Archives: Artists

Marc Chagall created masterful works characterized by poetic mystical qualities, bold vivid color, and an expressionist perspective. While his style has been associated with surrealism, fauvism, and cubism, Chagall developed an approach uniquely his own that continues to captivate collectors represented by Park West Gallery today.

Born as Moyshe Segal in Vitebsk, Russia on July 7, 1887, Chagall was the eldest of nine boys in a devout Hassidic Jewish family. His faith and the experience of growing up in a close-knit, impoverished but happy household would profoundly influence his artwork. After studying at the Yehuda Pen School of Painting in 1907, he fled to St. Petersburg following an argument with his father, continuing his education at the Imperial Society for the Protection of the Arts and the Zvantseva School of Drawing and Painting. He moved to Paris in 1910, where his characteristic style began to flourish through exhibitions at the Salon des Indépendants and Salon d’Automne in 1912.

Chagall returned to Vitebsk in 1914 and married Bella Rosenfeld in 1915. Love became a recurring theme in his art, often personified by Bella’s image. After World War I prevented his return to Paris, he served as Commissar for Art and founded the Vitebsk Popular Art School in 1918. The family eventually settled in Paris in 1923, where Chagall worked with renowned publisher Ambroise Vollard on illustrations for literary classics and biblical etchings completed in 1956.

The Nazi occupation forced the Chagalls to flee to the United States in 1941. After Bella’s death in 1944, Chagall sank into depression but eventually found renewed creativity. He returned to France in 1948 and married Valentina Brodsky in 1952. His later career included remarkable stained glass commissions for the Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center in Jerusalem in 1961, St. Etienne’s Cathedral in Metz in 1962, Notre-Dame de Reims in 1974, and Saint Etienne Church at Mayence in 1981. He also decorated the Paris Opera ceiling in 1964 and created murals for the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City in 1966, along with his celebrated lithographic series “Le Cirque” in 1964.

Chagall died in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France on March 28, 1985 at age 97, leaving behind a prolific legacy admired in collections worldwide.

Tita Cantú was born in Mexico in May 1990 and grew up surrounded by art, learning about color, tones, and techniques in her artist mother’s home studio. She traveled extensively with her family, visiting museums and galleries worldwide, and began painting and ceramics classes at five years old. During a summer studying art history at the Medici School in Florence, Italy, her passion for art was reignited after a profound experience viewing Andrea del Sarto’s Madonna of the Harpies at the Uffizi Gallery, where she realized she had missed an important detail despite close observation. This sparked her desire to become a more attentive viewer of art.

After studying international business and working in offices far from the art world, Cantú returned to painting when her mother was diagnosed with ALS. Following her mother’s passing in 2021, she inherited the studio and felt an immediate need to express herself through art. Today, painting is essential to her life, with her realistic oil paintings often featuring animals she’s photographed during travels to India, Africa, Thailand, and Australia. She believes animals carry immense wisdom and live with less complexity than humans, and her work reminds viewers that simplicity holds the key to fulfillment.

Cantú has participated in group exhibitions at galleries and cultural centers in Mexico, as well as international art fairs including Spectrum Art Fair in Miami in 2024 and ArtFest in Querétaro. She is represented by Park West Gallery.

Colombian sculptor Nano Lopez has made an extraordinary impact on contemporary sculpture with his instantly recognizable Nanimal creations, which blend folklore, science, industry and nature into imaginative bronze figures collected worldwide. Born October 31, 1955, in Bogota to an affluent family that included a great uncle who served as president of Colombia, Lopez was encouraged early by his artist grandmother, who worked in ceramics and water clay. His father, a chemical engineer, also inspired him through visits to his copper sheeting factory, where the young artist observed beautiful patterns created by sulfuric acid and cupric nitrate crystals.

After winning first place in a municipal drawing contest at age five, Lopez pursued serious artistic training at the School of David Manzur, the Rembrandt Academy and the National University in Bogota. In 1978, he traveled to Madrid to work with sculptor Francisco Baron, learning to carve marble and granite on a monumental scale and casting his first bronzes. He continued his studies in France in 1980, becoming the top student accepted to the Superior National School of Beaux Art in Paris, where he explored new casting materials.

