American Realist Paintings

Artist Comments
"Dramatic skies rise above a peaceful coastal scene at day’s end," describes artist Mandy Main. "Clouds make an elegant sweep into the distance as their wisps...

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Artist Emil Morhardt paints a glaucous-winged gull lifting off Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska. He paints the bird splashing the crystalline water in detailed realism. "These big gulls are unafraid of brown bears, dodging between their legs to grab morsels," says Emil. He highlights the piece with a silvery edge reflecting a dazzlingly sunny day.

About the Artist
Emil Morhardt is an acrylic painter from Santa Barbara, California who expresses his passion for birds through realistic acrylic paintings. He paints at home in a studio room that has large windows and a north-facing view of the mountains. He observes the animals from this window, watching roadrunners, foxes, bobcats, deer, and coyote run by. Surrounded by this wildlife, Emil paints bird portraits reminiscent of those by artist John James Audubon. He bases his paintings off hundreds of photographs he takes of birds in the wild and at wildlife recovery centers. Emil captures the freedom and inquisitiveness that birds display in the natural world. Before painting birds, he painted landscapes of San Francisco and the Eastern Sierra. Emil was raised in the high desert of California and learned to paint from his father, who was one of the early California watercolorists...

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Sky, water, and a figure all take the spotlight on artist Benjamin Thomas' realistic work. "It is my favorite combination of images," says Benjamin. He paints t...

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Two Chinese vases lay on a background of different shades of gray in artist Guigen Zha's piece. The still life references cultural relics from the Song Dynasty ...

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Artist Shuxing Fan exhibits a picturesque sunset from a neighborhood park in classical painting style. He captures the last rays of t...

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Artist Nick Savides depicts a front-facing view of the Bowery at the corner of Bleecker Street in New York City. Structures rise toward a deep blue November sky in contrast to the warm tone of the buildings below. "The white, red, green, and orange shapes seemed to play off one another, punctuated by windows of various shapes and sizes," describes Nick. "The shadows of the fire escape add some depth to a fairly shallow space while a woman in a red sweatshirt runs from the crosswalk toward an onlooker. On the right is the former location of CBGB, which closed in 2006."

About the Artist
Nick learned to paint from his mother when he was a child, but it wasn’t until college that he decided to be a career artist. His realist images of New York City are inspired by the drama of the city–the changing light, the spontaneous magic. Nick begins his process with reference photographs from his daily life, often shooting the same scene at multiple times of the day. He brings the images back to his Brooklyn studio where he composes a scene in Photoshop, adding and subtracting elements from multiple photographs to achieve the perfect composition before beginning to paint. “As my artwork is realistic, one might be tempted to think they are copies from nature,” says the artist. “Really, they are composed–every detail is considered. It is a balance between what is seen, what is true to nature, and what can make a good painting.”

Words that describe this painting: Hopperesque, Hopper, NYC, New York, cityscape, Bowery, realism, cityscape, facade, street, buildings, architecture, windows, oilpaint, small, travel, architecture, travel, realism, oil painting, blue, orange

On the Bowery...

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This piece was inspired by the desire to linger near or in warm tropical waters, watching the mesmerizing patterns of light refractions as they move with the currents.

About the Artist
Laura Browning...

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Poolside was inspired by warm summer days spent lounging by my backyard pool.

About the Artist
Laura Browning ...

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“Moody clouds appear in shades of blue and gray over dark waters,” describes artist Nancy Hughes Miller. “I find inspiration walking the beach, letting ...

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Artist Emil Morhardt depicts an Elegant Tern and a Forster’s Tern hanging together in the winter shallows of the Santa Barbara beach in California. Their evening reflections ripple above the water highlighted in gold, silver, and copper leaf. "While the Elegant Terns show up in huge flocks, the much smaller Forester’s tern is uncommon in Santa Barbara, and so a treat to see."

About the Artist
Emil Morhardt is an acrylic painter from Santa Barbara, California who expresses his passion for birds through realistic acrylic paintings. He paints at home in a studio room that has large windows and a north-facing view of the mountains. He observes the animals from this window, watching roadrunners, foxes, bobcats, deer, and coyote run by. Surrounded by this wildlife, Emil paints bird portraits reminiscent of those by artist John James Audubon. He bases his paintings off hundreds of photographs he takes of birds in the wild and at wildlife recovery centers. Emil captures the freedom and inquisitiveness that birds display in the natural world. Before painting birds, he painted landscapes of San Francisco and the Eastern Sierra. Emil was raised in the high desert of California and learned to paint from his father, who was one of the early California watercolorists...

Artist Comments
A realistic rendering by artist Emil Morhardt of a calm but vigilant crow on a powerline in the early morning sun. The bird is pain...

Artist Comments
A soft burst of pastels paints the evening sky in this delightful seascape by artist Gail Greene. "A setting sun creates a mystic feeling of enchantment," share...