As I do with most artists profiled here, I ask the simple question. Did this artist attend art school to help refine his instrinsic talent? The question so far is unanimously, yes!

Chris Bolden has been painting since 1990. Graduating from Pasadena Art Center College of Design in 1997 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Illustration, he immediately began working and is currently an artist on the long-running animated television series The Simpsons. He first worked on the show as a background illustrator and designer, and more currently as a color-key artist. Sources of artistic inspiration for Chris come from painters such as: N.C.Wyeth, Winslow Homer, and John Singer Sargent.

With the right training and portfolio, your opportunities in the art and design world are limitless.

Photo featured: Throwin’ Poses done in ink and watercolor on paper towel. For more great pieces by Chris, visit his site Surf Forever.com. Here’s a quick link to his Watercolor series.

Keep up the great work Chris, let’s surf soon.

For a complete list of Art Schools, visit our homepage.

Disclosure: Chris is a long time friend of mine. We spent our years in high school surfing and listening to punk rock.

With a career spanning seventy years, two World Wars, and incorporating the traditions of neoclassicism, surrealism, and cubism (of which he was a founder), Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) remains one of the most famous and versatile artists of the twentieth century. His massive body of work encompasses prints, paintings, drawings, and sculptures. His most famous works include Les Demoiselles d’avignon, his first cubist painting, an Guernica–a mural depicting the 1937 bombing of a Basque fishing village.

Source:

Pablo Picasso Biography and Artworks-The Art History Archive

As an artist, Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) accomplished more in ten years than most painters do in a lifetime. From early experiments in Dutch realism and French impressionism, Van Gogh developed his own unique style of expressive brushstrokes and vivid–almost explosive–colors, producing some 840 paintings and one thousand drawings between 1880 and 1890. Although productive, Van Gogh’s career was plagued by financial worry and declining mental health, culminating in his suicide at age thirty-seven.

Source:
Van Gogh Museum: Official Site

From humble beginnings as the illegitimate son of a notary, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) grew to become one of the most universally gifted human beings in history. In addition to his seventeen surviving paintings (each a supreme example of Renaissance art), da Vinci also applied his genius as a draftsman, sculptor, musician, philosopher, inventor, scientist, and military engineer–even designing rudimentary tanks and flying machines five hundred years before the Industrial Revolution.

Source:

Gelb, Michael J. How to think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Everyday.

New York, Random House. 1998.

Together with Manet and Renoir, Claude Monet (1840-1926) emerged in the late nineteenth century as one of the founding fathers of Impressionism–at the time, a completely new style of painting that emphasized visible brush strokes, the primacy of light and color over line, and composing in the open air. His first success as a painter came in 1874 when his Impression: Sunrise (from which the term impressionism derives) shocked Paris’s artistic and academic society.

Source:
Guggenheim Museum

The pioneering figure of Pop Art, Andy Warhol (1928-1987) entered New York ’s art scene after a successful career as a commercial artist. Working in multiple media–painting, silk screening, printmaking, and film–Warhol mass-produced a body of work whose subject matter and technique emphasized repetition, consumerism, and American pop culture. Over his 30-year career, Warhol’s studio (”the factory”) pumped out images of soup cans, Coca-Cola bottles, and celebrities–often to the shock and dismay of critics.

Source:

The Warhol Foundation

Once heard to say “I am surrealism,” Salvador Dali (1904-1989) began his career as a student of the renaissance masters. By 1926, he had turned classical technique toward photorealistic depictions of intricate, often nightmarish dreamscapes–vast plains occupied by distorted figures, insects, and double images (his most famous work, The Persistance of Memory, features melting clocks). In addition to paintings, Dali produced sculpture, illustrations, writings, and films–even collaborating on projects with Alfred Hitchcock and Walt Disney.

Source:

Gala Salvador Dali Foundation

Although skilled as a draftsman, sculptor, and printmaker, Henri Matisse (1869-1954) is remembered principally as a painter and the founder of fauvism. Although he studied the works of the old masters, he was inspired by contemporaries Van Gogh and Gaugin to create brightly-colored works that his critics mocked as bestial (fauvism comes from fauve, the French word for “wild beast”). Matisse’s most famous work, The Dance, showcases his strikingly use of color and shape.

Source:
Metropolitan Museum of Art

(Wassily Kandinsky) Originally trained as a lawyer, Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) began to study painting at thirty. His early works incorporated pointillist and fauvist techniques, but by 1911, his artistic style shifted to abstract representations of internal feelings and music (rather than external visual objects). Abstract expressionism–as his style would later be called–shocked the art world of Kandinsky’s time, even contributing to his expulsion, first from his native Russia (under Soviet rule) and, later, Nazi Germany.
Source:

The Guggenheim

Originally trained in imitative realism at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Student’s League of New York, Georgia O’Keefe (1887-1986) developed a unique artistic language that pursued emotional expression through stylized representation. In 1916, her work attracted the attention of photographer Alfred Stieglitz, who offered O’Keefe support throughout her career and their subsequent marriage. In 1929, they moved to
New Mexico, where O’Keefe completed her trademark series of cattle bones and southwestern landscapes.

Source:

O’Keefe Museum

A monumental figure of Holland’s Golden Age, Rembrandt Van Rijn (1606-1669) began his career as a court portraitist, quickly gaining a reputation for his ability to capture human mood and gesture. Although his portraits are among the most celebrated in Western culture, much of his work consists of biblical and mythological scenes composed with a striking approach to color, light, contour, and arrangement. His masterpiece, The Nightwatch, showcases Rembrandt’s his unique artistic language.

