At the age of ten Florence Penouty wanted to make a living out of art. After a professional career in graphic design (Higher Education in Interior Architecture and Graphic Design in Paris, valedictorian), her discovery of pastel was a revelation. More than by the technique and the texture, she was attracted to the enormous range of possibilities offered by the medium. « I took several courses in the workshop and especially outdoors. These courses have allowed me to ensure the progression of my technique, and the evolution of my art. Having made me work from life, directly in contact with nature. » Professional painter in 2016, Florence Penouty is Art du Pastel en France Membership (APF). Twice, she was selected in the « Salon International du Pastel de Giverny » (2017 / 2020) . The choice of subjects comes first of all from the light, revealing the beauty of nature and the emotion it arouses… « Pastel is a fast technique particularly suitable for the outdoors because of the way light changes over the course of two hours. I seek to capture the essence of the landscape keeping in mind what about them moved me. »
Award-winning in many exhibitions, exhibiting in Parisian galleries, organizer of training courses and workshops in France and abroad, Member of the Taylor Association and the Association of Friends of André Derain, Barbara Petit is practicing for 15 years a recognized figurative oil painting.
She works essentially on the motif (plein air) or in the studio from nature. Her approach focuses on the transposition of forms, lines and colours on the canvas through the filter of each individual’s personality.
A regular contributor to the magazine Pratique des Arts, she has published several books including Le Pastel facile (2017) and L’acrylique facile (2018) – Mango editor.
She lives and works in Paris where she teaches drawing and painting to adults but also to children through an adapted pedagogy.
Alex Hillkurtz was born in England and grew up in California, where he was an award-winning film student at Chapman University. He first established himself as a successful illustrator and storyboard artist in Hollywood, collaborating with many of the film industry’s leading directors and cinematographers.
Currently living in Paris, Alex Hillkurtz has turned his focus to a career as a watercolor artist, and enjoys discovering the aspects of the city that sketching and painting uniquely allow. Alex uses the language of cinema to inform his images, moving beyond what is most obvious, and focusing the viewer’s eye on what he wants them to see.
Alex’s works have been exhibited in solo and group shows in Europe, the United States, and Russia. He conducts regular workshops and masterclasses on watercolor painting and sketching, teaching students of all levels and backgrounds how to infuse their paintings with a marvelous sense of life.
Isabelle Delannoy is a French Artist, who graduated from the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers and trained further to the oil painting techniques in the workshop of Philippe Lejeune (Ecole d’Etampes, France) and Pascal Vinardel (ENSAD, Paris). Qualifying her compositions as “inner poetry”, Isabelle Delannoy transmits her vision to the world. Between figuration and abstraction, her landscapes bear witness to a certain passion for color and matter.
A gentle and sensitive palette in the pursuit of a poetic reality…
Colour is central to her work, and she creates her colours from a restrictive palette, composed of natural pigments and carefully crafted until it reaches the intended harmony, which confers to her sober and vigorous painting a unique and intimate atmosphere.Their colours are never bright but much more like colour tones, nuances, earthy and a wide variety of ochres. Isabelle Delannoy mounts the layers alternating work of material and glazing in search of a dimmed figurative art leading to abstraction, allowing a touch of unreal into her scenery enshrouded with poetry. The artist masters every step of the oil painting art, ranging from the priming of the canvas to the crafting of the pigments and mediums. The compositions of Isabelle Delannoy blossom, nourished by delicate and warm harmonies which she exalts in series telling a story, revolving around a single subject inviting the “observer” into a poetic reality, where the structure of the ensemble is essential.
In 2011, Isabelle Delannoy established her workshop within the Marché Dauphine, at the heart of the International Flea Market of Paris-Saint Ouen. A place where Isabelle Delannoy welcomes private individuals all year long, art collectors from France and abroad but also invites interior designers into her unique artistic world, for either orders or direct purchase. In 2019, she opened a second gallery at Marché Biron, International Flea Market of Paris-Saint Ouen.
For her work, Isabelle Delannoy has received numerous awards, including three consecutive awards at the Salon des Artistes Français in 2005 (Madeleine Paillard award), 2006 (Marin award) and 2007 (Bronze medal). She was Laureate of the Société des Artistes du Val de Marne in 2009 and the Navy Biennial in 2010. She is also a member of the Taylor Foundation.
In 2019, she is invited to China as part of an artist residency for a month and a half at the end of which her works go into collection in the International Art Center of Shangjin, Yunxi – Hubeï, China.
Her works appear in numerous private and public collections in France and abroad.
Art does not reproduce the visible. It makes it visible” wrote Paul Klee.
Isabelle Noonan
Isabelle Noonan, a graduate of the Louvre School, worked for several years in the Conservation and Restoration Workshop at the Whitney Museum in New York and then in Paris, where she currently lives. This dual training, historical and technical, remains a constant reference for her.
Isabelle Noonan’s painting is a figurative painting that has its source in the motif and mainly in the open air. A true passion for this painter who loves nothing more than to leave with her easel, her brushes and her colours. Whether it is landscapes, urban views… it is not a question of reproducing what she sees but of reinterpreting it, of retransmitting the particular emotion she receives from it.
