California artist Daniel Keys started his self-training as a painter by emulating the work of renowned painter and teacher Richard Schmid. He later had the opportunity to study with Schmid directly and his style shows the influence of his admiration for Schmid’s approach.

Keys focuses primarily on still life, with occasional landscapes and figurative work. His still life paintings are colorful, vibrant and rendered with lively brushwork and loose, casual indications of backgrounds and supporting surfaces.

His work also shows the benefit of adhering to Schmid’s emphasis on traditional basics, the importance of warm and cold light, naturalistic color, control of values and sensitivity to edges.

Keys is now teaching and his web site lists workshops and events. His blog often features work that you will also find on the gallery on his site, but in many cases the images are linked to higher resolution versions than are available on the site, allowing a better look at his expressive brush handling.

Keys tries to express a spiritual aspect in his work; and the focused, refined nature of the paintings invite contemplation.

His work was recently featured in the March/April 2010 issue of Art of the West magazine.

The latest prize to surface from the ever shifting sea of the attributions of works from the past is the suggestion by Everett Fahy, former Chairman of European Paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, that a painting in the museum’s collection that has been attributed to the circle of Francesco Granacci, Saint John the Baptist Bearing Witness, may in fact be the work of Granacci’s close friend Michelangelo.

There is a good article on ARTnews, in which Fahy describes his “ah-ha” moment in front of the panting, the scholarly article he wrote on it, which took a while to complete, and the fact that he expects critics to “throw brickbats” at his suggestion now that it has been released.

For those of us who are not scholars of the Italian Renaissance, the major interest lies in the possibility that we may now know more about Michelangelo, and at the very least, we can look at this particular painting with fresh eyes.

[Via Jason Kottke]

Scott Kennedy’s quiet, contemplative portraits, often of neighbors or family members, are done in the kind of traditional direct realism that has prompted the Art Renewal Center to endorse him as an “ARC Living Artist“, with a featured page on their site. He was also a finalist in their 2008 International ARC Salon.

Kennedy received a BFA from Colorado State University and pursued a career in illustration, eventually transitioning into gallery art. He now resides in Northern Colorado.

He has set off his latest series of portraits by framing them in antique window frames, complete with weathered shutters and iron hinges. The contrast in the rough materials emphasizes the refined paint handling, tonal control and modeling in the portraits, and also helps establish a reflective mood.

In addition to his web site, Kennedy has a blog in which he discusses his technique and shows works in various stages of completion.

Marcus Stone was an illustrator and painter who was active in the latter part of the 19th Century.

Stone was trained by his father, Frank Stone, who had been a noted illustrator was a friend and companion of Charles Dickens (and antagonist of the Pre-Raphaelite painters).

Marcus Stone was exhibiting at the Royal Academy at the age of eighteen, and was illustrating books by Dickens and other noted authors a few years later.

After finding himself frustrated with the restraints of illustration and reproduction techniques of the time, he transitioned into gallery paintings. He was elected to the Royal Academy as an associate and later as an academician, and was the recipient of awards and praise from the artistic establishment.

He focused at first on history painting and later specialized in scenes of romantic drama, often set in lush formal gardens.

His later work shows a brighter and more painterly approach, as the influence of the new styles of painting spread through Europe and the UK.