Catarina G. De Bruyn
Belleville, IL

I was born in Belgium and moved to Belleville, Illinois in 2000.   I started taking playful painting classes in 2012 and soon decided it was time to become more serious with art.   My paintings are light and dark, shadow, atmosphere and mood.  I like the work of the old masters and David Mensing, Tom Nicholas and many others.  I'm constantly studying and taking additional art lessons and my instructor is pushing me to the next level -- to adopt a more professional approach to my painting.  I have a lot to learn and it's not always easy, but I love it!

Kim Richard Depigian
Belleville, IL

Kim creates abstracts in acrylic and oil.  He livies in Belleville, IL and studied music at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and studied art at the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts.  His work is an expression of himself.  Some of his work is very intuitive and can be spontaneous which sometimes leads to complicated and abstract pieces.  He sometimes combines his music and art backgrounds by incorporating a short musical composition into his abstract work through painting the "theory" he feels from the composition.  While some of his paintings are accomplished with traditional methods, his abstract style and striking results are anything but traditional.  Kim also works with block art by painting individual block pieces and then scanning these onto photos and arranging these on larger backgrounds to form the individual pieces into well-designed quality compositions.

Rita Cooper
O'Fallon, IL

Rita Cooper has been painting as a hobby since she retired 12 years ago.  She enjoys traveling around the country taking workshops and studying under nationally established professional artists.  Her favorite medium is oil and she enjoys painting a wide range of subject matter, including portraits, still life, landscapes, animals and florals.