Old Masters Academy

Artwork by Ashley Elizabeth Burke

Hi my name is Ashley I’m 37 years old. I’m a wife, a mother, an artist. Art has always spoke to me, even as a child. I stopped drawing in my teen years because I was distracted with teenage shenanigans. However after a terrible life experience at 30 I picked up some painting supplies at a craft store and off I went at it without stopping, growing and learning. My biggest challenge is mastering color harmony, and sometimes drawing. I want to learn how to approach traditional painting the way the master painters before me has. I want to be able to catch my mistakes faster and be able to understand the value relationships quickly. Most of all I want to master dynamic compositions by using the golden ratio. …

Artwork by Mel Taylor

I am an artist from Kalgoorlie, in Western Australia. Kalgoorlie is a regional mining town 600km from Perth, Western Australia’s capital. Kalgoorlie is in one of the most isolated areas of Australia, where even buying art supplies is limited. I work out of my garage opposite beautiful native bushland. In summer it is hot! often reaching temperatures well past 40 degrees centigrade.

I love oil paints; the way they move on a canvas, how versatile they can be, and the depth they have. As anyone who paints, I am still learning and in just about every session I discover something new (often, what not to do). …

Artwork by Alyne WHiteswan

I love the Old Masters and the videos I’ve watched in the Old masters Academy. I am working towards a professional career, painting and drawing every day and learning. My work is mostly feminine archetypes and myths and fairy tales, but I moving towards something more.

I am mostly a narrative artist and recently took on a commission that is a scene from Homer’s Odyssey. It is a manly theme and I took to the anatomy books and worked hard to get the figures right, but now I wish I had the skills to make it great. It’s in the middle so I can fix it now. …

Artwork by Adreeja Gupta

I’m not as skilled in story telling as I am in art, but, I will try my best. I have been painting since I can remember, to young to even grasp artistry at its full grandeur. However, fascination got the best of me. So, I picked up anything that could be used to make an imprint on a surface and started scribbling away. Art has been a necessity since day one, a thing that is almost as important to me as oxygen. To live, I must paint. So now, at seventeen, here I am, far away from the perfection I seek but ambitious enough to keep going. …

… Art for me is a way to express my connection to nature, I paint nature landscapes, forests and mountains because my soul long for it, because I don’t live in such places art help me to bring those places atmospheres into my life.

My artistic challenges currently are to give the right depth to the painting and the right use of light and shadow. As well my challenge is to get started with oil painting which I know people say it’s hard. …