stylized – Circle Foundation for the Arts

Rafael De Armas

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Rafael De Armas was born in Uruguay, South America. He completed tertiary studies at the Uruguayan School of Fine Arts using Bauhaus methods. As the result of Rafael's high achievement he was accepted by well-known landscape artist Eduardo Amezaga and Italian Master Lino Dinetto as an apprentice. After many years of vocational training, Rafael joined a number of advertising agencies and worked as a freelance illustrator.

In the late 1960s he worked independently as a graphic designer and photographer while simultaneously painting and sculpting as a means of feedback and grounding for the applied arts which come together in design.

Uruguay's institutional breakdown of 1973 sank the country into the grimmest dictatorship in the country's history and made all independent projects unfeasible. Rafael subsequently moved to Argentina with his wife and children.

Between the years 1974 to 1980, Rafael worked for the Science and Culture Educational Foundation as the Head of Art. Over this time he also looked after the editorial department, overseeing all publications of the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research.

From 1981 until 1995 Rafael ran his own Graphic design business. Because of his wide abilities Rafael had a multitude of clients that provided a very broad spectrum of work. With the advancements of digital techniques Rafael was quick to realize the advantages and in 1985 he became one of the pioneers of applying digital technology into graphic design.

The Argentinean High Court recognized Rafael's knowledge of art and from time to time he was called upon to act as an expert witness for art forgery cases. In 1982, Rafael helped set up the Association of Argentinean Graphic Designers, this role defined a graphic designer's job profile and the Association still exists today.

In 1995, Rafael moved back to Uruguay with his family, setting up a new studio in Montevideo. He continued painting and designing in Uruguay until he migrated to New Zealand in 2003 to be near his daughters.

These days Rafael will be found working hard inside his home studio in New Plymouth. Chances are he will be busy painting with oil on canvas with his iPod providing him with hours of classical music and jazz.

Rafael's explanation about his political or environmental artwork:

"I don't stop with the pleasure of aesthetics I like to make a statement on the concept of defending ecology. I'm not conveying propaganda I just want a clear example about what we all have to face up to."

Rafael explained why he started painting New Zealand birds:

"Back when I first arrived in New Zealand in 2003 I soon became aware of the amazing birds we all share this land with. I have always enjoyed walking and my interest in this genre developed as a consequence really. Observing the birds and understanding their typical postures, characters and learning about their preferred foliage all helped me settle into my new homeland. The more I saw the more I wanted to see, walking in the Hunua Ranges or visiting Tiritiri Matangi island sanctuary and so many other places is important for me. My bird paintings are really a plea in favour of nature."

Select Mentions

2005 Finalist at Portage Ceramic Awards

2006 1st Popular Choice Award at Franklin Art Festival

2007 2nd at Pumphouse Art Awards

2007 1st Popular Choice Award at Franklin Art Festival

2007 Merit Award for Miniature Painting at Franklin Art Festival

2008 Finalist at New Zealand Painting and Printmaker Awards

2011 1st for Miniature Painting at Franklin Art Festival

2011 1st for Oil Painting at Franklin Art Festival

2011 1st Popular Choice Award at Franklin Art Festival

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Cristian Diez-Sanchez

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Born in Santiago, Chile, Cristian Diez-Sanchez spent his childhood working with copper in his family's arts and crafts business. Following this invaluable introduction into the world of sculpting, Cristian studied Architecture for five years and then moved to Barcelona in 1976. He started working as a designer to make a living. And what should have been a brief stint turned into 30 years of working as an industrial designer, graphic designer, and image consultant for various companies; he also continued with housing renovations and was in charge of developing and managing a website for tourist apartments.

In 2014, Cristian Diez-Sanchez looked back on his arts and crafts work and his fledgling sculpture work and realized it was time to bridge the gap. Studies in drawing, metal engraving, and architecture, as well as experience as an industrial and graphic designer, allowed him to begin this new life as a self-taught apprentice working in sculpture using cardboard and recycled cardboard, very inexpensive materials that allowed him to work intensively on prototypes, as the goal has always been large-scale exterior sculptures.

