BoldBrush is a painting competition held by Canvoo, an arts newsletter produced by a company that sells hosted artist websites.

Entries are not limited to customers, and they post the entries online in a large grouping that is worth looking through. There are quite a number of interesting entries, and there are links to additional images of entries, past and present, by the individual artists.

Yon can step through multiple pages of thumbnails, view all on a single page or view a selection of popular entries.

You can also just use Google to find the artist’s websites to see more of their work.

(Images above, links to BoldBrush entries: Jeffery Sparks, Margie Murray, Leah Richmond, J.M. Brodrick, Richard Christian Nelson, Alan Dingman, Tom Heflin)

Though he was never a formal member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, English painter and illustrator Arthur Hughes was part of their circle and distinctly influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite style and subject matter.

Younger than the established Pre-Raphaelite painters, Hughes was first attracted to their movement by a magazine they published for short time called The Germ.

Hughes didn’t fare well with the Royal Academy, arbiter of artistic value in England at the time, but he was welcomed by the Pre-Raphaelites, attended their meetings, and became friends with several of the seminal figures, Millais in particular.

In addition to the familiar Pre-Rahaelite subjects from Shakespeare, Authurian legend, other literature and history, he painted portraits and scenes of ordinary life.

Hughes was particularly known for his paintings of lovers that were meditations on the fleeting nature of beauty, love and youth.

Waterhouse Gallery in Santa Brbara, California has drawn from its stable of artists to present their Great American Figurative Artists Exhibition 2010.

The online preview of the exhibit includes one or more images by each artist. You can click on the thumbnails for a larger view and some information about the artist. You can then come back to the gallery’s main page, find the artist’s name and click through for more images of work by that artist.

While the emphasis is on figurative subjects, the selections include figures in interiors, landscapes and other environments. The artists reception was yesterday, November 20, 2010. Unfortunately, the gallery’s website neglects to mention the closing date for the exhibition.

The Waterhouse Gallery’s regularly represented artists include a number of terrific painters, a few of whom I’ve featured in the past here on Lines and Colors.

Images above: Jeremy Lipking, Richard Schmid, Scott Burdick, Steve Hanks, Craig Nelson, Jennifer McChristian (links are to my posts).