Melissa Graves Brown

Angel Ramiro Sanchez was born in 1974 in Maracaibo, Venezuela. At six, he was accepted with full scholarship into the Instituto the Niños Cantores del Zulia, a school for musically gifted children. At 14, he began five years of apprenticeship with the realist painter, Abdon J. Romero, an eminent specialist in murals for churches and public buildings. In 1993, a study grant from Gustavo Ocando Yamarte, founder of the Niños Cantores, enabled him to travel to Florence, Italy, where he studied at the renowned Accademia di Belle Arti, graduating with Magna Cum Laude in 1997. At the same time, he was enrolled at The Florence Academy of Art, founded by painter Daniel Graves, where he received a diploma in painting. Sanchez was appointed senior painting instructor at The Florence Academy of Art in 1997 and is currently director of the Advanced Painting Program. Ramiro paints only from life, searching for accuracy beyond physical appearance to reach the psychological state of his subject. He believes the painter must draw his information from "all five senses" to tell the complete human story. His works can be found in numerous private collections in Europe, The United States and South America. The public collections include The Fondazione Stelline, Milan, Italy. The Fremantle Foundation for Foreign Artists in Tuscany at Villa Peyron, Florence, Italy, and The Muscarelle Museum of Art at the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, USA. He shares his life and passion for art with his wife, artist Melissa Franklin-Sanchez.

Painting is an art form that has spanned innumerable cultures, with artists using the medium to tell stories, explore and communicate ideas and express themselves. To bring abstract, landscape and still-life paintings into your home is to celebrate and share in the long tradition of this discipline.

When we look at paintings, particularly those that originated in the past, we learn about history, other cultures and countries of the world. Like every other work of art, paintings — whether they are contemporary creations or works that were made during the 19th century — can often help us clearly see and understand the world around us in a meaningful and interesting way.

Cave walls were the canvases for what were arguably the world’s first landscape paintings, which depict natural scenery through art. Portrait paintings and drawings, which, along with sculpture, were how someone’s appearance was recorded prior to the advent of photography, are at least as old as Ancient Egypt. In the Netherlands, landscapes were a major theme for painters as early as the 1500s. Later, artists in Greece, Rome and elsewhere created vast wall paintings to decorate stately homes, churches and tombs. Today, creating a wall of art is a wonderful way to enhance your space, showcase beautiful pieces and tie an interior design together.

No matter your preference, whether you favor Post-Impressionist paintings, animal paintings, Surrealism, Pop art or another movement or specific period, arranging art on a blank wall allows you to evoke emotions in a room while also showing off your tastes and interests. A symmetrical wall arrangement may comprise a grid of four to six pieces or, for an odd number of works, a horizontal row. Asymmetrical arrangements, which may be small clusters of art or large, salon-style gallery walls, have a more collected and eclectic feel. Download the 1stDibs app, which includes a handy “View on Wall” feature that allows you to see how a particular artwork will look on a particular wall, and read about how to arrange wall art. And if you’re searching for the perfect palette for your interior design project, what better place to turn than to the art world’s masters of color?

On 1stDibs, you’ll find an expansive collection of paintings and other fine art for your home or office. Browse abstract paintings, portrait paintings, paintings by popular artists and more today.