Bradley Platz’ intricate oil paintings deal with the alternating nature of worship in the modern age. Using classical symbolic imagery from old world traditions and transposing subtle hints of modernity, his work might best be described as tarnished elegance. Ever present also are certain whimsical and subtle symbols that carry the viewer through his body of work as a reader through a story, or a craft on the sea.

Bradley is a San Francisco based artist and Co-owner of Modern Eden Gallery in North Beach.

I grew up in rural southern England. My youth was spent exploring and observing nature and the changing scenery, seasons and weather patterns of my home county of Wiltshire. The landscapes and towns of the county are rich in history and have fed the artistic hearts and minds of artists and writers such as Sir John Constable, J. M. W. Turner and Thomas Hardy.

Since moving to California in 2001, I predominantly paint plein air, directly on location, working in oils. Through the use of distinctive brushwork that varies from thin passages of color to thick impasto, I aim to capture the essence of the subject and my emotional response to it.

The work of Canadian artist, Tom Thomson, the American Western landscape painters such as William Wendt and Edgar Payne, and that of Post-Impressionist, Vincent Van Gogh are strong influences for me.

My Syracuse University BFA during the mash-up of the 1960s-70s reflects the confluence of all we learned from the old masters, merging with the fast flowing stream of modern movements and sub-movements. An additional 30 years of broad interests and experience find me now with a free-ranging style- representational, abstract, impressionist. I paint and photograph what pleases me. I hope it pleases you too.

Most of my work is in acrylic paint on stretched canvas. Large, bold, lively, complex, imaginative, and emotional. Lots of paint, and bight colors. Years of work. Intense. Different and memorable. Ok, I'm out there!

Sara is mesmerized by visual delights; the color of light going through a prism or the way colors run together when one puts them on the paper; a beautiful brocade pattern; a marvelous dream. She paints in an attempt to take visual notes of what she finds intriguing.

Rob Cox paints the urban landscape as well as figures and everyday objects. He talks about painting being about paint. "It's about the application of colors and pigment to the surface. I want the viewer to see the process of painting. The scrumbled brush strokes and lumps of paint are as integral to the work as the illusion of a roadway in the distance." Rob

Sculpture and photography are My mediums

Born to a father, a political refugee, imprisoned for his nationality, shot through the chest, saved by a stranger who subsequently bore me. As an infant, homeless, perplexed by the thud of bombs exploding. At puberty, found that I was closest to foreigners, refugees and subversives. Married someone from a different continent, who had suffered at the hands of bigots. Taunted as an enemy alien, arrested for possession of recorded music, separated by authorities from my family, crossing borders illicitly, mounted police trampling me underfoot. My relatives persecuted by the secret police simply because of their relationship to me, and dying at the hands of the regime. Is it any wonder that I discovered release in an engagement with art and pure aesthetics. Is it any wonder that I find myself creating works concerned with politics and social issues.