BTDesign Art Gallery

The Best Artist of the Year - 2006 Edition

Our international panel of judges

Basil Filippone Basil resides in the United States of America. He is the designer and owner of Basil's Art, a website featuring his digital paintings, along with other digital artists and links. He has a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from Virginia Commonwealth University. He is the owner of a graphic design and installation company, and is the exclusive artist for Vermont Pancake House. He has painted in all media's including water color, oils, and pastels. Most recently he has been working on his digital creations, which are exhibited extensively throughout the Internet and have been included in numerous one man shows. He was Guest Artist of the Month, May 2001, and has been evaluating Painters and Digital Artists for the Master award since 2002. ::: Website :::.
Nichole DeMent Nichole DeMent is an emerging artist in Seattle, Washington. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from The Evergreen State College in 2002 with a focus on Photography and Art History. Her work is represented at the Jeffrey Moose Gallery in Seattle and she has exhibited her photographs in solo and group shows including the Center on Contemporary Art. Nichole's photographs are powerful contemporary imagery where cross-processing and advanced darkroom techniques lend strong colors to soft, classical subjects. The psychological discourse of her recent series "to anima, to animus," has been extended beyond masculine and feminine to illustrate Carl Jung's concept of shadow in the new images "patience," "guidance," and "reunion". She was Guest Artist of the Month, October 2003 and has been evaluating Digital Artists for the Master award since 2004. ::: Website ::: :::Interview:::.
Mark Dornblaser Award-winning photographer Mark Dornblaser has published his images in national magazines such as Discover and Gourmet. In the spring of 1998 he was Artist-in-Residence at Badlands National Park. He has exhibited his work in galleries in New York and Connecticut. Currently, his series "Himalayan Light" is on display at the National Video Center in New York City. He is represented in New England by Boston Corporate Art. Mark is also a published travel writer, and his stories on Antarctica, Bryce National Park, and Wrangell-St. Elias National Park have been published in The Boston Globe and Cape Cod Times. He was BTDesign Art Gallery Guest Artist of the Month, October 2001 and has been evaluating Photographers for the Master award since 2002. ::: Website :::.
Tantra Tantra Bensko is a multifaceted artist who describes her experience this way: "I came to photography later than my other artistic endeavors, at the right time for the computer technology to be there for what I want to do. I can't just think in simple photographic terms. I have to be able to change it expressively. I was first drawn to photography books in bookstores. I started manipulating images on Photoshop when making some videos. Capturing the still images, I wanted to make each scene in the video perfect. I was inspired by filmakers such as the Russian film director Serhiy Paradzhanov..." Her works have been exhibited and awarded in many solo and group shows in the USA and abroad, and have been published on paper and online magazines and books. She maintains her website Tantragarden, which is also a resource for alternative and independent information. She was Guest Artist of the Month, February 2003 and has been evaluating Painters and Photographers for the Master award since 2004. ::: Website ::: :::Interview:::.
Michael Hudson Born in Australia and grew up in Australia, the United States, and England, Michael has been living near Chicago since 1985, with regular trips back to England. He got his start in the world of professional photography when he photographed Princess Diana and the British Royal Family during the summers of 1986 and 1987. He has been a freelance commercial and fine art photographer for over ten years. His hand coloured and black and white prints hang in private and corporate collections around the United States and his commercial work can be seen on book covers, magazines and various publications. He was Guest Artist of the Month, December 2001 and has been evaluating Photographers for the Master award since 2002. ::: Website :::.
Parys St.Martin Parys St Martin is a professional digital artist and photographer based in Adelaide, Australia. Her work is seen as Emotional Digital as her images can be sensually visual with the use of colour and form. Parys' work is created for hardcopy exhibitions in Australia and Overseas. Her works can be found in private collections in Adelaide (Australia), Melbourne (Australia), Sydney (Australia), Naples (Italy), Barcelona (Spain), USA. Some of the publications which featured her works are: The Australian Digital Camera Magazine - March/April issue 2002 - 3 page feature; The International Library of Photography, USA Release of the Book "Visions of The Soul " - Available September 2002, Image selected "Goddess Of The Rainbow"; Digital Photography + Design magazine - Spring Issue, 2002 - 6 page feature. She was Guest Artist of the Month, June 2003 and has been evaluating Digital Artists for the Master award since 2004. ::: Website ::: :::Interview:::.
Apostolos Panagopoulos Apostolos Panagopoulos was born in Thessalonica, North Greece and spent his childhood in Athens. During his short Greek period he started studying Visual Arts and Theatre. He left Greece at a very young age for numerous reasons. He moved to The Netherlands's where he lives permanently. In the Netherlands he continued his studies of History of Art at the University of Utrecht. During this period Panagopoulos worked together with various Dutch sculptors and composers, participating in numerous joint audiovisual projects and exhibitions in Dutch, German and Italian Galleries and Museums. At the same time he worked as Art Director in several Dutch Art Film Productions. In the 90's he was invited to teach at the Academy of Arts of Utrecht leading the especially designed for this purpose faculty of Theatron Design. In addition he worked for the Dutch Television in Cultural TV Productions mostly as Art Director. He was Guest Artist of the Month, November 2003 and has been evaluating Painters and Sculptors for the Master award since 2004. ::: Website ::: :::Interview:::.