Lopez eventually settled in Walla Walla, Washington, where he built an eight thousand square foot custom studio in 2001. His work is represented by Park West Gallery.

Ashton Howard has become a celebrated painter of tropical landscapes, captivating art lovers across the United States, Canada, Japan, and aboard cruise ships where his dramatic seascapes resonate with travelers. His light-filled paintings pulse with energy, summoning brilliant reds that mingle with oceanic blues and white spray in powerful compositions that rise like symphonies to their crescendos.

Howard honed his graphic skills at the prestigious Savannah College of Art and Design, building on natural talent developed during his Florida childhood. Early in his career, he sold art from fair booths in Laguna Beach while supporting himself through surfing lessons and custom painting boards. Whether in California or Florida, where he lives today with his family, Howard has stayed close to the ocean that inspires much of his work. He has recently expanded from easel to wall, creating murals for the Sacred Heart Women and Children’s Hospital in Pensacola, Pepperdine University in Malibu, and several Houston locations.

His distinctive technique combines chance and choice. Howard pours mixed acrylic paints and resin simultaneously onto canvas, then manipulates them with palette knives, brushes, and compressed air before they dry, creating gestural forms. He then adds meticulous realistic details drawn from his illustration background, achieving a unique fusion of abstraction and realism. Howard is represented by Park West Gallery.

Matt Beyrer transforms humble wooden planks into captivating worlds where nature’s own patterns become part of the story. Born in Winter Park, Florida, in 1981, the artist discovered his calling in an unexpected way. After being bitten by an eight-foot hammerhead shark while surfing, Beyrer spent his recovery watching Bob Ross’s instructional painting shows, which inspired him to pick up a brush. He later refined his skills at the Ringling College of Art and Design, earning a degree in illustration that gave his landscapes their compelling realism and depth.

Beyrer’s signature technique emerged from what he calls a “happy accident” worthy of Bob Ross himself. While building frames and running low on wood stain, he thinned some oil paint as a substitute. The beauty of the grain showing through sparked a revelation—rather than painting over the wood, he would incorporate its natural patterns into the composition itself. This approach gives his dramatic sunsets, thunderstorms, and moonlit scenes a pulsating energy that recalls Van Gogh’s Starry Night.

Drawing inspiration from Old Masters like Rembrandt and Delacroix, as well as Hudson River School painters Thomas Cole and Albert Bierstadt, Beyrer has built an international following. Represented by Park West Gallery, he has achieved twelve consecutive sold-out auctions, cementing his place among today’s most sought-after contemporary artists.

Stephen Fishwick brings color, movement, and sound together in a style that is uniquely his own. With over 20 years of experience in commercial art, he has mastered the ability to create paintings that seem to pulse with life and energy.

Raised on a farm in Ohio, Fishwick developed a deep love for animals at an early age. He took his first formal painting class at age ten, and his talent earned recognition in high school. With encouragement from his art teacher, he enrolled at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and began his professional career less than a year later. In 1996, he continued his education by studying traditional drawing and painting under Jeff Watts at the Watts Atelier of the Arts in Southern California. Influenced by masters ranging from Norman Rockwell to Salvador Dali, John Singer Sargent to J.C. Leyendecker, he developed his distinctive approach to art.

In 2004, Fishwick began combining his passion for music, people, and animals with high-energy speed-painting performances that captivate audiences. His show, called Art Attack, transforms blank canvases into explosions of iconic images choreographed to music and dance. He has performed in Japan, Beirut, Kuwait, Germany, Canada, New York, and Las Vegas. His For Life Collection features vivid portraits of endangered animals, with proceeds supporting conservation partners including the San Diego Zoo, Wild Wonders, and the San Diego Humane Society. Fishwick is represented by Park West Gallery.

Julian Askins was born on September 25, 1961 in Monmouthshire, Wales, and has become celebrated for his brilliantly-colored works capturing the light, beauty, architecture, and nature of the Mediterranean, Caribbean and coastal North America. His paintings often feature peaceful outdoor verandas, harbors, seascapes, and terraces that evoke a mood of joyful solitude.

