Miranda Jane Caird

"Painting is more about narrowing down the infinite, than it is about coming up with an idea"

Miranda Jane Caird is a full time Artist, based at Whale Bay, Raglan, New Zealand. Born on November 20th 1964.

Mainly painting landscapes, Miranda speaks about past and present of her homeland New Zealand in her work, creating striking pieces with a distinctly South Pacific feel. Miranda is interested in events that have shaped the landscape from ancient times, when Zealandia broke away from Gwondana Land, through to the recent events of human habitation. Pattern and movement are strong elements in Miranda’s work. A variety of brush strokes are used in both opaque and translucent layers, bringing vibrancy to the work. Clean lines define forms and provide clarity.

Education: Distinction in Art at High School, Majored in Art at Wellington Teacher’s College graduating in 1992. Residency: A six week residency offered by the MacKenzie Country Arts Council in 2011. Awards: Merit Award, the Great Waikato Art Show 2009. Open Class Award, Waimarino Art Awards 2010

Miranda Jane Caird's work has found its way into private collections around the world, both with off shore Kiwis and visitors to New Zealand. In 2009, she was interviewed for nationwide Japanese television, with a viewing audience of 8 million people. In 2011 and 2012 she was included in group exhibitions held by Camden Gallery Of Fine Art at Camden Civic Centre, Camden, NSW, Australia. Miranda has sold over 1000 originals through galleries worldwide (List of galleries and exhibitions on request). Miranda has made her artwork very accessible in the form of prints and merchandise.

Miranda selected paintings for Zero-B-Charity-Art-Sales showing landscapes and giving an idea of her special view of New Zealand's amazing surroundings and the interplay of past and present human influence giving additional shape to the land.

www.artistjcaird.com | www.mirandajcaird.art

John Chester Kaine

My work tends to have some existential meaning to me with ideas of the self.

John was born on September 22nd in 1962. He lived most of his life near San Francisco in California, USA and is currently going back and forth between the USA and Mexico working on his little house in Oaxaca as he is planning to move there with his partner Ed and his mother. John has been exhibiting his work in the USA and Mexico. A full list of exhibitions can be provided on request, here comes a short selection:

John Kaine’s solo shows include:

• 2002: "Pinche Juan", Steve Martin Studio, New Orleans, USA
• 2003: "Nowhere Now Here", Steve Martin Studio, New Orleans, USA
• 2006: "Is this what you wanted?”, Steve Martin Studio, New Orleans, USA

His group shows include:

• 2004: 8th Annual "No Dead Artists", Jonathan Ferrera Gallery, New Orleans, USA
• 2008: "Tijuana Bienal de Estandartes", Centro Cultural Tijuana, Mexico

John Chester Kaine creates his work in the Pop Art tradition using images found in magazines or found photos: Disney's figures, photos of film-stars and fashion photos. Colorful California and Mexico is his muse. Sometimes political or philosophical contents are adopted. John introduces an unusual and exciting mosaic of figures in every painting to the observer inviting him to see the world from a different point of view. For example you will ask yourself why John painted Jesus and Donald Duck in one painting and it might keep your mind busy guessing what these two have in common.

John about himself: "I am mostly a self-taught Californian painter who, never having been an activist, came of age during the devastation of the AIDS epidemic here in the San Francisco bay area in the early 80’s and on. My work tends to have some existential meaning to me with ideas of the self. I have been influenced strongly by Mexico having lived and traveled there for many years now."

Christina Schwermer

Painting is not a profession but a way of being.

I was born in Berlin on October 24th in 1964 and grew up near Stuttgart, Germany and Winchester, England. I studied Ethnology (African culture) and languages (French and Italian) in Saarbrucken and Berlin, graduating in 1994. In addition to my university studies, I trained as an actress, focusing on improvisation. I have worked as an Italian interpreter on large construction sites and as a press officer in theatre. I am based in Berlin and spend part of the year travelling and painting in Central America.

I am a Self-taught / Outsider artist and I am proud of it. I started painting in 1996 while I was working as a volunteer in a children's hospital in Haiti (for Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos / NPH). Since 2000, I have been painting mainly angels and mythical beings from various cultures, as I have been painting and travelling all over the world on a tight budget, except Asia.

