oils on canvas on multiple pieces at once - to keep each painting spontaneous and new. "I try to capture the paradox of life in the city, where one can be in a crowd and yet feel alone," Yangzi says. "My main intent is not to capture the physical reality of a scene, but to express my own moods and feelings to my audience." In her free time, Yangzi enjoys reading, with her current favorite genres being biographies and memoirs. Yangzi is an alumnus of DePaul University in Chicago.

Words that describe this painting: Chicago, La Salle...

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In the style of contemporary realism, artist Guigen Zha paints a porcelain vase of Buddha's head. A bouquet of blue lotus flowers blooms in the oriental still life. Succulent dew drops glaze the delicate petals. Guigen conveys the message of hope and peace for good in life.

About the Artist

Words that describe this painting: healing, lotus, belief, still life, floral, poetic, cultural relics, Tang Sancai, oriental, Asian, Chinese, oilpaint, realism, ceramic, flower, vase, budha, head, vertical, tonal, still life, flora, realism, oil painting, grey

The Buddha...

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In this dramatic seascape, Jesse Aldana describes a stormy evening on the coast near Santa Barbara, CA. A cloudburst races acros...

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A whimsical and dramatic portrait of a stylish figure posed with a lion. "I wanted to create a striking fantasy, playing up the sophistication of the model ag...

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"The forest of Crested Butte, Colorado, thick with blue spruce, Douglas-fir, lodgepole pine, cottonwood, and aspen perform a sile...

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Abstract blue and white flowers intermingle with free-forming violet patterns, reminiscent of underwater life. Part of a series of small-scale works inspired ...

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A paper crane flies among a flock of birds against a dusky warm gradient. "The title of this work, 'This Is Not a Flock of Birds,' is a nod to Belgian surrealist painter René Magritte," shares artist Candice Eisenfeld. She takes pleasure in letting her viewers create their own meanings inspired by her work.

About the Artist
As an American exploring issues of identity, artist Candice Eisenfeld paints through the lens of the first American art movement, the Hudson River School. Rather than depicting a specific locale, Candice’s artwork evokes a sense of place. These "inner landscapes" are invented, and often reference photographs taken during travels in southern Appalachia and the Blue Ridge and Smokey Mountains. Whether real or imagined, her paintings are influenced by the Dutch Masters, Tonalists, and Chinese painting. Produced on a single wooden panel, the ethereal landscapes are often joined with segments of aqueous color fields which act as commentary for the landscapes, like the chorus in a Greek play. The crisp, hard edges separating the landscapes from the color fields command a sense of order in an otherwise fluid and painterly surface. With two or three sections of the panel competing for attention, the painting creates multiple focal points. Candice's art has been displayed in embassies in Namibia and Belarus, held in the collections of Norwest Bank and Northwest...

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This painting is part of Suren Nersisyan's series of California landscapes focusing on the nature and stunning light around Los Angeles. He draws inspiration from the residential streets, parks and gardens that dot the vast city. Of this piece, Suren says Just before dusk, the soft light from the sun and the beautiful colors of vintage buildings...

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Artist Judy Mackey displays a sensual and mystical portrait of an angel. She shows the subject evoking a sense of mystery with her face obscured. The dreamy f...

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Part of Rachel's Rodeo Tarot series. A playful interpretation of The Moon card. The moon hovers above the landscape, embracing circling fish or yin and yang. ...

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Artist Guigen Zha displays a blooming lotus flower that echoes through the composition. It blooms from a porcelain Prunus vase pain...

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Artist Janet Dyer shares an impressionist perspective of a still lake on a quiet spring day. She paints pristine waters reflecting the lively trees in complem...

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"This colorful combination of irises and wildflowers was so inspiring to paint!" shares artist Oksana Johnson. "To make sure all the colors have the center st...

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Red wildflowers line the Pacific Coast in this sunny scene of the Monterey Bay in California. Artist Lisa Elley says she is greatly inspired by Monet's work, ...

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"Great horned owls spend a lot of time sitting and intently watching, rotating their heads to look at whatever interests them, including me," shares artist Emil Morhardt...

