Philippine-born Arozi is a self-taught artist who began drawing at an early age. Now living in Australia, he has gained international renown for painting passionate seascapes that showcase the translucent light of the ocean and the transparent light of the sky.
Arozi defines his style as realism based on fantasy, and his art as a quest to capture the ocean's magnificence and the light that illuminates it.
He uses both real and fictional locations for his settings, blending light and shadow to depict the breaking waves of the sea against the sky. He employs the technique of glazing: superimposing thin layers of paint atop each other to achieve a rich depth of color.
The storms that have churned the world's seas in recent years have inspired an evolution in Arozi's artwork and his palette. In his sailboat series he strives to communicate the exhilaration and challenge of sailing through an unexpected storm. His series featuring stormy shorelines uses dark colors to emphasize the ocean's turbulence and evoke the sense of a tempest.
James Coleman is an internationally acclaimed romantic impressionist whose paintings depict tropical rainforest vistas, hidden waterfalls or lily ponds, secluded glades, and ramshackle cottages atop misty hillsides.
It wasn't always this way. Coleman began his career as a background animation specialist working with Disney Studios on classic animated films such as "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Little Mermaid."
When he eventually left the studio to follow his own artistic direction, the resultant visions on canvas entranced art collectors worldwide.
Coleman uses his deft touch and warm palette to communicate the romance of each setting and the unique light that bathes it. He paints impressionistically because he feels this leaves more to the viewer's imagination — and provides different perspectives depending on the viewer's distance from the canvas.
Coleman's calling, he believes, is to portray beauty and invoke a sense of peace in a world too often lacking those elements. His artistic explorations include using gold leafing to highlight and transform painted locales, creating mixed-media pieces that incorporate gold leaf, giclee and oils.
Though he once was a working cowboy, William DeShazo is fascinated by the ocean.
His seascapes are characterized by an unparalleled use of light that infuses each canvas with a sense of the motion and grace of waves and spray. Using the painting and glazing techniques of the Old World masters, DeShazo creates images whose pure color detail have earned worldwide praise.
He paints in oils on smooth, rigid panels. A single painting may have as many as thirty layers of paint and glaze, and may take as long as two months to complete. The care DeShazo pours into his work, and his exceptional grasp of color, are apparent in each finished piece.
In one painting, light blossoms from the windows of a water's-edge cottage framed in bushes and flowers; in another, a full spectrum of sunset hues is recreated through a skillful use of graduating levels of color.
Always, DeShazo strives to engage viewers' emotions by putting his own emotion into each piece — while leaving an element of mystery to spark the imagination.
Scott Hanson's love of the Pacific Ocean and its marine life led him to move from his native California to Hawaii. Now based in Kona, he has gained a worldwide reputation as a master sculptor of contemporary marine art.
Hanson is an avid diver who can hold his breath for over five minutes, enabling him to free-dive to depths of over 100 feet to view the marvels of deepwater ocean life. The talented artist uses his underwater camera to capture the exotic marine life he sees.
From his photographs, Hanson fashions his unique bronze and stainless steel creations — from mini-sculptures to glass-topped sculpture-based tables to monumental pieces more than 18 feet tall. His work captures the fluid motion and shimmering grace of his favorite subjects, such as dolphins and mantas, in their ocean habitat.
As a dedicated conservationist, Hanson supports a number of environmental organizations. His art has been recognized by celebrities, dignitaries and corporations alike; his corporate client list includes such prestigious names as Ford Motor Company and Excel.
Michael Maiden is the world's leading sculptor of the American bald eagle. His bronzes showcase the eagle's natural grace and raw power, depicted with the exquisite attention to detail and supreme knowledge of the species that typify his work.
Whether spreading their wings to soar triumphantly, or landing in a moment of arrested motion, Maiden's eagles carry a powerful symbolism. Rich patinas lend color and vibrant life to each bronze.
Maiden is also known for monumental sculptures such as a reproduction of the U.S. Capitol Building's statue of Freedom, and the Whidbey Island Naval Aviation Memorial in Washington State.
As well as eagles, Maiden creates engaging bronze depictions of Florida's pelicans among other subjects. In addition, he produces remarkable avian contornos, or sketches carved from cast sheets of bronze.
Before beginning his own career in sculpture, Michael Maiden established a respected fine art foundry that casts bronzes for other artists including Wyland. His work can be found in corporate and private collections and museums around the world.
Noelito began painting when he was six, using scraps of wood, burlap, and paper as his canvases. Now an accomplished artist whose work is collected internationally, he draws his inspiration from the paintings of Rembrandt as well as other Flemish artists.
