The Fine Art Auction Presents: a Celebration of Its’ Female Artists in Honor of Women’s History Month

LISA MEE (American b. 1974)

Sculptural. Luminous. Two adjectives often used to describe Artist Lisa Mee’s magnificent works. Her passion for natural beauty is quite evident in her art. She captures vivid light and hues by integrating metallic paints into the painting surface. “I use metallic paint to enhance edges, forms, and shapes. This element adds a luminous textural dimension to the canvas surface. A lot of artists use metallic paints as a finish, but I integrate them into the unexpected details and elements of a painting in order to keep viewers engaged so they discover something different each time they look at one of my artworks.” Lisa Mee

Lisa transforms familiar vistas by using borders and spatial differentiations, combining them into stunning interpretations of bold colors with immediate emotional impact. Her extensive travels abroad in Spain, Italy and France inspired many of her expansive landscape compositions. Her uniquely opulent artform conveys a stained-glass effect of mosaic-like patterns and light on canvas. transforms vistas, abstractions, figures and still life’s using spatial differentiations. Her stunning color-saturated paintings resonate with immediate emotional impact and a compelling visceral reaction for the viewer.

The Fine Art Auction considers Ms. Mee a very important contributor to its’ Auctions, and her work is highly collected. Her unique mixed media approach has caught the eyes and interest not only of our Collectors, but also of important art collectors in New York City as well as Europe where her works are found in numerous corporate and private collections. She has participated in over 20 solo and group exhibitions where her work has been shown in galleries in New York, Paris, Milan, Barcelona, West Palm Beach, California, Vermont and has mounted her first solo exhibition at the International Art Museum of America in San Francisco to wide acclaim.

FRANÇOISE DESMONT (French, b. 1932)

Françoise Desmont lives and works in the Oise part of France. As we celebrate the works of the female artists of the Fine Art Auction, we are presented here with a Painter of such noteworthiness that we must delve into both her process and her influences.

Desmont became enamored of the works of mother-and-son landscape painters Suzanne Valadon and Maurice Utrillo. She also admired Maurice de Vlaminck for his gray, tormented skies and the lopsided houses buried in the snow. Taking notes from the masters, she spent many hours in museums and expositions, studying their techniques and subject matter, while continuing to work on her own style and vision.

Francoise later met the very talented and well-known artist Urbain Huchet, who encouraged her to genuinely follow her artistic ambitions. Galvanized by Huchet’s inspiration, she continued to advance her visual techniques, and has since successfully, and for many years, been a well-collected and well-known Artist throughout the world.

SARAH WALL (American b. 2007)

As we spotlight the youngest Artist to be honored on this weekend of Female Art Achievement & Recognition, the Fine Art Auction will feature the works of Artist Prodigy Sarah Wall. The daughter of famed American Impressionist Daniel Wall, Sarah has already created her own trademark style, which she calls Nature’s Expressionism. Her paintings capture nature’s purest forms of expression, enhances them, amplifies them, and sometimes distorts them radically for emotional effect.

For this Artist, great achievement with her art is coupled with her humanity and philanthropy: the famed American teen artist and Founder of the Art to Heart Foundation, which supports children with autism and other special needs.

Some of her achievements include:

· In 2011, at age 4, her painting, “A Day at Sea,” was collected by and exhibited at the Greenville Museum of Art, North Carolina.

· In 2013, at age 6, she designed the cover for and illustrated the book, A Super Special Someone.

· In 2015, at age 7, she illustrated and co-authored the book, Dragon Mom Eagle Mom.

· In 2017, at age 9, she was the winner of the 12th Annual Youth Art Festival Poster Design Contest at the School of Arts and Design at East Carolina University.

· In 2018, at age 10, she received the Frank Lloyd Wright Best Overall Architectural Design Award.

· In 2022, at age 14, she designed the cover and co-authored the book, Daniel Wall: Founder of Intense Impressionism.

To benefit the Children’s Miracle Network, Sarah has performed in many ballet productions, including Aladdin, Beauty & the Beast, Cinderella, and The Little Mermaid.