For nine years, Cristian has worked on several different collections, all related to the human figure and in many ways related to his personal life as well. The works deal with what has happened and is happening in the world, the constant injustice of the powerful against the weak, and the lack of possibilities for the latter to have a decent education. The phrase "One sculpture in the street, one step in culture" defines the future of his work and his aim is to use his work as a cultural tool, outside the circle of galleries and fairs.

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Akshita Lad

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Akshita’s art originates either from an emotional, autobiographical point of view or from a point of view based on the reality around her. She is led to intuitively paint with emotional freedom when she is creating her abstract expressionist works. When painting the reality around her, whether inspired by nature or people, she tends to follow more traditional techniques of painting.

Akshita paints with a lot of sensitivity and emotion. She uses colors, symbols and elements to imbue her paintings with a specific energy and meaning. Everything from the colors, textures, and brushwork come together in harmony and invite the viewer to connect with the emotions and story of her paintings. Her aim is to sustain this relationship - the instinctive, deep-rooted gut connection that is created between her works and her audience.

Akshita’s painting style is influenced by her love of the Renaissance and Impressionist Masters like Rembrandt and Monet. Whatever the subject matter, Akshita wants to create works that are timeless, elegant, and beautiful. Akshita Lad’s sense of aesthetics developed during childhood. While on family holidays visiting museums, she fell in love with the works of great masters like Da Vinci, Monet, and Rembrandt.

Akshita’s vast range of works includes portraits, landscapes and abstract expressionist paintings. Akshita is a believer that every thought and every creation has an energy and frequency. She uses this awareness to consciously creates art that amplifies messages of inclusion, positivity, joy and happiness. Whatever the subject, Akshita’s works display depth, elegance and beauty.

Akshita has shown at prestigious shows and galleries like Saatchi Art Gallery and the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris. Her works have been selected for publication as well as in numerous online /open-call selections.

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Maria Stella Polce

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Italian artist, Maria Stella Polce is a Professor at the M.P.I. (Ministry of Education). Originally from Abruzzo, she traveled throughout Italy before moving permanently to Francavilla al Mare, where she currently resides.

A versatile artist, from an early age, Maria Stella showed a passion for art by painting mainly landscapes and animals with a realistic approach. From the age of 20 onwards, she began to paint with oil colors on canvas (self-taught), had her first solo shows as well as participations in collective exhibitions, obtaining acclaim and prizes.

After a long period of research and artistic experimentation with various techniques and materials (including oil pastels, acrylic colors, watercolors, tempera, glass painting, mixed techniques, etc.), Polce discovered fractals. From 2000 onwards, her way of making art radically changed, to "Fractalism."

Polce draws fractals with her virtual brush, guided by the mouse, bringing out various themes including horses, female figures, landscapes and more, with a unique technique of painting the interior and producing an original, surprising effect.

Later, Polce also experimented with new types of modifications to fractals, occasionally moving away from the figurative. All her digital works are born from fractals and their transformations (including fragmentation, overlapping, etc.).

With this new genre of digital art, she has received notable awards and feature in various art catalogs, including, Mondadori and L'Elite 2019, Artisti 20, Atlante dell'Arte Contemporanea De Agostini 2021. Since 2015, Maria Stella Polce has continued to actively exhibit her work in Italy and abroad.

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Shan Ogdemli

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"I have been a working artist my entire life, wearing many hats that include fine artist, licensed artist, illustrator, product designer, graphic designer, creative director and entrepreneur. I've owned and co-owned several successful artistic business endeavors, including my graphic design and illustration studio, Ogdemli Feldman Design + Illustration; my art licensing business, Designs by Shan; and a worldwide licensed brand phenomenon called Pampered Girls.

After many years working in the commercial art and design fields in Los Angeles, my husband and I have recently relocated to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and I have finally been able to make the necessary life changes to be able to focus full-time on my true passion of creating my fine art.

I work in multiple styles and media that include large-scale paintings in acrylic mixed with diatomaceous earth, as well as in digital media. My acrylic paintings are heavily textured with expressive brush strokes that add movement and energy, with color harmonies meticulously built from several layers of translucent and opaque paint.

My digital images are what I call "digital drawings" because they all start as pencil drawings on paper, which are then scanned and redrawn by hand in Illustrator, then meticulously colored using Illustrator and Photoshop in much the same way as my layered acrylic paintings.