Alicia de D'Angelica Alicia is a self-taught digital artist born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She lives in City Bell, a small village about 50 km. from Buenos Aires City. She started working with digital images in 1994. In 2000 she made her first artwork submissions to Digital Art Contests, and this fact led her to join other traditional artists in group exhibitions. She masters 3D art image design and creates some fractal art as well. In 2001, she became one of the digital artists who are sponsored by the EPSON Foundation of Argentina. She exhibited her artwork in 28 group exhibitions in Buenos Aires City and La Plata City, and in one single exhibition in City Bell that took place in 2002. Her last single exhibition was inaugurated in Buenos Aires City on 1st August 2003. She also showed her art in the "III Salón de Arte Digital" (2001 - CUBA), in the "V Salón de Arte Digital" (2003 - CUBA), and in a group exhibition in Florence (2002 - ITALY). She was awarded with the following prizes in Digital Art Contests: Great Honour Prize (2003), two First Prizes (2001), Second Prize (2000), and several Honour Mentions. She was Guest Artist of the Month, December 2003 and has been evaluating Digital Artists for the Master award since 2004. ::: Website ::: :::Interview:::.
Dubi Roman Dubi is the winner of the 2003 Best Photography award. Dubi Roman has always loved Impressionist painting. He sought a way to express an Impressionist vision of nature through photography - to see things in terms of light. This mystical light can be traced to Dubi Roman's roots in Safed and the Galilee. Born in Haifa, Israel in 1957, his father's family has lived in the mystical city of Safed in the Upper Galilee for five generations. His grandfather Yitzchak Roman was a Safed artist and sculptor. Although Roman lives in the city, he constantly escapes to Nature for sustenance. As is evident in his work, he particularly loves the forests. And yet his purpose is not simply to portray Israeli scenery, but to go beyond the specific place to the universalism of nature. To achieve serenity of spirit, the harmony he has been seeking all his life. (Text by Rochelle Furstenberg). He was Guest Artist of the Month, May 2003 and has been evaluating Photographers for the Master award since 2004. ::: Website ::: :::Interview:::.
Rachel Powell Rachel is the winner of the 2003 Best Digital Art award. As she presents herself: "I was born in Tampa 18 years ago, a very populated and busy city in Florida, where I have lived nearly all of my life. Ever since my family received our first computer I've been fascinated with digital art. I found even the simplest creations amazing, hardly realizing it was possible to create anything beautiful using a 'computer'. I received my first art program when I was 14, when I became really hooked on the whole idea. Without any previous experience or training in art, I was on my way to learning a both controversial and unique art form. With much more to pursue, and far more to learn, 3d art has been my love for the last 4 years, and a unique and challenging way to express my love for nature." She was Guest Artist of the Month, September 2003 and has been evaluating Digital Artists for the Master award since 2004. ::: Website ::: :::Interview:::.
Arturo Lini Arturo Lini was born in Volterra, Italy in 1948. A painter and a poet at the same time, he published his first poetry book, "Opera Prima" in 1983. In the eighties are his first experiences with the Poesia Visiva (Visual Poetry)group of artists, which include his first one-man show at the Centro Culturale Ariete in Viareggio in 1988. In 1987 together with Giancarlo Vaccarezza, he establishes the ViareggioArte group, and exhibits at ExpoArte in Bari in 1988 and 1989. In the nineties are most of his solo exhibitions as a painter, taking place in many cities of Tuscany. In 1994 he has two important exhibitions at Galleria Mentana in Florence and Villa Borbone in Viareggio. His poems are published in many books and reviews like "Paragone", "Il Foglio Clandestino", "Il Grandevetro". In 2000 he joined "Alfabetismo", an exhibition on the relationship between language and painting in contemporary art organized by Nicola Micieli at the Chiostro di San Francesco in Sarzana. In the last years he participated many other solo exhibitions in Seravezza and Pietrasanta. He lives and works in Florence and the Versilia coast. He was Guest Artist of the Month, February 2003 and has been evaluating Painters for the Master award since 2004. ::: Website ::: :::Interview:::.
Sam Norris Sam's art career began as a hobby diversion to the stresses of working for a large corporation. He soon showed in several one person exhibitions, many juried shows and participated in local art fairs. He entered a university and gained a Bachelor of Science in graphic design, with a minor in fine art with honors. While in school he worked for an individual who made his living buying and selling art and he believes that he learned more from him than he ever did at the university. Since then the scope and direction of Sam's work has changed from traditional to digital. Photography and photographic manipulation has become the focus of his work. He was Guest Artist of the month November 2003 and has been evaluating Painters, Sculptors and Digital Artists for the Master award since 2004. ::: Website ::: :::Interview:::.