Perhaps the most characteristic feature of his painting is light. It is it that gives life to shapes, brings strength and beauty to even the most banal compositions, gives colours their true value…
Trained in contact with the best painters, Isabelle Noonan often participates in painting festivals in Europe or the United States. She thus feeds on encounters with other artists who share the same passion. Back in his studio, his research remains identical whether it is on still lifes, portraits, landscapes started outside or on his own compositions.
Thierry Lefort, french painter, born in 1967. Studied with Philippe Lejeune at the Atelier de la Vigne. Known for his mastery of oil painting, especially for his big urban landscapes, which gave him fame. He teaches painting in Paris for several ateliers, and gives several days workshop in other countries like Marocco, Italy, Russia and in California. He is the President of the Salon dʼ Automne subjective figuration painting section, at the Grand Palais, in Paris.
Thierry Lefort, Hollywood Blvd!
Distinctions: –
Distinctions:
Taylor foundation Gabriel Zendel award: Salon d Automne 2018 Amis du Salon D Automne award: Salon dAutomne 2018
Marin award for contemporary painting 2017 Jurys special honors at the Salon des Artistes Francais 2017
Regianial award at the department of Etampes 2015
Figurative award in Maisse 2015
French Landscape Painters Prize: French Artists Exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris 2014
Versailles Gallery award: 148th Versailles Art Exhibition 2013
Andreʼ Joseph Dutruel award: National art Exhibition 2013
Painters award : Salon d art d Evry 2013
Cadre et Lumiere award: Dourdan Spring salon 2013
Marin award contemporary painting 2012
Taylor foundation Grand award : French Painters exhibition at teh Grand Palais 2011
City s award of Leuville sur Orge 2009
Painter of honor award: Salon d’art of Palaiseau 2007
Born in 1967 in St-Petersburg in a family of scientists, Anna graduated in arts in 1991 at the Academy of Fine Arts of the city, also called famous Repine Institute. In 1992 she moved to Paris. She improves her post-graduation knowledge at L’Ecole du Louvre thanks to a french governement scholarship, she pursues her studies, getting a master of Arts’ philosophy at Sorbonne University. Since 1992, Lives in Paris, Member of MDA ( French Artists professionnal association) of Taylor Fondation, of SNBA ( National Fine Art Association) Sociétaire Of Salon d’Automne. Her works are presented in a few public collection ( Musée Waganova St Petersburg, and in France cities of Sète, Gardanne, Pont de Claix)
Besides painting, she organizes numerous international cultural events: art shows, fairs, concerts, trips and conferences and get reputation as curator.
Sunny day on Paris, Oil of canvas 1mx1m
Recently Her most known event is the Plein Air International Festival in Normandy that takes place annually since 2013.
In 2020 it will take in Paris
Connecting two parallel but complementary careers, Anna Filimonova is a tireless and roaming artist. In her paintings, she tries to voice not only the location but also, and maybe, especially, the reigning atmosphere that seduced her. This is why she feels the pressing need of plein-air painting, hear the surrounding sounds, people that pass by, the streets life even if she often finishes her paintings in her quiet studio. She handles oil as well as watercolor and sometimes paints portraits but she also manages big canvases as her work called “Republic Gard on the Champs Elysées” or “Joutes de Sète” and “Orchestra in the Playel Room”.
Her predilection topics are multiple. “Gardens and landscapes” and the music have been the two following her during her life. Anna started her career with Yuri Temirkanov’ portrait – the famous conductor. Anna often painted musicians, during concerts, repetitions and also singers like Veronika Boulitcheva.
After dedicating numerous paintings to Paris, the city she fell in love with, she will paint a lot of others, disovered during her travels – New York, Tokyo, Fukuoka. One of her exhibition themes were “Travels notebooks”.
In 2018, she realised about 20 paintings including one portrait of Wan Ligen for the Museum of Shangini in Hubei, China.
If she still lives in Paris the bigest part of the year, It’s during Spring 2011 that Anna Filimonova falls in love with a small village of Normandy -Fourges near Giverny and Claude Monet’s gardens and setted up her second, complementary studio at 5 rue du Commerce 27 630 Fourges -Vexin-sur-Epte, Normandy France
Fourges landscapes inspire her infinitely, she works a lot in plein air and very quickly she had the envy to share her passion. After a few briefs visits of russian artists and classes given to some kids during school holidays, it’s in 2012 that the professionnal plein air workshops are starting to mushroom.
Together with the town hall and local companies, Anna creates a program combining painting sessions in plein air, including Giverny gardens, and the discovery of the region and its museums.
Thus, tens of artists from Russia , Europe, United States adults of young students followed by their teachers come now every year to follow the impressionists path and benefits Anna Filimonova’s advices. Some years, the location of this workshops and art camps has been changed from Normandy and Seine river to Loire Valley and her Castles.
To contact anna@filimonova.com
To know more about Anna Filimonova’s workshop’s program
