Claude (born Claudine) Raguet Hirst was a beautifully skilled still life painter active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Her intimate, strikingly rendered paintings are considered to be in the American “trompe l’oeil” (fools the eye) style, a genre in which she was the pioneering woman artist.

Though she started her career painting still life subjects like fruit, and particularly florals, she shifted her attention to arrangements with subjects common to the genre — pipes, candles, reading glasses and other objects often found on desks.

Her best known paintings, however, add to these subjects richly textural representations of antique books. Not just books, but specifically recognizable books, the titles or subjects of which are sometimes featured in her painting titles.

She later dropped the pipes and other objects usually associated with paintings meant to appeal to men, and concentrated on subjects both men and women might enjoy; and her choice of books frequently included titles by women authors whose attitudes would be considered feminist by the standards of the day.

Hirst worked in watercolor, an unusual medium for trompe l’oeil, but common among women artists of the time. She also mastered oil and her oil and watercolor still lifes are often similar in appearance.

The best online source I’ve found for her images it on The Athenaeum. You can zoom in on these images from Sotheby’s past lots (click on the lot number).

There is a book on Hirst and her work: Claude Raguet Hirst: Transforming the American Still Life by Martha M. Evans. You can see a preview of it on Google Books.

Originally from Alabama and now based in Chicago, Scott Tallman Powers works both on location and in the studio, painting landscape subjects as well as figurative works.

At times he combines both elements in paintings evocative of his travels to China, Guatemala, Mexico, Morocco and other countries. These more complex figurative compositions frequently have something of a narrative feel to them, with subjects of rural village life and reflective portraits of individuals going about their daily chores.

In small reproductions his work appears polished, but closer up it’s painterly, richly textured and often suggests more detail than is present.

Powers utilizes a variety of palettes, from soft muted hues for misty and overcast days, to bright, vibrantly colored fruit markets and autumn foliage, always selecting a range of colors and values best suited to his subject.

When viewing the image collections on Power’s website, note that there are additional images to be found through the easy to miss text link to “View archived works“.

His instructional video Scott Tallman Powers: Life in the Market is reviewed on Art DVD Review. There is a preview (unfortunately low resolution) on YouTube.

Powers is also featured in the Summer, 2010 issue of American Painting Video Magazine.

There is a nice article with background on Powers and his work on Southwest Art magazine.