American Realist Figurative Paintings

Awards 2013 Loring W. Coleman Award for Watercolor/ Allied Artists of America, 100th Annual Exhibition at the National Arts Club 2011 Mary Bryan Memorial Medal / Allied Artis...

"God Bless Our Home" is an interior and figurative scene of a woman sitting on her couch in serious and proper expression. The Americana style paint...

Artist: John McCormick, American Title: Rolls Royce Year: 1983 Medium: Oil on Canvas Size: 18 in. x 32 in. (45.72 cm x 81.28 cm)

"Buddha Statue, Ayutthaya" plein air oil painting at historic site in Thailand Framed Dimensions: 18 x 14 inches Marc Dalessio was born in 1972 in Los Angeles, California. Even in...

Artist: Robert G. Harris, American (1911 - 2007) Title: Louisa, Please Come Home (Grace Kelly) Year: 1960 Medium: Acrylic on Canvas, signed l.l. Size: 20 x 28 in. (50.8 x 71.12 cm) F...

The sacrificial ceremony, Freemans The Collection of Philip Desind Signed Three times Riggs l.r. A powerful account of moments a tribe member is cut open and the heart is handed over to a young brave, There is a reason why there are few contemporary painters who can paint a portrait this good. It's hard to do. It's easy to throw some paint or spray a mess of graffiti on canvas. That's easy. To execute a portrait with a great depth of anatomy and structure takes years of academic training. In Riggs's time there were teachers who knew how to pass on this knowledge. He studied at the Art Students League and the Académie Julian . Today, they are very few and far between. - Robert Riggs was a Gay Artist...

Awards 2013 Loring W. Coleman Award for Watercolor/ Allied Artists of America, 100th Annual Exhibition at the National Arts Club 2011 Mary Bryan Memorial Medal / Allied Arti...

Kevin Frank is represented by George Billis Gallery. Kevin Frank statement: For me, combining the techniques of the ancient Greco-Roman painters with those of the old and new master...

Rick Howell's "Untitled 2" is an original, handmade oil painting that depicts a snow lined stream reflecting the blue and rust colored shimmer of cold water melt flowing into the distance. About the Artist: Rick Howell's landscape paintings deftly fuse the influences of the Old Masters, the American Romantic Landscape movement, and the tonal colors, loose brushwork, and softness of form displayed in the Barbizon school. Howell’s art is notable for its poetic and atmospheric interpretation of the land, as derived from his direct on-site observations and impressions. A master of light, color, and shadow, Howell creates highly ordered scenes which consciously juxtapose hazy or blurred elements with sharp and refined details. A master of the tonalist landscape, Howell often utilizes the overall tone of colored atmosphere or mist to elicit an emotional response. Howell’s work demonstrates extraordinary sensitivity to time and place, to the endless variety of forms and colors of landscape in the Southwest, and to expressing the quiet contemplative beauty of nature, capturing the nuances of place through his use of subtle gradations of color and light. Howell often painted en plein air for weeks at a time, even in harsh winter months. While Howell was neither purely a realist nor an impressionist painter, his works convey both the earthly and the ethereal to capture the full essence of a locale as observed and felt on location. As a fourth-generation native of New Mexico, Howell had a deep connection with the Southwest; in particular, he drew considerable inspiration from the wilderness that surrounded his studio at the mouth of the Conejos Canyon in the Southern San Juan Mountains...

An oil painting of the exteriors of a grouping of historic homes, in various colors, on a sunny day. A white picket fence encases a garden in the foreground. Dimensions: 12 x 24 in...

An oil painting of daffodils in a silver vessell. Situated upon a table, before a window. Maryann Lucas lives and works in Sag Harbor. She is primarily self-taught but has also rec...

"Westview Avalon Harbor" is an American Realist seascape in California with blue tones. Set on Catalina Island, rolling hills make up the horizon. A valley of palm trees sweep toward the shoreline. Boats rest and sail forward in the harbor, a single sailor is seen standing in a small powerboat in the foreground. Framed. Signed. Carl Bretzke is a representational painter who specializes in urban scenes, nocturnes, and plein-air landscapes. He is a member of the Plein Air Painters of America since 2021. Carl's work has been exhibited extensively in Minnesota and California, including the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Carl's work has been described in the Washington Post as "simultaneously intimate and detached…The artist's unadorned style recalls Edward Hopper and The Ashcan school." Carl holds an MD degree from the University of Minnesota Medical School. His undergraduate degree is from the University of Colorado...

