Cartoonist and illustrator, Andrew Paavola grew up in Juneau, Alaska and moved around until landing in the middle of Ohio. He spent years creating comics, illustrations and designs for companies which inspired him to take illustrations and turn them into fun one-of-a-kind cartoon art pieces and take them on the road.
Chris Bigelow of Bigelow Illustrations claims
that if he were a real musician, and not the amateur guitar player that he is, he is pretty sure he would be a studio session player because he’s just a reliable, hard-working guy with an appreciation for quality and creating something great with no desire for the spotlight.
As it is, he chose art as a career and has approached it with the same attitude. He feels a connection to many styles and loves to experiment and learn from others. Much of his work has been behind the scenes in various capacities, and much of it under the art direction of clients, which has forced him to approach things differently and learn new things.
Chris has designed home and gift products for many years from concept sketches to technical drawings, often for licensed properties, such as (George Lucas’ favorite!) the R2D2 cookie jar, and an abstracted Mickey Mouse teakettle for Copco.
Chris has lived most of his life in New Jersey and still does. He is married with 2 grown children and one adorable granddaughter.
Playful and charming, Crystal Driedger’s original acrylic and oil paintings feature vibrant colors, enchanting textures and gentle, whimsical shapes. Often her pieces are hand-carved into soft basswood or are painted with thick, buttery strokes of rich oil paint. Some are intricate depictions of nature - botanical art and scientific illustration work. Many of Crystal’s pieces are inspired by memories and imaginings from a childhood spent in the forests and fields of her family farm. Her work is varied and vast from murals to tiny realism in colored pencil, from enamel pins to large scale paintings of cows - her passion projects ebb and flow with her interests.
Crystal's studio is in Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada where she works full-time as an artist and illustrator.
Danielle is an Australian based digital creatrix and word weaver who incorporates AI elements in her digital artwork. Danielle has a passion for creating art influenced by psychedelics, the sacred feminine, magick, spirituality and mysticality. The Creaitrixx is the portal, the vessel and the gateway through which she comes to know herself through artistic expression and she hopes that in turn, these creations inspire you to open your own inner portals of self-discovery and connection to all that is.
Hava’s work is at the intersection of Art and Science, and her colorful abstractions feature botanical, aquatic and microscopic motifs. She is inspired by the elegant intricacy of patterns in nature that repeat on both small and large scales across a variety of lifeforms. Blending images from the real world and imagination, her art celebrates nature in all its beauty and complexity.
Her primary medium is acrylic paintings, but she also loves drawing & photography, and her creative process often starts with photographs and sketches of details in her daily encounters with nature. She looks for repeating patterns and abstracts them into series of lines, shapes, and colors, which form the foundation of her own visual language.
Hava received her BFA in photography from the University of Michigan, an MA in photography and MFA in painting from Illinois State University. In addition to making art, her career in the arts stretches over 30 years as Educator, Gallery Director, Photo Curator and Portfolio Reviewer. After living on both coasts, in 2015 she moved back to Michigan to focus on her art.
Hailey is a watermedia artist based in Texas, known for her vibrant watercolor and watercolor batik paintings as well as abstract pieces with calligraphic motifs. Her artistic journey began in South Korea, where she started exploring painting at a young age. In 1996, she moved to the United States for graduate studies and obtained her PhD from Texas A&M University, College Station, in 2004. After that, she worked briefly as a research scientist and lecturer at Virginia Commonwealth University. However, her deep passion for art led her to pursue community art classes.
Although mostly self-taught and guided, she started seriously focusing on watercolor painting in 2011 and received the Best of Show award in the 2012 Brazos Valley Art League judged show. Encouraged by the local art community, she made the decision to become a full-time artist. Since then, she has created many beautiful and captivating works through experimentation.
Hailey’s artwork is known for its vibrant colors and captivating beauty, earning recognition and finding a place in numerous private and public collections. She has received many awards in national and international competitions, showcasing her skill and dedication. She has also earned signature memberships in the top watercolor organizations in Texas.
Finira studied at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, majoring in art. She focused on photography and drawing. Increasing digitalization and the development of artificial intelligence have given her new tools that she uses in her artistic process. Exploring new art forms and combining then with traditional ones fascinates her and drives her creative work.
Jasmine Becket-Griffith is a traditional acrylic painter, combining elements of realism with fantasy and the surreal. Historical and spiritual references are intertwined with fairy tales and the beauty of nature. Her trademark liquid-eyed maidens evoke a wide range of emotions and responses to the surrounding imagery. It is her goal to bring a bit of magic and mystery to the mundane world with every painting!
Jasmine’s images appear in many books and magazines as well as countless merchandising lines such as the Bradford Exchange and Hamilton Collection, and her artwork with the Walt Disney Company, Lucasfilm, and more. Her paintings have a very wide appeal, appearing in public and private collections throughout the world, and she maintains an ever-growing legion of fans from all walks of life with her “Strangeling” brand.
Jasmine has been showing her work professionally since 1997. She is a full-time painter, working from her studio in Long Beach, California. Her work can be found at galleries across the US.
Reference: Becket-Griffith, Jasmine (2023, May 22). https://strangeling.com/about-jasmine/
A native of Tucson, Arizona, Jenny Newland has been painting professionally for eighteen years. She studied at Northern Arizona University, Glendale Community College, and with graphic designer Chris Delorica. Jenny is best known for her realistic, life like portraits of animals that according to her admirers – are brought to life with colorful detail and sweet expressions. Jenny is able to capture the personalities of her adorable subject so well, because she and her family are surrounded at home by four dogs, fifteen cats, and various farm animals.
