Matthew Wilson

This lovely painting which is an homage to our native Hudson River School masters is by artist Matthew Wilson. His image of a young explorer, exploring his world is imagined like Huck Fin, a mischievous loner searching for tall tales and grand characters. Born in sunny LaJolla, California and raised in Buffalo, New York, the son of a research immunologist and neonatal nurse, Matt went to a small but extremely unique high school in Buffalo with the intentions of becoming an architect but shifted gears dramatically and decided to join the Army. Upon leaving the army Matt moved to Florida to study computer animation at Ringling School of Art and Design. While in school he spent a summer in New York City at Parson's studying figure painting and fell in love with it. Since then, his path has been two sided with digital art supporting a deep passion for classical dutch oil. At present Matt is a Lighting Artist at Blue Sky Studios and also the Lead "Sky-Guy" with quite a few film credits under his belt. When not at his day job Matt spends every second with the love of his life, Alexandra, and his beagle Daisey Mae.

For more of Matt's art please visit his website.

Tony Jung

From artist Tony Jung come this sweet and heartfelt painting. Born in Seoul, South Korea, Tony emigrated to the United States when he was 5 years old and grew up in New York City. After graduating from University of Michigan, he worked on Wall Street as a lead developer in financial derivative-based systems. Memories of drawing all his life and dreams of working in the film industry spurned Tony to start teaching himself 3D animation, and eventually he left Wall Street to chase the dream. He successfully landed a job at Blue Sky Studios, and as Modeler and Lighter his film credits include Ice Age 2 and 3, Horton Hears a Who!, and Surviving Sid. Tony has also freelanced for PSYOP, has done concept and character design for video games, and is currently Art Director and Lead Game Designer with his innovative start-up game company. If you look carefully, you can spot Tony on the subway in New York City with a sketchbook in hand, drawing away.

For more of Tony's art please visit his blog.

Tom Wichitsripornkul

Inspired by Augusta's dancing from the Brownstones To Red Dirt documentary, this beautiful, expressive submission entitled Dance comes from artist Tom Wichitsripornkul.  Born and raised in Bangkok, Thailand, Tom came to the United States in 1994 to study animation at William Patterson University in New Jersey.  He worked for R/GreenBerg Associates in New York, then moved to Blue Sky Studios where, as a Materials Technical Director, Tom's film credits include Ice Age I and II, Robots and Horton Hears a Who!  Meanwhile he studied painting at the National Academy School of Fine Arts in Manhattan.  Since then Tom has relocated to the west coast to join the Pixar team in northern California where he contributed to the multi-award winning animated film Up and is currently working on Brave as a Shading Technical Director.

Scott Gustfson

This luminous painting titled Dear Friend is by illustrator Scott Gustafson. Scott’s earliest artistic ambition was to become an animator, but by the time he entered high school he became acquainted with great illustrators like Wyeth, Rockwell, Parrish and Rackham who continue to inspire him today; however, lingering dreams of making animated films led Scott to major in animation at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts.  As a freelance illustrator Scott’s client list over the span of 25 years has included Celestial Seasonings, Playboy Magazine, The Saturday Evening Post, The Bradford Exchange, Dreamworks and The Greenwich Workshop. His illustrated books include The Night Before Christmas, Peter Pan, Nutcracker, as well as two original titles, Animal Orchestra and Alphabet Soup. Scott's book, Classic Fairy Tales was awarded a Chesley Award for Best Interior Book Illustrations from the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists and his latest release, Favorite Nursery Rhymes from Mother Goose, features over 45 color illustrations and won a Silver Medal for Best Children’s Picture Book by the 2008 Independent Publisher Book Awards.

Visit Scott’s website to see more of his artwork.

Marco Bucci

This nature inspired painting is by Canadian artist Marco Bucci. Marco received a BFA in Film Studies from Ryerson University. After a stint as a Color Key Artist for CORE Digital Pictures and freelancing as a matte painter and concept artist at various other animation studios in Toronto, such as Digital Pictures and Nelvana Ltd., Marco landed at Pipeline Studios where he currently is an Art Director and Lead Matte Painter. Outside of his day job Marco is a dedicated fine artist. He is a commissioned portrait artist and is close to publishing a book consisting of a collection of his personal illustrations. Marco considers himself a lifetime student of painting, and when he’s not at work he can usually be found outdoors doing nature studies, or in the studio painting from a live model.

For more of Marco's art please go to his website.

Kristin Labriola

This sweet, winsome painting is by artist Kristin Labriola. Kristin received her BFA in Fine Art and English Literature at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York. With hopes of a career in movie making, Kristin went off to work as a set decorator and scenic artist on independent films in New York City. Her love of animated films took over in 2007 when she began working as a production assistant in development at Blue Sky Studios where she quickly realized her true passion lives in the world of story telling. Kristin currently works as a director’s assistant as well as assistant to the head of development in an effort to carve out her own career path in feature film development. Kristin’s other goals include creating her own stationary line and writing and illustrating her own children’s books.

Vincent Nguyen

Here we have a lovely submission from the talented Vincent Nguyen. Color artist for Blue Sky Studios by day, children's book illustrator and avid art collector by night, Vince started out in Houston, Texas where he began his artistic pursuit drawing dinosaurs and super heroes. He has worked on animated films such as Robots, the Ice Age series, and Horton Hears a Who! And as a well known children's book illustrator and contributor to many collaborative art books, Vince is widely published and always has another project in the works!

To see more of Vincent's art please visit his blog and website.