Jurors
Fred Ross ARC Chairman
Founder and Chairman of the Art Renewal Center®, Ross is the leading authority on William Bouguereau and co-author of the published Catalogue Raisonné William Bouguereau: His Life and Works. Ross received his MA in art education from Columbia University. His speeches and essays are read by over 300,000 art professionals, educators, students and fans each year; and have become required reading in countless classrooms. He has given lectures and speeches at prominent venues including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sotheby’s NY, The Dahesh Museum, NY, the Berkshire Museum, MA, The Wadsworth Athenaeum, CT, the MEAM Museum, Barcelona, as well as university campuses among other venues. Ross is also a well-known collector of 19th Century European painting and of Contemporary Realism, being published in numerous magazine and newspaper articles including Forbes Magazine and Fine Art Connoisseur among others. Ross has also been a frequent Juror in numerous competitions and is an ARC Salon and ARC Scholarship judge.
Dr. Vern Swanson
Swanson has his PhD from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, England and was the Director of the Springville Museum of Art, Utah, where he has served for over 30 years. He is a lecturer/scholar/writer and expert on 19th Century European Art and Russian Art through the 20th Century. Swanson is the leading authority on Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema and John William Godward and author of the Catalogue Raisonnés for both artists. In total, the number of books Swanson has published is well into the teens.
Michael John Angel
Michael John Angel is an ARC Living Master™ and regarded as one of the foremost figurative painters alive today; with his paintings hanging in both public and private collections on both sides of the Atlantic. From 1982 to 1988 he was the Director of the National Portrait Academy in Toronto, Canada, and from 1992-1995 the Assistant Director of the Florence Academy of Art in Florence, Italy. In 1997, his school, the Angel Academy was founded with the assistance of Lynne Barton. Angel Academy is now one of the most successful Atelier Schools in the world, requiring of its students the highest standards of traditional techniques.
Juliette Aristides
Juliette Aristides is an ARC Living Master™ and founding member of the Water Street Atelier with Jacob Collins, Aristides is a recipient of the Elisabeth Greenshields Grant; and founded the Classical Atelier at Gage Academy of Fine Art in Seattle, Washington. She has authored three books, Classical Drawing Atelier, Classical Painting Atelier, and Lessons in Classical Drawing, which includes an instructional DVD and quickly became a best seller. Her books have become well received guidelines for drawing and painting.
Anthony Waichulis
Anthony Waichulis is an ARC Living Master™ and is regarded as the premiere trompe l'oeil painter living today. Celebrated by critics and collectors alike, Waichulis' works have been published in nearly every major art publication worldwide including but not limited to: The Artist's Magazine, Fine Art Connoisseur, American Artist, American Art Review, American Art Collector, Art News and Art-Talk. Anthony has exhibited in a salvo of key venues across the country including the Smithsonian Institute, National Arts Club, Orlando Museum of Art, Butler Institute, Washington Museum of Fine Arts, The World Arts Museum in Beijing as well as many others. He is also the founder of the highly successful Waichulis Studio and co-founder and chief curriculum designer of the International Ani Art Academies project. In 2011 The Waichulis Studio merged with the Ani Art Academies project to form the domestic flagship of the Ani project, The Ani Art Academy Waichulis in Wilkes Barre, PA. Since then the Ani Art Academies project has seen the launch of international Academies in Anguilla, The Dominican Republic, Thailand and Sri Lanka.
Jeannie Wilshire
Jeannie Wilshire is the Co-Director of the Association of Fantastic Art, dedicated to the promotion, recognition and elevation of the art of imaginative realism. The AFA is the organization behind the groundbreaking IX symposium, the annual celebration of imaginative realism (founded in 2008) and the IX Exchange, the online nexus for collectors of original paintings, drawings and sculpture from this style of realist art. In addition, she is the author and designer of Visions of Never: The Collection of Fantastic Art (2009) and the forthcoming History of Imaginative Realism. She is also the designer of IlluXConcepts Volumes 1-5 and The Art of the Dragon: The Definitive Collection of Contemporary Dragon Paintings (2012). She was honored to be a guest curator of AT THE EDGE: Art of the Fantastic, the most comprehensive exhibition of imaginative realist art ever to be mounted in the US. AT THE EDGE premiered at the Allentown Art Museum in June of 2012, drawing record crowds to the museum. She is currently curating the upcoming infra:REAL - The Art of Imaginative Realism show for the Jonathan Levine Gallery in NYC, which premiers in August of 2015. Together with her husband, Patrick, she has been collecting original imaginative realist art for 15 years.
Mario Andres Robinson
Mario Andres Robinson is an ARC Living Master™, an Exhibiting Artist Member (EAM) of The National Arts Club, an Artist Member of The Salmagundi Club and a Signature Member of The Pastel Society of America. His work has been featured several times in The Artist's Magazine, The Pastel Journal, Watercolor Magic, American Art Collector, Fine Art Connoisseur and on the cover of American Artist magazine. In the February, 2006 issue of The Artist's Magazine, Mario was selected as one of the top 20 realist artists under the age of 40. The work of Mario Andres Robinson fits squarely within the tradition of American painting. Robinson's finished works bear a close affinity to the masters of the realist tradition, Andrew Wyeth and Thomas Eakins. Robinson's work has a timeless and universal quality, capturing the human spirit by exemplifying his subjects inner psyche. Although Robinson's oeuvre is diverse, beginning in 1994, Robinson began to extensively incorporate rural subjects, primarily located in the state of Alabama.