Her adorable puppies and kittens and beautiful wildlife paintings are created using her own unique style of combining acrylics with brush and airbrushing techniques.
Jenny has received numerous awards for her artwork and has also donated her art to nationally funded organizations such as the Rocky Mountain Elks Foundation, Ducks Unlimited, Mogollon Sporting Association, Defenders of Wildlife, SPCA, and the National Humane Society. She also donates her artwork to various community schools and churches.
Katie m. Berggren is a fine art painter focused on exploring the mother child relationship and the solitude and silence of discovering oneself as the children grow. Capturing the essence of mindful mothering with her unique painting style allows Katie to explore her own experiences, and more importantly provide imagery that validates mothers all over the world. Katie’s paintings reach across the globe to say, in a quiet way, that you are not alone; there is a community of like-minded women supporting you and your choice to nurture tenderly, however that is defined for you.
KmBerggren collectors span the globe. As an internationally collected artist, American painter Katie m. Berggren focuses exclusively on painting motherhood and being a mother ~ every day. With a husband and two teenage sons, a busy online store, and commissions from around the world, she is grateful for her career. Katie has been cited as the #1 Motherhood Artist in America.
Born in 1963, Linda Ravenscroft is a self-taught artist who has been painting since she was very young. Until recently, she lived with her husband, John, and animal companions, in the beautiful county of Cheshire, England. Since then, she has had the opportunity to follow one of her dreams, moving to the magical town of Glastonbury, “The Isle of Avalon”, in Somerset.
Linda became a professional artist in 1994 after the birth of her son, Dorian, who was very ill after the birth. Linda was unable to go back to her office job as she had planned; the only other thing she thought she could do to earn a living whilst taking care of Dorian was “Paint”.
Since then, her work has been widely published and her work has been featured in many Fantasy/Fairy Art books. She has also illustrated and written several Tutorial Faerie Art books and created a series of colouring books. Linda’s work is collected worldwide, in the USA and Europe in particular.
Makiko was born in Nagoya, Japan. After studying design at Nagoya Girls’ University, she worked as a freelance designer for several textile printing companies.
She went to the United States to study English and Graphic Design where she met her husband and came to live in Belgium since. She took illustration courses while bringing up her son.
For almost 25 years Makiko has been working as a freelance illustrator for greeting cards and children’s publishing in Europe and Japan.
Makiko loves nature and animals, and her inspiration comes from the innocent movement of animals and children. And for her, animals are a good way of conveying a message and emotion.
She loves been a part of this magical world.
Mikey is the creator of FaiRYTaiLS which is a combination of fantasy artwork and storytelling using AI technologies such as midjourney and chatgpt. The intention of the project is to enliven people’s imagination through the artwork and to inspire the soul through the stories.
Born in 1968, Nene is an artist living in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. She specializes in fantasy art, particularly faeries. She has been drawing and painting her entire life but she began her career as a professional artist in 1994 when she was approached by a company called Wizards of the Coast to contribute work to the popular collectible card game “Magic: the Gathering”. She later left contract art behind and became a print artist, painting only the things she wanted to paint and eventually, making a name for herself in the world of faery art, selling her paintings at shows around the country and online, and now products adorned with her art can be found in stores all around the world.
For the first ten years of her professional career, she worked exclusively in watercolor. In 2004, she became enamored with digital art, and the more she studied it, the more dissatisfied she became with her older paintings. So, she set aside her watercolors and transitioned completely to fully digital works.
The inspiration for Nene's works comes from a variety of sources, but the vast majority comes from a story she has been working on since high school called “The Zarryiostrom”, an epic fantasy series. Each book contains 20 paintings by Nene, showcasing the various characters of the series.
Alexey and Olga Drozdov live and work in Moscow. Both artists have been interested in art since early childhood.
Olga was greatly influenced by her father who took her to museums and taught her about artists. She studied at the Kazan Art College of Feshina and then went on to the Moscow State Academy for five more years.
As a child, Alexey was influenced by MAD Magazine and Pif-gadget Magazine. After finishing professional college № 150, Alexey went on to the Moscow Pedagogical State University where he received an art degree. Alexey has been a member of the Creative Union of Artists of Russia and the International Federation of Artists since 2001.
Both artists are inspired by the fantastic world of fairy tales and have illustrated children’s books together since 2000. They are guided by their own three sons’ perceptions of the world.
Roze is a self taught artist from Macedonia. She has
always loved traditional art, but recently found her love in digital illustration.
She finds her inspiration mostly in feminine characters and other things she sees as beautiful, adorable or cute.
In her free time she enjoys playing with her cats, gaming, journaling and singing.
Born 6 weeks early and with a paintbrush gripped firmly in her hand, Wendy Edelson, a self- taught artist is happiest when painting.
She has managed to steal just enough time away from her drawing board to travel the world and learn how to whip up a mean puttanesca sauce and bake biscotti, grow gardens, learn to dance, be happy, write a children’s book, get married and have a son and love a dog…and the fun’s just begun!
A self-taught artist, she works primarily in rich glazes of watercolor. The illustrator of over 30 books, Wendy’s work is also perfect for a wide range of products and applications.
Everyday finds her immersed in her studio, creating richly detailed paintings that are traditionally rendered yet uniquely and recognizably her own.
Self-taught and passionate about her work, she strives to give every painting a heart of magic and every client a partner and a new friend.