Charles Lidderdale was a 19th century British painter who specialized in portraits and figures of young women, usually set against bucolic backgrounds, often presented in colorful costumes of gypsies or Spanish dress.

Born in St. Petersburg, Russia to English parents, Lidderdale moved back to England with his family as an adolescent. He studied and then successfully exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts.

Some of his portrayals of young women seem oddly stylized, with preternaturally large eyes (not exactly a proto-Margaret Keane, just a little too big). Most, however were more naturalistic, and many have a delicate sensitivity to their subjects and a pleasing simplicity of composition.

Cristóbal Pérez García is a contemporary Spanish painter who captures his landscapes — and in particular, his urban scenes — with fresh, immediate brush work, lively color and a sure feeling of naturalistic light and shadow.

When viewing the galleries of work on his website, be sure to open your browser window as wide as possible, as the images will size up larger, and much of the visual appeal of his work in more visible in larger images.

Even in those paintings that look tight and finished in small reproductions, larger images show his approach to be painterly and direct, as most of his work appears to be relatively large in scale. He works primarily in oil, but also in water media, and there are works in which he appears to bring techniques from one discipline into the other.

I particularly enjoy the forceful geometry of his urban compositions, and the way that is reinforced by passages of light and dark as well as higher and lower chroma.

There is a short video on Vimeo called Traffic, that shows the artist at work on a large scale painting on location, and a smaller piece in the studio.

Cristóbal Pérez García’s work will be on display in upcoming shows in Barcelona at Grupd’ArtEscolà gallery location Galería Mar from 5 March to 18 March, 2015 and in the U.S. at ArtExpo New York from April 23-26, 2015,