FLORANCE COMAS (French b.1965)

Shining a well-deserved spotlight on this FAA female artists, Florence Comas was born in Paris, France, and grew up in the Place des Vosges in The Marais district, known famously as the place where Victor Hugo once lived. A background in Fashion, Design and Art propelled her to the artistic distinction she enjoys today: encouraged by her mother to paint and design, Comas drew inspiration from the runway shows of Haute Couture; the world in which her mother worked and inhabited.

At twenty years old, she produced her initial sketches, followed by her first creations of clothing and accessories for the fashion world, using such materials as pearls, embroidery, and precious fabrics. After fashion, she experimented with collage, and then painting, ultimately merging those forms to create imaginative depictions of dreams, phantasms and angelic creatures, motifs, and characters she continues to portray in her current works, which are featured in this celebration of the female art creator.

The dreamlike quality of her works is truly what sets the tone for the Contemporary Collages and Oils, and 2023 saw record-setting Auction prices for Ms. Comas’s artworks.

MARTINE DELALEUF (French b. 1948)

A few weeks ago, and in anticipation of our Women’s Art Weekend in honor of Women’s History Month, Ray Taylor and The Fine Art Auction team traveled to Paris to attend the prestigious Art Capital 2024 at the Grand Palais Ephemere in Paris. Ray and Martine enjoy a close relationship; one borne of high respect for each other’s expertise. Here is an exclusive behind the scenes look at Ray and FAA Artist Martine Delaleuf in the Artists’ Atelier and at the Fair.

“Martine Delaleuf graciously welcomes Ray Taylor and The Fine Art Auction Team into her creative sanctuary”.

Martine Delaleuf is a highly renowned French artist and architect. She graduated from the prestigious École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts (ENSBA) and holds the title of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.

Her work has been widely exhibited internationally including France, the United States, Italy, Poland, Japan, China, South Korea, and Syria. Over the course of her career, Delaleuf has received numerous awards and accolades, including: a Gold Medal from the Salon des Artistes Français, the Taylor Foundation Award, and the Medal of the City of Paris, among others.

She is currently President of the Society of French Artists. In addition to her capacity as a celebrated & acclaimed Artist, she also holds leadership roles in France’s most important Artistic & Architectural organization & societies. I cannot imagine a more distinguished women to herald as one of the important female Artists of the Fine Art Auction.

In her paintings, Delaleuf demonstrates mastery over line and color. Flattening the picture plane, she brings all lines to the surface of the canvas. Her portraits depict contemporary women at ease, staring out at the viewer. She often incorporates decorative patterns into the background, which serve to accentuate the simplicity of the figures in the foreground. Their features are reminiscent of early Greek statuary, goddesses like Athena and Aphrodite. Whether the moment feels private, or like a break away from an otherwise busy life, they emit strength and confidence. They are neither inviting nor denying the gaze of the viewer, but they are aware of it.

Whereas, in her portraits, Delaleuf exhibits intent and restraint with color—letting the negative spaces and bold swaths of color fall into perfect harmony—her landscapes incorporate lush textures and solid blocks of color. Her architectural eye is evident throughout her work, but particularly in her landscapes.

Yulia Gusarova (Ukranian, b.1993)

ARCHITECTURAL ROMANCE. Works that define both are on full display this weekend in our female creator series.

“The path of my heart lives in imagining architecture, drawing, and painting ideas that express the passion by which I live every day. I want to create architecture that holds poise and allows its inhabitants to feel power and fortitude.” The Artist

The captivating works of Yulia Gusarova are the intersection of form + beauty. One need only to glance at the works, to be unable to turn away. A graduate of the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Ms. Gusarova is the embodiment of an Artist whose time has arrived: her works are setting the Art World on fire. This weekend is an opportunity to really see the works of the young Modernist, for whose works art experts have remarked “This Artist is well on her way to major greatness: making a mark on Collectors : already a young Modern Master in the genre.”