Born in Harlem, William Waithe studied painting, drafting and architecture at New York University and Queens College. He was known for painting outdoors, and is particularly identifi...

An oil painting by American Painter Carl Bretzke. This waterscape was painted en plein air in Sag Harbor, NY. A boat heads away from the viewer, toward the tree-lined horizon at twi...

This painting, exemplifies the type of traditional portraits the artist Ariane Beigneux was specially known for. Here, Beigneux depicts the portrait of a little boy and horse in a realistic, and seemingly idealized manner. The artist uses local colors and controlled brushstrokes to render the subject, paying close attention to details adding a special clarity to the naturalism of the portrait. it is painted on Whatman illustration board. some drawing in the margins. Ariane Beigneux was born to French parents in Roxbury, CT in 1918 and passed in 2011. She studied art at the National Academy of Design with Gifford Beal, Sidney Dickinson and Ivan Olinsky and at the Art Students League in New York with Jon Corbino and Jean Liberte. Ariane painted professional artist childrens portraits for six decades. Her work was included in the book 6 Artists Paint a Portrait: Alfred Chadbourn...

This restrained profile, rendered in subdued purples and dusty violets, evokes the stoic silence of the lone gunman archetype. With face partly turned away and hidden beneath a wide-...

An original acrylic on panel by American female artist Catherine Koenig. This stunning work created in 1980 is part of the Draw Near exhibition on view at Benjaman Gallery

Bruce Adams is best known as a conceptually based figurative painter who references various (often historical) painting styles. In exploring the act of painting, Adams peels back the...

"The poor little bridesmaid ... in her pink cotton gown ... though doubtless, there never was such a pretty girl." A kitchen scene is depicted with a young bridesmaid admiring her f...

Both spare and dynamic, Karl Hartman’s hyper-saturated countrysides and surreal depictions of Americana perfectly match the vividness of our late-summer h...

"Lockdown Self-Portrait" is a contemporary realist portrait of the artist in his studio. Framed Dimensions: 17 x 20 inches Marc Dalessio was born in 1972 in Los Angeles, Californi...

Signed lower left: "Darsney".

Christopher Clark's (US based) "The Silence of Light" is an mixed media painting that depicts a woman with full curly black hair with vivid fall leaves of orange, yellow and blue cas...

Patrick Nevin's (US based) "Rachel" is an oil painting that depicts a monochromatic feminine face in profile with a blank white background. Artist Bio...

Bernard Lee's (US based) "Speak" is an oil painting that depicts a figure with a yellow background and doves flying past them Artist Bio/statement: Berna...

Portrait with blue eyes

Blonde figure holding small butterfly in interior

Lone figure by window

'Central Park, Spring Afternoon' 2009 by American artist, Lawrence Kelsey. Oil on panel, 19.5 x 13.5 in. / Handmade gold frame: 24 x 18 in. Depicting a view of Central Park in New Yo...

Street Scene WPA American Scene Mid-20th Century Modern Coin Tower California SF Victor Arnautofff (1896 – 1979) City Street 12 x 14 inches Oil on board, c. 1930s Signed lower left BIO Born in the Ukraine of Russia, Victor Arnautoff became one of the most influential muralists in San Francisco in the 1930s and worked for the Federal Arts Project, WPA, in the expressive, social protest...

'Dissent' 2005 by American artist, Chester Arnold. Oil on canvas, 46 x 54 in. This painting presents a richly painted, aerial view of protesters circa 2005, in the midst of the Iraq ...

Oil on canvas Dr. Rowland S. Russell PhD. writes about his experience directly witnessing Greg's practice as a “plein air” artist: Whether he’s portraying quiet scenes from Brooklyn...

