The Portraits

Explorers, Writers, and Musicians

Timeless Portraits of Creative Minds

Inspired by black and white photographs, these oil paint sketches capture the essence of remarkable individuals whose words and actions continue to resonate through time.

Fanny Crosby (New)

Perfect Submission all is at rest I in my Savior am happy and blest. Watching and waiting, looking above. Filled with His Goodness, lost in His love.

— Fanny Crosby

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" N/A

Leonard Cohen

There is a crack, a crack in everything That's how the light gets in

— Leonard Cohen

Oil on canvas / 14"x18" SOLD

Tanzing Norgay

Seven times I have tried, I have come back and tried again, not with pride and force, not as a soldier to an enemy, but with love, as a child climbs onto the lap of its mother. Now at last I have been granted success, and I give thanks, “Thuji Chey” that is how we say it in Sherpa, “I am grateful”

— Tenzing Norgay

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" $950

Otto Dix

The truth is rarely pure and never simple.

― Otto Dix

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" $950

Louis De Funès

Humor is the sun that drives away the shadows from the human face.

― Louis De Funès

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" $950

Giuseppe Verdi

An artist’s work is never truly finished, it is merely abandoned.

― Giuseppe Verdi

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" $950

Fyodor I. Tutchev

The Russia won't be understood, No measure here can be used: It's not in line, It stands apart - Believe in Russia - use your heart!

― Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" $950

Erich Maria Remarque

Those who consider themselves fair, are particularly ruthless.

― Erich Maria Remarque

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" $950

Fyodor M. Dostoyevsky

Тут дьявол с Богом борется, а поле битвы – сердца людей - Фёдор Достоевский

God and the devil are fighting here and the battlefield is the heart of man.

- Fyodor Dostoyevsky,

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" $950

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

At the threshold of the new day stands the Lord who made it.

― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" SOLD

Leo

Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it.

― Leo Tolstoy

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" $950

C.S. Lewis

No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good.

― C.S. Lewis

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" $950

G.K. Chesterton

For when we cease to worship God, we do not worship nothing, we worship anything.

– G.K Chesterton

Oil on canvas / 14"x18" $950

Louis Armstrong

I see trees of green, red roses too. I see them bloom for me and you. And I think to myself what a wonderful world.

― Louis Armstrong

Oil on canvas / 14"x18" $950

Charlie Chaplin

That which is apparent ends. That which is subtle is never-ending.

– Charlie Chaplin

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" $950

Nikolai Nekrasov

Be diligent to follow the rule: make the space for words to be tight, but for the thoughts spacious.

— Nikolai Nekrasov

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" $950

Vladimir Vysotsky

Even if you're a thousand times right, what's the point if your woman cries?

— Vladimir Vysotsky

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" SOLD

Josef Sudek

Theory is alright, but it is like eating. When you overeat, you get sick.

— Josef Sudek

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" $950

Charles Dickens

“Are tears the dewdrops of the heart?”

― Charles Dickens, David Copperfield

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" / $950

Feodor Dostoevsky

... всякий из нас пред всеми во всем виноват, а я более всех. ― Ф.М. Достоевский, Братья Карамазовы

And another thing, mother, every one of us has sinned against all men, and I more than any.” ― Feodor Dostoevsky, Brothers Karamazov

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" / SOLD

Anton Chekhov

Если тебе когда-нибудь понадобится моя жизнь, то приди и возьми её. ― А.П. Чехов, Чайка

“If my life can ever be of any use to you, come and take it.” ― Anton Chekhov, The Seagull

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" / $950

Leo Tolstoy

Без любви жить легче. Но без неё нет смысла.

― Лев Толстой

It's easier to live without love. But there is no point without it. ― Leo Tolstoy

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" / SOLD

Vladimir Mayakovski

А вы ноктюрн сыграть могли бы на флейте водосточных труб? ― Владимир Маяковский

And you, could you have played a nocturne with just a drainpipe for a flute? ― Vladimir Mayakovski

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" / $950

George Müller

I live in the spirit of prayer. I pray as I walk about, when I lie down and when I rise up. And the answers are always coming.

― George Müller

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" / $950

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

You see, but you do not observe.

― Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, A Scandal in Bohemia

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" / $950

A. A. Milne

“Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. "Pooh!" he whispered. "Yes, Piglet?" "Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw. "I just wanted to be sure of you.”

― A.A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" / $950

Virginia Woolf

The eyes of others our prisons; their thoughts our cages.

― Virginia Woolf

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" / $950

John Steinbeck

To be alive at all is to have scars.

― John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" / $950

Rudyard Kipling

Take everything you like seriously, except yourselves.

