Earline Barnes was an active painter for more than thirty years.  She was known as both an impressionist and a “colorist.”  Ms. Barnes was extensively involved in the El Paso art scene, where she taught classes and workshops for overy twenty years.  Her love for painting and enthusiasm were contagious, and she was beloved by all of her students.  She died in 2005, but the International Museum of Art continues to preserve the memory of a fine artist by a purchase award named in her honor.

Her paintings hang in the Pentagon, The El Paso Museum of Art, the Ft. Bliss Defense Museum, and the Sierra Providence Medical Center.  She has won a long list of awards including the Annual El Paso Museum of Art Purchase Award and Best Mixed Media 1982, 1984, and 1985, the National League of American Pen Women Best of Show 1993, and the Sun Bowl Best of Show 2002 and 2003.  She was also named to the Knickerbocker Artists of America.

Aleksander Titovets was born and raised in a cabin in a Siberian forest in Russia. When he was ten, his parents moved to St. Petersburg, where he later earned both bachelors and masters degrees from the Leningrad (St. Petersburg) State University College of Fine Art. His classical art skills reflect the Russian School of Oil Painting, a style that combines a powerful realistic involvement with the soft, lyrical looseness of impressionism.Titovets credits his early success to the teaching of his professor, Leonid Krivitsky, whom he later worked with when he joined the faculty at the College of Fine Arts. Titovets was also honored in Russia with membership in the prestigious Union of Artists of the USSR.

Titovets immigrated to the United States with his wife, Lyuba, from Russia in 1992. Leaving behind family, financial security and professional respect, the couple arrived with five paintings and less than $100 in their pocket. They had no long range plans, only a desire to paint professionally. They began by using their apartment balcony, one at a time, as their studio. Within a year, Titovets had earned enough prize money from craft fairs and juried shows to replenish supplies and to purchase new materials.

His thoughts on life:  “Through Art, we can answer questions of who we are, what we live for and what we will leave behind when we’re gone.  My goal is to make these connections so that people who see my paintings will understand and maybe treasure their time on earth more.”

His work springs from Fundamental Training in the Classical Russian School of Painting together with his enthusiasm, comprehension and passion for great art.

Noted Credits:  National Academy of Design, N.Y., National Oil and Acrylic Painters Society, Missouri, National Oil Painters Society and 1998 “Artists Choice Award’ at the “Artists of America” Exhibit, Denver, Colorado.  Best of Show, International Fine Art competition, Sierra Medical and El Paso Art Association for four years.Mr. Aleksander Titovets was chosen to do a portrait of the FIRST LADY, Laura Bush, in 2009.  A new First Ladies Gallery in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.