Askins began studying art in the early 1980s and earned a fine arts degree in printmaking from the North Staffordshire College of Technology in Stoke-on-Trent, a city in Staffordshire, England. He established a printmaking studio and gallery in 1986, running it for 12 years before deciding to focus his energy full-time on creating new works.

Though he lives in Wales with his wife and children, Askins travels frequently to find inspiration for his art. He typically photographs scenes in the Caribbean, Mediterranean, California, and Florida that later become subjects of his artwork, allowing him to render them as true-to-life as possible. The results are bold, bright works that capture the lush, tranquil beauty of the locations that spark his creative imagination. His work is collected around the world, has been featured in dozens of exhibitions, and is represented by Park West Gallery.

Juan Cotrino was born in Bogotá, Colombia, where his love for art began early in life. However, it wasn’t until his military service at age 18 that he seriously considered becoming an artist. While stationed with the Multi-National Force Observers (ONU) in Mount Sinai, Cotrino found himself without proper art supplies. Undeterred, he created artwork using only his fingers and a can of shoe polish on cardboard. His supervisors were so impressed that they commissioned him to paint murals, and the recognition he received marked the true beginning of his artistic career.

Although Cotrino has attended various art schools, he is largely self-taught. Over the years, he has developed a distinctive style that combines his passion for life with deep emotional expression. His work is characterized by precise lines, vibrant colors, and influences from traditional Latin American art. Each painting features dynamic compositions that range from surrealism and figurative art to touches of abstraction, often incorporating symbols that evoke a dreamlike quality reflecting the complexity of human experience.

Cotrino works in oils, acrylics, and mixed media, adding depth and texture to his pieces. He is represented by Park West Gallery. As the artist himself says, “I devote myself to a life of painting, discipline, vision and determination to trace my path to success in the contemporary art world.”

Edda Davila is an empowering figure in contemporary art who creates vivid animal and human oil paintings through mixed media techniques. Born in Miami in 1989 after her family left Nicaragua, she discovered her artistic calling through her grandmother, also an artist, who taught her to paint in a small studio room filled with art supplies. Though Davila initially wanted to pursue interior design as a teenager, she was directed toward studying business administration instead.

In her twenties, Davila struggled with depression and low self-esteem, feeling she lacked purpose in life. She turned to painting when she felt sad, and art became her path to healing. At age 24, she packed two suitcases and moved to Puerto Rico to live with her sister, where she began painting as a self-taught artist before mastering her craft at the Milan Art Institute. Art gave her a better sense of self and taught her how to express her thoughts and emotions on canvas.

Today, based in Fort Pierce, Florida, Davila describes her style as abstract mixed media that uses shapes and forms to create original works. She paints quickly to various music genres, letting her mood guide each piece. Her most memorable exhibition was Art Basel 2023, and she was thrilled to see her art featured in the movie Scrambled. Edda Davila is represented by Park West Gallery.

Jim Hathaway is an American ink painter who has made Tokyo his home since 1989. He paints the places and people around him using ancient materials that remain fresh and alive, creating works that brim with personality and warmth.

Hathaway grew up surrounded by art as the son of an art teacher. He began university as an engineering major but found his calling after noticing how light played across a colored wall in a coffee house. He left school to study at the Art Students League of New York under his mentor Marshall Glazier, where he learned to draw and truly see. A revelation came at the Metropolitan Museum of Art when he discovered Chinese painting, experiencing a new way of seeing that was fresh and clean.

After becoming discouraged with the art business in New York, Hathaway took a vacation to Japan in 1989 and never returned. He studied traditional ink painting with artist Yukie Otake, who challenged him to draw a thousand maple leaves before moving forward. Rather than becoming a traditional painter of bamboo and birds, Hathaway chose to use these ancient materials with contemporary subjects.

Working with Sumi ink on soft Japanese paper, Hathaway creates paintings of alleys, power lines, trees, and flowers that offer a unique view of city life. He has held solo exhibitions annually for 35 years in Tokyo and enjoyed museum shows including a mid-career retrospective at a contemporary art museum in Gunma. Hathaway is represented by Park West Gallery.