– Rudyard Kipling

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" / $950

Feodor Chaliapin

.. свобода в искусстве, как и в жизни, только тогда благо, когда она ограждена и укреплена внутренней дисциплиной - Федор Шаляпин, Маска и душа (В роли Дон Кихота)

.. freedom in art, as in life, is only virtue when it is guarded and fortified by the internal discipline

- Feodor Chaliapin, Mask and Soul (In Role of Don Quixote)

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" / SOLD

Isaac Bashevis Singer

When you betray somebody else, you also betray yourself.

- Isaac Bashevis Singer

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" / $950

Walt Whitman

When one reaches out to help another he touches the face of God.

– Walt Whitman

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" / SOLD

Robert W. Service

Just draw on your grit; it's so easy to quit - It's the keeping your chin up that's hard.

― Robert W. Service

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" / N/A

Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Большой талант требует большого трудолюбия.

— Пётр Ильич Чайковский

Great talent requires great diligence.

— Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" / $950

Alexander Block

О, я хочу безумно жить: все сущее увековечить, безличное — вочеловечить, несбывшееся — воплотить! — Александр Блок

Oh, I want to live recklessly: all that essential - to perpetuate, all that subject less - to humanize, all that unfulfilled - to bring about!

— Alexander Block

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" / $950

Arthur Miller

You never do any good until you get into some trouble.

― Arthur Miller

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" / $950

Tom Crean

Tom Crean was a polar explorer, and was known as the "Irish Giant" with the "heart of a lion"

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" / N/A

Fridtjof Nansen

The difficult is what takes a little time. The impossible is what takes a little longer.

― Fridtjof Nansen

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" / $950

Edmund Hillary

Life's a bit like mountaineering - never look down.

― Edmund Hillary

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" / $950

Roald Amundsen

A rich and varied menu is for people who have no work to do.

― Roald Amundsen

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" / $950

C. S. Lewis

The pain I feel now is the happiness I had before. That's the deal.

― C.S. Lewis

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" / SOLD

Thomas Mann

It is love, not reason, that is stronger than death.

― Thomas Mann

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" / $950

Isamu Noguchi

You can find out how to do something and then do it or do something and then find out what you did.

― Isamu Noguchi

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" / SOLD

Jack London

I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.

— Jack London

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" / $950

Pablo Neruda

I crave a love so deep, the ocean would be jealous.

— Pablo Neruda

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" / $950

Vasily Shukshin

С подлыми жить легче. Их ненавидеть можно – это проще. А с хорошими – трудно, стыдно как-то.

— Василий Макарович Шукшин

It's easier to live with vile ones. You can hate them - it's easier. But with good ones it is difficult, shameful - somehow

— Vasily Shukshin

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" $950

Bertrand Russell

To realize the unimportance of time is the gate to wisdom.

— Bertrand Russell

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" $950

Maxim Gorky

Свобода от всего-это наказание.

― Максим Горький

Freedom from everything is punishment.

― Maxim Gorky

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" $950

Albert Schweitzer

Do something wonderful, people may imitate it.

― Albert Schweitzer

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" $950

C. G. Jung

Thinking is difficult, that’s why most people judge.

― C.G. Jung

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" SOLD

Fyodor Tyutchev

Чему бы жизнь нас не учила, а сердце верит в чудеса!

― Фёдор Тютчев

Whatever life teaches us, but the heart believes in miracles! ― Fyodor Tyutchev

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" $950

George Orwell

However much you deny the truth, the truth goes on existing.

― George Orwell

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" $950

Andrew Furuseth

You can put me in jail. But you cannot give me narrower quarters than as a seaman I have always had. You cannot give me coarser food than I have always eaten. You cannot make me lonelier than I have always been.

― Andrew Furuseth

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" $950

Martin Niemöller

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me. ― Martin Niemöller

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" SOLD

Norman Rockwell

I paint life as I would like it to be.

― Norman Rockwell

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" $950

Ernest Hemingway

Fear of death increases in exact proportion to increase in wealth

― Ernest Hemingway

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" $950

Mark Twain

A clear conscience is the sure sign of a bad memory

― Mark Twain

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" $950

George Bernard Shaw

He knows nothing; and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.

― George Bernard Shaw, Major Barbara

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" $950

Alfred Lord Tennyson

What the sunshine is to the flower, the Lord Jesus Christ is to my soul.

― Alfred Lord Tennyson

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" $950

Alexandre Dumas

All for one and one for all, united we stand divided we fall.

— Alexandre Dumas

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" $950

St. Justin Popovich

In our earthly world, the reality is obvious: we are only as human as much we are willing to let God in ourselves. The less God there is in man, the less human he is.

— St. Justin Popovich

Oil on canvas / 18"x14" SOLD