Mid-century female illustrator/artist Gladys Rockmore Davis paints a compelling portrait of a contemplative beauty who looks like Elizabeth Taylor. Frontal and lateral forces work together in this pyramidal composition. The sitter stares down at the viewer creating a frontal tension. Her hypnotic gaze is counterbalanced by the lateral movement of her crossed hands and triggers an emotional response. Gladys Rockmore Davis is both a work-for-hire illustrator and a fine artist- She was an illustrator for clients such as Upjohn, Munsingwear, Elgin Watches, and Johnson & Johnson. Davis had a show at the prestigious Midtown Gallery and Babcock Gallery in New York. She studied at the California School of Fine Arts, Art Institute of Chicago, and Art Students League. William R. French Gold Medal...

This is an original oil on velvet painting created c. 1942. Syd Cockell was an accomplished American illustrator during World War II.

Contemporary oil painting by American realist painter, Carl Bretzke. A snow covered winter landscape at night. A quaint residential neighborhood appears silent after a heavy snowfall...

WPA Mural Study 1940 American Scene Modern Social Realism Figurative Mid Century Michael Loew (1907-1985) Detail for Mural (Social Security Building Washington D.C.) 24 x 24 inches ...

An oil painting by American Realist Painter Steven J. Levin. Levin presents a neutral-toned interior, where a man sits comfortably in a chair, back against the wall, playing a guita...

Honore Sharrer (1920 - 2009) Woman Listening Signed lower right Caseine on paper 15 x 20 inches Provenance: Forum Gallery, New York Private Collection ...

"Sunlight in the Shop" is a post modern oil on aluminium painting. It depicts a woodworker's shop full of tools and equipment. Sunlight is shining through the barn doors onto the equ...

Arnold Friedman worked as a clerk for decades at the Station Y, the branch at 3rd Avenue and East 67th Street in New York City. This present work was done two years after his retirem...

Gregory Block's (US based) "Caddy" is an oil painting that depicts a rusted 1950's Cadillac on a wooden shelf floating among clouds and a bright blue sky. Gregory was born in Kansa...

Kevin Weckbach's (US based) "Urban Stream" is an original, hand made oil painting that depicts an aerial view of an urban waterway, lined with concrete, cutting through a dense urban...

Gregory Block's (US based) "Porcupine" is an oil painting that depicts a Porcupine skull and wooden shelf floating among clouds and a bright blue sky. Gregory was born in Kansas Ci...

Gregory Block's (US based) "Eggs" is an oil painting that depicts a blue mason jar full of eggs on a wooden shelf floating among clouds and a bright bl...

Painted from life, a grouping of irises stand tall against a black backdrop. A classical painting subject and style, with a fresh and intriguing touch. Iris blossoms range from buds ...

"Metamorphosis" features hues of vibrant blue, purple, navy, and yellow. Richard Thomas Scott is inspired by the work of Rembrandt, Andrew Wyeth, and Verm...

Oil on canvas STATEMENT by AUDREY ANASTASI: Considering myself primarily a feminist artist, painting other women, most of my work focuses on the human face, figures, animals and natu...

Painted from life, from a beach, looking across a little harbor full of brightly colored boats towards a little whitewashed town. Along the shoreline are the remnants of a child’s sandcastle. Signed "Personett" lower left corner. Framed in a traditional black frame w gold trim. Framed dimensions: 13 x 12 inches Rachel Personett was born in Hawaii, but raised in Colorado. Being the daughter of a pilot she has always traveled extensively. She has studied part time at the Savannah College of Art and Design, The Angel Academy of Art, and finally settled on the Florence Academy of Art, graduating in 2015. In January 2016 she apprenticed the painter Odd Nerdrum in Norway for eight months. Rachel Personett works strictly from life, and enjoys the challenged of painting the ephemeral. Working from life provides the opportunity to travel around the world painting the ever changing people and landscapes. Artist Statement My mother had studied advertising in college, so she knew a lot about arts and good craftsmanship. She did talks at my elementary school each week and on a different artist. I remember being very moved by the images of Van Gogh and Andrew Wyeth. At the Florence Academy I really liked Sargent, Sorolla, Willard Metcalf, Henri Fantin-Latour and Velazquez. At Odd Nerdrums I gained new respect for Rembrandt and was introduced to other Scandinavian painters...