Noelito employs a technique known as chiaroscuro, contrasting light and shadow effects to create a dramatic balance between the elements portrayed. He applies his paints in thin translucent layers, one atop the other, using powerful colors and gradients of hue to achieve the rich depth of color for which he is known. His seascapes fuse passion and technique, mystery and emotion.
Born in the Philippines, Noelito lived in Hawaii for many years, depicting the area's magical sunrises and sunsets, moments of wave-swept motion and soft light filtering through the waters of the sea.
Now Noelito has returned to his native Philippines, where he donates his time teaching art to underprivileged young students. In this way, he believes he is giving to others the inspiration he found in his own childhood.
The work of surrealist painter John Pitre has influenced American art for more than 30 years.
Widely considered an artistic visionary, Pitre incorporates sacred aspects and powerful social commentary into his paintings. He uses his art to encourage viewers to consider life's biggest questions, and discover what lies within their hearts and minds. Many of his well-known canvases explore man's spiritual leanings.
Throughout his career, Pitre has been extremely successful in combining visual beauty with an underlying message. His interpretations of such issues as overpopulation, ecological destruction and nuclear war have made his paintings modern-day classics. His masterful "Restrictions" has been translated into a million-selling poster.
Pitre, who calls himself a storyteller, creates his painted worlds from his imagination rather than from reference. He begins the process of creation by contemplating a theme that moves him.
A resident of Honolulu, Pitre is an inventor as well as a fine artist. He is the developer of Genesis Paint, a heat-set paint that combines the best qualities of acrylics and oils.
Hawaii-based artist Walfrido has earned international acclaim for his passionate, powerful seascapes. His classic work is influenced by the light and strokes of the impressionists and the time-honored precision of the Old Masters.
Walfrido finds particular satisfaction in creating dramatic interpretations of natural vistas, often tinged with symbolic meaning. The changing moods of the sea provide a touchstone for his work.
Whether centering on flower-rimmed water's-edge caves, a blazing ocean sunset or the delicate dance of light on breaking waves, his images impart a mindful sense of energy and hope.
An exploration into expressionistic palette knife techniques recently led Walfrido to discover a hybrid style that combines his traditional light-swept seas and skies with expressive details done with a palette knife.
Subjects explored in his hybrid canvases include waves and shorelines seen from oceanside caves, low-lying bridges whose curves recall the curves of the human form, and dock scenes conducive to daydreaming.
Walfrido is also acclaimed for powerful lava-inspired images that pulse with the raw energy of nature.
Jim Warren has spent more than 35 years creating a surreal body of work that combines elements of satire, whimsy and dedicated environmentalism.
His oil paintings tell stories, create enticing alternate worlds, and blend warm, realistic representations with fantasy-like themes.
Warren's work has been said to occupy a niche between Salvador Dali and Norman Rockwell. In one classic canvas, little-girl mermaids host a tea party in their underwater home. In another, a beautiful woman reveals the tiger that underlies her perfection.
Widely known as a "master of imagination," Warren has expressed his artistic vision in a multitude of ways during his career. In addition to painting fine-art canvases and commissions, he has done illustrations for hundreds of book covers, earned a Grammy Award for the cover of Bob Seger's "Against the Wind" album, and created an iconic environmental poster. He has also completed a group of paintings featuring favorite Disney characters.
His fine art has earned the soft-spoken Warren a legion of celebrity fans, ranging from author Clive Barker to actress Juliette Lewis.
Inspired by the work of Jacques Cousteau, Wyland began painting the underwater realm in the early 1970s, hoping people would respond to his work's message of environmental responsibility.
Today, he is the world's most widely collected marine life artist, internationally renowned as a pioneer of the environmental art movement. An estimated one billion people view his artwork each year — particularly the mammoth Whaling Wall murals he paints to promote the preservation of the oceans and their creatures.
Over the years, Wyland has explored many mediums — painting in oils and watercolors, sculpting in bronze and Lucite, shooting fine art nature photographs, even creating expressionistic abstracts that incorporate seawater. His art captures whales, dolphins, sea turtles, manatees and reef life in their natural habitat, alive with spirit and grace.
Wyland's paintings and sculptures are known for their vivid coloration, true-to-life detail, and the soul that shines through the eyes of each marine creature portrayed. A passionate diver, he spends innumerable hours each year swimming with aquatic inhabitants, drawing inspiration that fuels both his art and his life.