Painting is a way to communicate with "upstairs", painting is the expression of being guided, painting is my way of spiritual learning, which is not connected to or inspired by any religion or spiritual movement, but a purely personal thing.

Since 2019 I am working on a series of paintings called the "One-winged Angels" created in Morocco, Panama and Mexico. Single works of this series had been exhibited at Spectrum / Red Dot Miami in December 2021 and will be on display at Art San Diego September 2022. Works of my previously painted series "Seven Deadly Sins" and "Mashimom's Daughters", created between 2009 and 2018 in Belize and Guatemala are still available on request, please visit my website for more information.

Exhibitions: Since 2002 I have organized over 12 solo exhibitions in Germany, France and Belize, including an exhibition at St. Michel d'Aiguilhe, Le-Puy-en-Velay, France (chapel built in 962 AD) and also at Dock Street Gallery, San Pedro, Belize. In April 2017 I have been exhibiting my work at Artexpo SOLO New York. (Full list of exhibitions can be provided on request).

Website: www.angelpainter.net.

Stefan Stockfleth

I often work all night to finish a painting. I am a hunter, who can't find peace without catch.

Stefan was born on 5th of July 1960 in Hamburg, Germany. He was trained as carpenter, staying in employment on and off over the years. He started painting at the age of 15. Stefan also plays guitar, creating his own Jazz improvisations.

In 1992 Stefan Stockfleth was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He used to live and work in a home for the so-called "mentally handicapped" in Berlin, selling lots of beautiful artwork for little money in order to pay for his painting supplies, public transport and little everyday life needs as Schröder-Sonnenstern used to do so many years ago when he was living on the streets. Stefan left Berlin without trace in 2018. But he still has a contract with Zero-B.

Public exhibitions since 1986, including a solo exhibition at Gallery Art Cru Berlin in 2013 (a list of exhibitions can be provided on request). Stefan had full page press in the German newspaper BERLINER MORGENPOST on May 5th in 2014 and his paintings had been presented at Art Fair Positions Berlin in 2015.

Laura Anlleu

The heart as an organic structure is one of my favorite topics ... and it is definitely a symbol for love and affection. Our soul is located in the heart. Two people in love - for instance - can be illustrated by two hearts connected to a mandragora root, a root which is used by the witches to tie two people together by a magical bond of love.

Laura is a mexican artist born in 1969, who works mainly with linocut, but does bodypainting and wallpainting as well.

She lives in Bacalar on the Caribbean coast of Mexico. She founded the international center for visting artists "Taller Palo de Tinte Casa del Artista" which is studio, workshop space and meeting point at the same time. Find Laura's workshop as PALO DE TINTE on facebook.

Within the southern part of the state of Quintana Roo you may find yourself face to face with wonderful surprises, but I want to talk about one particular place. The artist's house (casa del artista), Palo de Tinte, in Bacalar. When you access the site, you immediately realize that you are taking steps to a sacred center. I say this because you breathe that creative air; paintings ordered in a box waiting for their turn; brushes, colored sheets, cuttings, some materials, that inside that place, are not simple materials, they are objectives waiting for a second life, the creative life of art. The artist's house, Palo de Tinte, a project managed by Laura Anlleu, a woman who from her smile invites you to a territory where art is the only language. The experience I had when visiting her in her Palo de Tinte were moments where I didn't know where to place my gaze, since in each space there is a story that is told with colors and materials, fabrics, woods, and so on. The time inside Palo de Tinte is a backwater of the rivers of thoughts and chores outside its doors. I can really say that one breathes creativity, experimentation, a lust for art, if you will allow me the word; the passion for doing, for showing, for expressing oneself. Besides this, the place is not only a creative sanctuary, it is a space where workshops are constantly given and Laura, together with her collaborators, promote the artistic activities of Bacalar and other parts. You should visit the Casa del Artista, Palo de Tinte, in Bacalar, Quintana Roo and you will be able to appreciate what these words are telling in the dance of its gaze.