My subjects in both media include light and color, patterns from life, science and math, dots, spots, circles, particles, waves, energy, flowing lines, spirals, mandalas and abstract landscapes.

Inspirations include Op Art of the '60s and 70's, Victor Vasarely, Yaakov Agam, Mark Rothko, Vincent Van Gogh, Emilio Pucci, Alan Turing, biology, geometry, astronomy, physics, quantum physics and metaphysics."

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Alison Barrows-Young

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"The natural qualities that animate the Pacific Northwest have filled my life and my imagery since finding a home in Northern Idaho. I have been taken by its wild beauty. The wilderness to the west of the Rockies is alive with idyllic disposition and dramatis personae that invokes an animist sensibility and compels a strong sense of belonging to the earth.

After receiving a BFA, I secured a 6-month apprenticeship with the artist George Woodman before continuing my education to receive an MFA which qualified me to teach in art schools and Universities. I received an NEA Fellowship through the state of New Jersey. Throughout my life, I have divided my career between teaching and creating. I apprenticed for eight years in Don Miguel Ruiz’s inner circle and have been an active practitioner of his Lineage of Toltec Wisdom since 1994.”

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Liyuan Liu

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Liu Liyuan graduated from the Department of Dyeing and Clothing department at Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. She loves painting and began to learn it during her childhood. Liyuan has completed research on classical and modern art and has excelled in studying figure painting. Now living in Vancouver, Liyuan has studied under the famous oil painter Xue Yanqun and the Chinese painting and calligraphy master Liang Zhaotang for many years.

Liyuan is also engaged in the application work of art advancement to famous schools in North America, helping students apply for prestigious schools in North America and Europe and has many years of experience with a 100% success! Her students have won many awards in the World Cup Art Drawing Competition and continuously published professional art guidance articles in the media such as Metropolis Daily, Global Chinese News, Afar, and Altitude, as well as accepted personal interviews.

In 2017, Liyuan did personal interviews with the columns of Canadian City TV "Elegance" and "Dating in the City." At the same time, she has been invited to give lectures on the Canadian Chinese Radio "Art Special Interview" and "Live Broadcast of the Guidance Series of Prestigious Art Schools".

In 2021 and 2022, she participated in the Vancouver artist group exhibition with five works. Liyuan's oil paintings have won awards in Switzerland; her watercolor works have also won awards on online exhibitions in the United States; her works have also been published in the well-known French artist magazine "Circle Quarterly Art Review."

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Sara Medea

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Toti Cuesta

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“I am a watercolor artist based in Madrid. I studied Law and Languages, and for many years I worked in the international field, but art has always been my great passion and the engine of my life. I am also trained as an Art Therapist because of the healing power that I feel art has.

Since I was a child, there was a creativity in me that grew more and more. This was understood and valued in my environment as a hobby, but I knew it was much more than that. I began an inner search that allowed me to discover who I was and what I had come here to do. It helped me free myself from everything that others had chosen, thinking that it was what was best for me, but that had nothing to do with my essence.

I define myself as a watercolorist, although I have done numerous works with other techniques such as oil and pastel. Watercolor is the most luminous and transparent technique, the one that can best represent the vibration of other dimensions and capture it in colors that transmit joy and light.”

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Annemarie Ambrosoli

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Professional Italian artist Annemarie Ambrosoli was born in South Tyrol, Italy. She was lucky to be tutored from an early age by her uncle, Ercole Frigoli, a landscape artist. From 1992 to 1998, she attended courses under the guidance of academic professors Claus Pack for landscape and Reinhard Adlmannseder for figure and nude courses. From 2021, Annemarie has been an International Certified Artist by the International Institut for Artist Accreditation. She was awarded several times, most notably in 2019 and 2021, the prestigious A' Design Award in the "Arts, Crafts and Ready-Made Design" category. Her name and images of her works are in many art books. Annemarie has exhibited in many countries in Europe and overseas in group exhibitions and at art fairs in Canada, Hong Kong, Dubai and in many European countries. Her works belong to private collections in many countries.

Ambrosoli's art has gone through different phases. Her early work was en-plein-air landscapes, later moving toward portraiture and currently into stylized, figurative art. Her landscapes were painted with a palette knife, quickly grasping the light and translating the shades of color on the canvas. This long period of study outdoors was a great help in later tackling painting inside the studio.