Sources:

Encyclopedia Britannica

Art Nouveau – A painting, decorative design, and architectural style developed in England in the 1880s. The style is distinguished by the use of graceful lines, interlaced patterns, flowers, plants and other nature inspired themes.

Classical Style – The term “classical” is often applied to all the art of ancient Greece and Rome, as well as to any art based on logical, balanced principles and deliberate composition.

Cubism - An art style developed in 1908 by Picasso and Braque whereby the artist breaks down the natural forms of the subjects into geometric shapes creating a new kind of illustrative space.

Dadaism – An art style founded by Hans Arp in Zurich after WW1.  This style challenged the established canons of art, thoughts and morality.

Expressionism – An art movement of the early 20th century in which traditional obedience to realism and proportion was replaced by the artist’s emotional connection to the subject. These paintings are often abstract, the subject matter distorted in color and form to highlight the artist’s emotion.

Impressionism – An art movement founded in France in the last third of the 19th century. This style of painting is characterized by short brush strokes of bright colors used to recreate visual impressions of the subject at a particular point in time.

Medieval Art – The art of the Middle Ages ca. 500 A.D. through the 14th century. The art produced immediately prior to the Renaissance.

Pop Art – A style of art that is inspired from commercial art and items of mass culture such as brand name packaging, and popular foods.

Post Impressionism – A term applied to the work of several artists – French or living in France – from about 1885 to 1900. Post Impressionists were united in rejecting the relative absence of form characteristic of Impressionism and stressed more formal qualities  of the subject matter.

Realism – An art style of the mid 19th century, which promoted the idea that everyday people and events are worthy subjects for important art.

Rococo - A style of art, architecture and furnishings popular in Europe in the first three quarters of the 18th century that emphasized ornate but small-scale decoration, curvilinear forms, and pastel colors.

Romanesque - A style of architecture and art dominant in Europe from the 9th to the 12th century. Romanesque architecture, based on ancient Roman models, emphasizes the round arch and barrel vault.

Neoclassicism – “New” classicism – a style in 19th century Western art. Neoclassical paintings have sharp outlines, reserved emotions, deliberate composition, and cool colors.

Neo-Expressionism – “New” expressionism – a term originally applied to works done primarily by German and Italian artists in the post-WWII era.  Neo- Expressionist works depict intense emotions and symbolism, sometimes using unconventional media and intense colors.

Famous works: On the Bank of the Seine, Bennecourt, Impression, Sunrise, Rue Montorgueil, Camille Monet at Work

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Toulouse-Lautrec
Background: Toulouse was a French painter, printmaker, draftsman, and illustrator, whose immersion in the decadent and theatrical life of fin de siècle Paris yielded an oeuvre of provocative images of modern life.

Famous works: La Goulue arriving at the Moulin Rouge.

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Van Eyck
Background: Considered one of the greatest Northern European painters of the 15th century

Famous works: The Crucifixion, The Last Judgment, The Birth of John the Baptist

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Moore, Henry
Background: Sir Henry Spencer Moore was the son of a mining engineer and born in Yorkshire town of Castleford. Moore is best known for his abstract monumental bronzes which can be seen throughout the world as public works of art. The subjects are typically human.

Famous works: Nuclear Engery(my favorite), Family Group, The West Wind.

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Magritte
Background: Magritte was a Belgian surrealist painter, born in Lessines. He studied at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts, Brussels. His first one-man exhibition was in Brussels in 1927. At that time Magritte had already begun to paint in the style, closely akin to surrealism, that was predominant throughout his long career.

Famous quote: “My painting is visible images which conceal nothing; they evoke mystery and, indeed, when one sees one of my pictures, one asks oneself this simple question ‘What does that mean’? It does not mean anything, because mystery means nothing either, it is unknowable.”

Famous works: Ages ago, Bag of Tricks, Freedom of mind, The Portrait

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Noguchi, Isamu
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Georgia O’Keeffe
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Picasso
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Pollack, Jackson
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Rivera/Khalo
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Warhol, Andy
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Van Gogh 
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Disclosure: Jules is a long time friend of mine. We spent serveral summers in France back in the early 90’s. He has since gone on to become a prominent artist.

Did Jules go to art school for his training? Yes!

Jules was educated at the California College of Arts and Crafts in San Francisco California. He received a Bachelors of Fine Arts (BFA) in 1998 and went on to study at the Hunter College in New York, ultimately graduating in 2005 with a Masters. He lives and works in Brooklyn NY.

His work has been exhibited at many prominent international galleries and museums include Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and Palais de Tokyo. Some well known exhibits have been featured at MOMA, PS1 Center for Contemporary Art and the Royal Academy in London.

He is currently represented by Zach Feuer Gallery in NY City.

Here is a list of his past and present solo exhibitions

2008 Thaddeus Ropac, Paris, France (upcoming)

2007 “Unknowing Man’s Nature” Zach Feuer Gallery, New York, NY
“allweweresayingwasgivepeaceachance” Mario Diacono at Ars Libri, Boston, MA
 
2006 Arndt and Partner, Berlin, Germany
 
2005 “This is Our Town”, Zach Feuer Gallery (LFL), New York, NY
 
2004 Armory Show / LFL Gallery, New York, NY
 
2003 “Land of Many Uses”, LFL Gallery, New York, NY
Solo exhibition, Allston Skirt Gallery, Boston, MA
 
2000 Solo Exhibition, Space 743, San Francisco, CA.
 
1998 Solo Exhibition, Soapbox Gallery, Venice, CA

See our 7 Art Exhibits you must see before you croak.