Painted from life, the artist standing on a street corner looking across to three buildings lit by ambient street lights. Rising up behind the city is a dark mass, a hill silhouetted against the comparatively brighter blue night sky. Signed "Personett" lower right corner. Framed in a traditional black frame w gold trim. Framed dimensions: 17 x 15 inches Rachel Personett was born in Hawaii, but raised in Colorado. Being the daughter of a pilot she has always traveled extensively. She has studied part time at the Savannah College of Art and Design, The Angel Academy of Art, and finally settled on the Florence Academy of Art, graduating in 2015. In January 2016 she apprenticed the painter Odd Nerdrum in Norway for eight months. Rachel Personett works strictly from life, and enjoys the challenged of painting the ephemeral. Working from life provides the opportunity to travel around the world painting the ever changing people and landscapes. Artist Statement My mother had studied advertising in college, so she knew a lot about arts and good craftsmanship. She did talks at my elementary school each week and on a different artist. I remember being very moved by the images of Van Gogh and Andrew Wyeth. At the Florence Academy I really liked Sargent, Sorolla, Willard Metcalf, Henri Fantin-Latour and Velazquez. At Odd Nerdrums I gained new respect for Rembrandt and was introduced to other Scandinavian painters...

Represented by George Billis Gallery, NYC & LA -- For decades, Wes Hempel has been committed to re-envisioning the depiction of masculinity in contemporary art. By setting psychologically acute portraits of modern-day men against backdrops appropriated from such disparate sources as neoclassical history...

"The Abolitionist" features vibrant hues of blue, pink, purple, green and yellow. Richard Thomas Scott is inspired by the work of Rembrandt, Andrew Wyeth,...

A walk through any major museum will reveal paintings that depict or legitimate only certain kinds of experience. Despite the good intentions of critical theorists questioning the va...

Anthony Baus is an alumnus and instructor of the Grand Central Atelier in Long Island City, New York. His unique artistic vision, which mines the world of the Old Masters and antiqui...

This painting features two children with big brown eyes peeking behind red-slatted shutters. The innocence on their faces contrasts with some sense of embarrassment, like if they had...

An oil painting of an antique pair of tongs, meant for use during ice fishing. Suspended from a small rope, hanging from a single nail, against a grey backdrop. Brushstrokes can be seen in the gray of the background, but are harder to make out on the subject. Morfis paints in an extremely refined, realist approach. Painting dimensions: 25 x 19 inches Framed dimensions: 30 x 24 x 1.5 inches Available at Grenning Gallery. BIOGRAPHY John Morfis was born in Glen Cove, Long Island in 1976. His humble beginnings made pursuing a career in art difficult and paradoxically necessary. Fixated on making things aesthetically pleasing, John made an extreme departure from his family life when he chose to base his life on art. Surrounded by mechanics, welders, and otherwise trade workers John had a tough time expressing his interest in a world much more utilitarian and much less expressive and impractical. With an extraordinary desire to be an artist and a grant awarded, John was able to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a concentration in painting from the University of Hartford in 1998. While there John studied oil painting under American realist Stephen Brown. John’s first solo show took place in 2007 at the Ellen Traut Collection Gallery in Hartford, CT and was a near sell out. Since then John has had success up and down the northeastern coast of the United States working with various galleries and collectors. His work has also appeared in various group shows at the New Britain Museum of American Art in Connecticut. ARTIST STATEMENT Each painting, although a portrait of a tired hand...

Hector Garrido is an American book cover illustrator. He illustrated numerous science fiction, horror and adventure book covers, including all the covers for the Baroness series of pulp novels, and covers for the Destroyer series. He also illustrated romance and gothic novels, and Nancy Drew and Hardy...

There is a reason why there are few contemporary painters who can paint a portrait this good. It's hard to do. It's easy to throw some paint or spray a mess of graffiti on canvas. That's easy art. Executing a portrait with a great depth of anatomy and structure takes years of academic training. In Riggs's time, there were teachers who knew how to pass on this knowledge. He studied at the Art Students League and the Académie Julian . Today, they are very few and far between. Tempera mixed with gum arabic and alcohol on Renaissance Panel - Robert Riggs was a Gay Artist...

