When Carolyn Lord was 26, her work was profiled on the "Watercolor Page" in American Artist Magazine, followed by articles in U.S. Art, Watercolor, and Watercolor Magic magazines. She is an extensive traveler and has studied with such noted artists as Millard Sheets, Rex Brandt, George Post, Milford Zornes and Robert E. Wood. She is an Artist Member of the California Art Club, and a Signature Member of the National Watercolor Society.

"The concept behind An August Garden was to paint a mate for another full-sheet watercolor that had been purchased by Saint Joseph's Hospital in Stockton, CA. Since Garden Chimera was a studio piece based on spring time calla and rose paintings that I had done plein air, I decided to create a painting based on several summer garden paintings of sunflowers and cosmos."

"Since this was to be in a hospital setting, the mood was to be upbeat. I had chosen the unlikely subject of sunflowers past their prime, yet I included the life-giving aspect of a garden in full. Birds are fluttering in the shadows of the big sunflower gathering seeds, the ladybugs and butterflies are feasting on bugs and nectar."

"The main sunflowers provided the bold foreground motif with its large forms painted in single washes of yellow and orange based greens and neutrals. These are contrasted with the cool pinks and blue greens of the cosmos, painted with innumerable individual brush strokes. In addition to the Variation of scale in the foreground flowers, I created a contrast between near and far by including a row of a different species of sunflowers in the middle distance with blue-grey foliage to give a sense of the strong sunlight that washes out color."

"Garden Chimera has large trees in the background to enclose the garden, so I utilized that motif in An August Garden with a suggestion of the flat landscape so indicative of California's Central Valley. The bungalow is an rural archetype and provided an excuse to introduce the blue to match the bright energy of the flowers and to be the counterweight for the neutralized blue-greens and warm grays."

When she is not on the road, Carolyn draws inspiration from the architecture, landscape and gardens of her home town, Livermore, California. Watercolor painting defines her career, but is not the full extent of it: Carolyn has a continuing interest in figure and portraiture painting, most recently working in oil. More of her work and contact info can be viewed at http://www.lordanglin.com/.

"My art is about happiness!" That is to say, it is about his own happiness, says Bailey.

"I started painting at age 46, which is sort of late for someone who was hungry to paint all of his life, wouldn’t you say? " He explained that even though his college degree is not in art, he is primarily self taught. Driven and deeply passionate about it, Bailey refers to himself as "compulsive about painting."

"I paint because I have to. I teach because I want to spread the joy I have derived from being a painter."

Bailey has a number of accomplishments to his credit in the art world. He has won awards and nods from around the country for his work and has been featured in Watercolor, The Palette and Watercolor Artist Magazines and featured in a few books on the subject of watercolor. His pieces have found their way into corporate collections and private collections throughout the US, Europe and Australia.

Always reaching to attain new levels of growth, he is continually experimenting and testing his limits and his visions. "I think desire is ninety percent of talent." He says, "You are only as good as the amount of painting experience you accumulate. A lot of experience in anything leads to wisdom about that thing." So, he paints almost daily. Whether it is abstract studio work or casual plein air outings, Mike finds it difficult to point to a favorite subject or style. Never satisfied, he works to continuously expand his range, always pushing to the limits of what he believes to be "good work" and presses to experiment and make "not seen before" work.

Considered to be a very gifted teacher in the field of art, he teaches workshops throughout the U.S. and Europe. His workshops are intense, hilarious and full of motivation and support. His course, "Watercolor Beyond the Obvious," is a rigorous path of experimentation and development of a personal painting series over ten weeks. The course is an exploration of design and a discovery of personal, artistic breakthroughs.

He lives with his wife Diana in Santa Cruz, California and is a member of many art associations in Central California. Mike is a signature member of and the incoming President of National Watercolor Society for 2010 and 2011. His work and contact info can be seen at www.mebaileyart.com and http://www.mebaileyart.blogspot.com.

"Where I share common ground with the Impressionist movement is the need for the work to have solid drawing skills. I also admire their spontaneity and courage to break with the conventions of the day. However, I too am seeking to represent an essence of a place, rather than striving to accurately record a location."

"The process of my work takes an initial image through a series of refinements, a journey if you like, where the final piece is often very different from the initial study. It’s akin to sculpture in a way; the first painting is like a cube of stone, I chisel away from piece to piece until the image emerges. So within the creation of a finished piece there are numerous individual works created as the final design is refined, and the core, the essence, the überness if you like of the subject is revealed."

"An Uberpainting is like as screen print in watercolour and they consist of five layers of different coloured paint applied independently and sequentially darker in tone. I mix colours from a primary base and it is the application of these successive layers that provides the images with the startling three dimensional impression."

"Painting is, for me, a way of communicating, of expressing to others my feelings about the world around us. When I retired early, in 2002, I found that I had suddenly lost many of the opportunities for communicating that had come with my work. Painting has filled that need since then, and I think it could do so for many retirees.

People often think that to paint one must have unusual, inborn talent, or to go through a long period of training in art school. I found that is not really true – painting, like talking is a natural human activity. I had no special training as a young person, only after retiring, I attended painting classes. This taught me the fundamentals of design and of the technical aspects—handling paints and paper. Since then it has been a matter of practice, and looking as much as possible at high quality paintings by others..."

Since childhood Dhanashri has always had a keen interest in art. Born and raised in India, she completed her Applied Arts degree at Abhinav Kala Mahavidyalay, Pune in 2001 and became a freelance designer. After exploring the beauty of the seasons in England and Scotland, Dhanashri now resides in the beautiful capital city of Canada. Her paintings are exhibited in many art galleries and in private collections. Dhanashri offers watercolour workshops/lessons and works with regional art societies as well.