Jean-Jacques Cazin

Artist Jean-Jacques Cazin

French, 1949

Jean-Jacques Cazin is a deliberately self-taught surrealist painter.

First caught by photography, he devotes himself to develop his techniques and his sense of composition, framing and detail found in his paintings when he translates snapshots of his imagination.
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"Du rêve à l’idée…de l’idée à la palette…
De la pâte aux pinceaux…des pinceaux à la toile…
De la toile à tes yeux…et tes yeux font le reste."

Jean-Jacques Cazin

Svetlana Valueva

Artist Svetlana Valueva

Moscow, 1966

Svetlana Valueva was accepted into art school at the tender age of six - an astonishing child prodigy. By the age of 8, she was winning international exhibitions and at age 11, was featured in a documetary on outstanding artists that was shown in theaters across Russia. By then, her father, a gifted artist himself, had given her his own studio. Also, she had been secretly shown the fantastical works of artists like Klimt, Alfons Mucha, Sargent, and Alma-Tadema, whose styles were quite forbidden in Soviet era Russia. However, this discovery was the springboard for Valueva's exquisite Art Nouveau-inspired vision. She began to attract scores of collectors and dealers who smuggled her work out to avid admirers around the world, until the Art Academy finally allowed her a summer trip to study in Europe. From there, Valueva easily gained international acclaim, and remains one of Russia's most outstanding artists.