What makes this work important? It's not that it's a commissioned artwork for a men's 60s pulp adventure magazine depicting the instant a soldier is shot. The big point of the painting is how brilliantly the formal elements are thought out, designed, and executed. John McDermott tells a story using a complex figural composition in an unexpected wide-angle vision. The work is as abstract as it is representation. His use of light is significant because it creates a high-contrast two-color style that bears the mark of its creator. This is a work done by a master artist/illustrator without peers compared to artists living today. If the contemporary art world gave awards for draftsmanship, painting technique, and graphic design .... John McDermott would win the highest accolades. Initialed lower left - unframed John McDermott (August 30, 1919 – April 20, 1977), also known under the pen names J.M. Ryan and Mariner, was an American illustrator and author noted for action and adventure illustrations.[1] McDermott worked as an in-between and effects animator for Walt Disney Studios and as a US Marine combat artist,before establishing himself as a cover illustrator for 1950s paperbacks and pulp magazines such as Argosy, American Weekly, and Outdoor Life. Under his J.M. Ryan pen name, he wrote the novels The Rat Factory (1971), a derogatory satire of Walt Disney and the Disney studio; Brooks Wilson Ltd (1967), on which the 1970 film Loving was based; and Mother's Day (1969) about Ma Barker. Under his own name, he novelized director-writer Bo Widerberg's screenplay for the 1971 film Joe Hill, which would be his final published book. Early life John Richard McDermott was born 30 August 1919 in Pueblo, Colorado, the younger of two sons of Henry McDermott, an oil broker. McDermott was a young child when his father committed suicide.[4] The family eventually moved to Los Angeles where McDermott's mother, Hazel, worked in a beauty parlor. He graduated from Hollywood High School in 1936. Although he had had no formal art education, he took a job as an artist at Walt Disney Animation Studios. Career Disney At Disney, McDermott worked as an in-betweener and effects animator on Brave Little Tailor, Pinocchio, The Reluctant Dragon and Fantasia. His experiences while working at Disney, particularly during the time of the 1941 Disney animators' strike, would later become the basis for his 1969 satirical novel The Rat Factory. McDermott left Disney to fight with US forces during World War II. US Marines McDermott World War II sketch titled "Buddy is Wounded" On September 29, 1942, McDermott enlisted with the US Marine Corps. He served as a "pistol and palette" combat artist assigned to the map-making section. As a sergeant with the III Amphibious Corps, McDermott was involved in battles in the South Pacific theater of war, documenting the Guam, Okinawa and the Guadalcanal Campaigns. McDermott considered his wartime years to be his art education. "In the Marines, as a combat artist, I traveled with the troops and for three years got all the drawing opportunity anyone could want. My work changed enormously during this time and I’m sure it was due to constant drawing, every single day, from life, just putting down what I saw around me. In a few instances it was a dangerous kind of scholarship." According to the Marine Corps history journal Fortitudine, McDermott was so prolific that his contemporary style pen-and-ink sketches became easily recognizable to both Marines, from published work in Leatherneck Magazine, and civilians, from glossy copies supplied by the Marine Corps to the nation's press.His wartime art appears in World War II history books and is displayed at the Pentagon and the National Museum of the Marine Corps. Illustration Following the end of World War II, McDermott moved from California to New York City to work as a freelance illustrator. McDermott made his reputation drawing modern action, war and adventure scenes. His work adorned the covers and inside story pages of popular pulp magazines of the 1950s such as Argosy, Adventure, Blue Book, Outdoor Life and American Weekly. McDermott's illustrations appeared on numerous covers of 1950s paperback novels published by Dell, Fawcett Gold Medal, Bantam Mystery and others. His action graphics were geared toward thriller and detective genres, such as Donald Hamilton's Matt Helm books Murderers' Row and The Betrayers. He also created covers for science fiction comic titles such as Voyage to the Deep[citation needed] and horror-themed paperbacks such as the classic 1955 science fiction novel The Body Snatchers...