Archival Arts Impressions

Maryland artist Clara Nilles.  Artist Clara Nilles has been drawing and painting since her early childhood in Baltimore, Maryland. Frequent visits to the zoo during her young life laid the groundwork for her obsession with both land and sea animal imagery. Following an 18-year-career in business and finance Nilles answered the creative call and took the plunge to pursue her dream of being a full-time artist. Around this time Clara began coming to Archival Arts with a series of  radiant, acrylic paintings and pastels for scanning and printing.  It is always a joyful experience for us to see what new creatures have flowed from her head onto her canvas. We recently completed a rather large job for her, printing over a hundred brilliantly colored animal paintings on canvas for a gallery show in Annapolis, MD.  Here’s to continued success, Clara! "Candy Sprinkle Spotted Seals" - giclée on canvas by Clara Nilles "Moody Blue Octopus on Sahara Gold" -  giclé...

 Baltimore artist Mark Cottman and Archival Arts' owner Jeff Salava with Cottman's mural, "Can't We All Just Swim Along" Award winning artist Mark Cottman, and owner of south Baltimore’s Mark Cottman Gallery , is a frequent customer to our shop. The extensive body of Mark’s work ranges from colorful, figurative paintings to abstract designs based on a myriad of images.  This month Mark Cottman Gallery is featuring a show titled “ Flower Power .” On display at the gallery are various imaginative paintings and prints of flowers all created by this self-taught artist. “African Violet Parade”  pictured below is  a good example of the sense of humor conveyed in much of Mark’s work.  "African Violets on Parade" giclée print on watercolor paper  His piece titled “Sunflowers Abundance” is another instance where we stop to smile at the clever way he makes us notice the imperfection of flower behavior in real life. "Sunflowers Abundance" giclée pri...