Pape Matar Mbaye

Je crois à mon Marabout Cheikh Amadou Bamba. Je suis un vrai Beifal. Toute ma vie est une prière.

Pape Matar Mbaye is a Self-taught Folk artist who lives in the village Joal-Fadiouth on the Atlantic coast in Senegal, West Africa.

The famous first President of Senegal Léopold Sédar Senghor who started the movement of the "Négritude" was also born in this village, which is devided in a Christian and a Moslem part and located close to Sine-Saloum-Delta. Pape Matar was born in the late 1950s as one of many children living in a polygamous moslem household. He is a Wolof, the leading ethnic group in Senegal and he is a Mouride (Beifal), a Moslem brotherhood which is important in West Afica, especially in Senegal, where their holy city Touba is located.

Pape Matar started painting at an early age, developing an ornamental almost musical style, which is not typical for African painters, who normally focus on polital or religious messages in their paintings. He was supposed to attend Art School in Dakar, but as he was lodging with an uncle living in a slum far away from the city center, he couldnt afford the bus ticket every day and had to quit. He started selling his art to tourists, producing his work in the room he is living in, which is part of the yard of his parents. Many people in his village asked him to paint their houses, restaurants and shops with Folk motives. Close to Joal is the Club Mediterranee Mbour and Pape Matar had an agreement with tour guides to introduce his studio/home whenever they had a tour to visit the village. In the 1990s he had the chance to visit France and introduce his work to a bigger audience, but he never lived outside Senegal for a longer period of time.

Pape Matar Mbaye died a couple of years ago in his hometown.

Rodney Rodrigo McCoubrey

The direction of my work depends upon life's inspirations and those emotions that dwell within me, ever changing and constantly evolving.

Rodney Rodrigo McCoubrey was born on 7th of February 1954, in Whittier, Southern California, USA.

He lives in California and is a self-taught artist working with found objects. Rodney is a passionate surfer. He travels a lot around the West Coast of the USA, using every opportunity to show and sell what he calls Environmental Folk Art.

Rodney: "Ever since I checked in in 1954, it's been an up, down, and all around adventurous journey of passion, rhythm, learning and living all of life's textures. The nature of my work is 'FUN'. The materials I incorporate in my pieces are primarily recycled and found objects. My resources remain readily available, from dumpster's to roadsides, empty lots to my most favourite of all, Baja California dumpsites (every town has at least one!)."

www.rodrigosrecycledart.com/

Oleg Koulikov

Today, when all means of expression seem to have been tried I see the ultimate goal of the artist in finding the inimitable character in his work that reflects his personality as accurately as his own fingerprints.

Oleg Koulikov, a full-time professional painter/illustrator, was born in Kiev, Ukraine in 1964. He earned his BA in Art from the Hertzen University in Saint Petersburg, Russia. As early as 1987 Oleg starts exhibiting his art work at art galleries in Soviet Union, from 1991 he makes painting his full time occupation. Oleg’s paintings have been featured in solo and group exhibitions in galleries and museums throughout Russia and internationally. After emigration to Canada, Oleg discovers the technique of encaustic which becomes a turning point in his artistic career: not only does he start using it in his paintings but also incorporates it in illustration. Apart from being an active artist, Oleg is currently working as an illustrator for the Toronto Illustration and design agency "Tree In A Box", creating images in the technique of encaustic mainly for U.S. based magazines and news papers, including Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, Yale University Press etc.

Full list of exhibitions will be provided on request.

Tünde Búzás

Tell me, would you like to be my playmate? / Would you like to hide in the dark till very late? / Would you like to play always and ever? / With a child's heart: laughing and pretending to be clever...

Tünde Búzás was born in Hungary in 1959. She is a Self-Taught artist and lives in Sopron, Hungary with her son and her beloved cats and new dog after the recent loss of her husband. She has a BA as a special needs teacher- speech therapist, and attended an art therapist training. Currently she is working in a school with children as a speech therapist.

"As a child I have been living in many different places and these memories are very determinant for my life. I didn't start painting long ago but I always have been creative and I tried different techniques and materials to express myself. I work with wood, paper, clay, stone... anything available is adopted to make new creations."

Facebook: Tünde Búzás Works