In her current work, Annemarie reduces the figure's volumes to their simplest geometric components. The face is a circle, the nose a triangle, the mouth half-open lines, transmitting an emotion of positivity. Figures are mostly rendered in profile views, facing each other. The compositions are well-planned and balanced. For Annemarie, harmonious shades and complementary colors are very important, giving a touch of liveliness to the painted scenes. There is a connection between the figures that wear original earrings and hats.

Annemarie Ambrosoli expresses her positivity, her joy and her passion for love, music and dance.

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Rafael De Armas

"I don't stop with the pleasure of aesthetics I like to make a statement on the concept of defending ecology. I'm not conveying propaganda I just want a clear example about what we all have to face up to."

Cristian Diez-Sanchez

“Culture as a means to equate inequality
A sculpture in the street, a step in culture.

The Urban Sculpture Project seeks to bring sculpture to the street, bring people closer to art, humanize cities, and create opportunities for cultural discussion in wide, rather than elitist, circles.”

Akshita Lad

Maria Stella Polce

“There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are others who, with their art and intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun." - P. Picasso
"I transform a fractal (computer generated), into a horse or a nude or a landscape or an abstract."

Shan Ogdemli

"My work is inspired by light and color, patterns from biology, physics and geometry, by the Earth and Cosmos, by the interconnectedness of all things, by op art, pop art and the miracle of life."

Alison Barrows-Young

"The natural qualities that animate nature have filled my life and my imagery since youth. I am taken by wild beauty. The wilderness is alive with idyllic disposition and dramatic personae that invoke an animist sensibility and compels a strong sense of belonging to the earth."

Liyuan Liu

Sara Medea

Sara SAYU Medea is an international artist from Italy based in Venice. Her works are a dive into self-awareness. Most recently, Sara exhibited in the United Arab Emirates, and International Art Fair of Innsbruck 2021 and was published in a UK magazine with worldwide reference.

Toti Cuesta

“Art arises from my spiritual need to create, to go beyond the senses. It is an expression of the soul and a magical experience. The use of symbols and color characterize my paintings. Symbols allow me to express and transmit the message of art. The color radiates the light of each human being.”

Annemarie Ambrosoli

"After a long period of landscape painting and considering my passion for portraits, the focus of my paintings now is stylized, simplified unique figures that transmit joy, tranquility, positivity and even a little mystery. The themes of my compositions are dance, music and moments of daily life."

"I don't stop with the pleasure of aesthetics I like to make a statement on the concept of defending ecology. I'm not conveying propaganda I just want a clear example about what we all have to face up to."

“Culture as a means to equate inequality A sculpture in the street, a step in culture. The Urban Sculpture Project seeks to bring sculpture to the street, bring people closer to art, humanize cities, and create opportunities for cultural discussion in wide, rather than elitist, circles.”

“There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are others who, with their art and intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun." - P. Picasso "I transform a fractal (computer generated), into a horse or a nude or a landscape or an abstract."

"My work is inspired by light and color, patterns from biology, physics and geometry, by the Earth and Cosmos, by the interconnectedness of all things, by op art, pop art and the miracle of life."

"The natural qualities that animate nature have filled my life and my imagery since youth. I am taken by wild beauty. The wilderness is alive with idyllic disposition and dramatic personae that invoke an animist sensibility and compels a strong sense of belonging to the earth."

Sara SAYU Medea is an international artist from Italy based in Venice. Her works are a dive into self-awareness. Most recently, Sara exhibited in the United Arab Emirates, and International Art Fair of Innsbruck 2021 and was published in a UK magazine with worldwide reference.

"After a long period of landscape painting and considering my passion for portraits, the focus of my paintings now is stylized, simplified unique figures that transmit joy, tranquility, positivity and even a little mystery. The themes of my compositions are dance, music and moments of daily life."

“Culture as a means to equate inequality
A sculpture in the street, a step in culture.

The Urban Sculpture Project seeks to bring sculpture to the street, bring people closer to art, humanize cities, and create opportunities for cultural discussion in wide, rather than elitist, circles.”

“There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are others who, with their art and intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun." - P. Picasso
"I transform a fractal (computer generated), into a horse or a nude or a landscape or an abstract."