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The bison and the beetle have a prehistoric elegance about them that I thought would compliment each other perfectly. Symbolically, both represent life and mortality, which has been on my mind lately. To Native Americans, bison are symbolic of sacred life and abundance. And in ancient greek mythology the beetle became revered as a symbol of rebirth and immortality -- its daily journey across the sky became an allegory of human life. The Wallpaper collection is a juxtaposition of masculine meets feminine. I wanted to create a unique series that stands apart from traditional nature paintings, where the wild and somewhat prehistoric aspects of my animals featured contrast against their delicate backdrops. In addition to this, many of my paintings are created with a little bit of underlying symbolism usually sparked from a world event or life moment that I am experiencing. I concentrate on this theme as a therapeutic mantra throughout the creation of the painting. For each painting, different techniques and layers of design are implemented when creating the wall paper effect. To keep the patterns consistent I create a stencil to outline the shapes of my hummingbirds, bugs and fish, and then I hand paint each shape individually. In the areas where I wanted a little more chaos, I would forgo the stencil and eyeball each design. My animals are always painted first, and then I layout the design around them.

About the Artist
Australian-born Alana Clumeck...

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This painting was inspired by the idea that we are shaped by outside forces, but remain unchanged, we persist in the face of adversity. It is what makes us human. My energetic oil paintings of stallions explore and illustrate movement through nature. This work represents an immigrant journey or strength and perseverance. I incorporate both contemporary (watercolor) and traditional (ink calligraphy) painting styles into this series.

About the Artist
Art has been with Shao Yuan Zhang for the majority of his extraordinary, and at times difficult, life journey. Raised in communist China...

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"Path Beside the Lake" captures the feeling of a crisp, breezy Autumn afternoon on a path around a lake. The near trees have a few golden leaves clinging to ...

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On her commute, Yangzi used to pass State St in the evening when the lights were just turning on. "This is a moment of fleeting beauty that you want to stop and appreciate," she says. "This is the magnificence that Chicago has to offer." Yangzi developed the energy of the scene, roughly painting in the speeding cars and drawing the eye back into the composition with her strongly angled perspective.

About the Artist
Artist Yangzi Xu...

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Artist Janet Dyer displays an expressive landscape of the highlands of France. Towering green trees stand against the azure skyline. "Provence is more than la...

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Artist Nikolay Rizhankov shows a tranquil winter scene in this work. A boy walks his dog around the frosty driveway on a quiet evening. They both enjoy the st...

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Artist George Peebles offers an evening landscape with tall willowy trees standing like shadows on the horizon. A dark image of the forest is starkly juxtaposed with a vibrant field in the foreground. George is known for his dramatic fall landscapes and panoramic ocean vistas...

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"The elephant always hosted the best tea parties, everyone agreed," says artist Andrea Doss. "Her dream was to bake a cake taller than the giraffe, but she ha...

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A young maiko - a geisha in training - strolls in an abstract landscape, her delicate face decorated in traditional makeup. The organic patterning surrounding...

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Artist Morgan Fite paints with neutral tones, letting movement, texture and subtle contrasts tell the story and capture moments in time. "I painted this piece...

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"This horse was just one in the midst of a crowd at the Santa Fe rodeo - a group that was waiting in the pens behind the action," shares artist Heather Foster...

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Artist Shuxing Fan paints a rippling pond on a misty cloudy day. The composition, color, and brushwork follow classical landscape t...

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"Many types of phacelia are a welcome and colorful sight in the desert in spring," shares artist Crystal DiPietro. "In this piece, a large purple variety stan...

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"Togetherness is a wonderful place to be, and what better reflects a bond of love," says artist Jeff Fleming. He displays a touching portrait of a golden retriever mom affectionately posing with her puppy. Jeff begins with a pencil sketch and applies paint with his fingers, brushes, and string. He drizzles paint in random strokes to create an energetic composition brimming with splashes of color.

About the Artist
Artist Jeff Fleming uses fingerpainting to create exuberant portraits of dogs. Growing up in Southern California, Jeff was first introduced to fingerpainting in kindergarten. He painted through high school and college and won several art awards, including Best of Show in a city wide student competition. After graduating with a degree in journalism and advertising, he went to work as an art director. For the next 40 years, he created print, radio and television ads for a number of top agencies. "After retiring in 2019, the clouds of stress and pressure cleared and allowed me to set my creative energy free," says Jeff. He began developing new techniques focused on the excitement and energy of painting. Today, he uses a variety of methods and tools, including fingerpainting wearing nitrile gloves...

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Artist Shyun Song explains of her clean, minimalist oil paintings, "As an intense observer, I am interested in mythology and psychology. Whenever I come acros...

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As the sun rises on the distant horizon, the hillside awakes with spring color. "The transition between winter and spring is my favorite time to paint," says ...

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"The bold colors portray the evening's best," states artist George Peebles. He offers an atmospheric vision of a forest right at the edge of a thick and dry g...