• HOME
  • Spring Classes
  • About
  • FAQ
  • Contact
  • Alumni Portfolios
  • Alumni News
  • Podcast
  • HOME
  • Spring Classes
  • About
  • FAQ
  • Contact
  • Alumni Portfolios
  • Alumni News
  • Podcast
SmArt School

                       News                        

about the alumni of SAS & IMC 
Picture

Martina ​Fačková is Imagine FX Magazineartist of the month

March 25, 2021
Martina has been getting lots of great attention to her work. The piece in Imagine FX follows closely a review by Hipsters of the Coast praising her Magic cards for the Kaldheim series. Martina also has had two pieces selected for this year's Infected by Art annual, both achieving the honor of unanimous selection by all the jurors involved.
Martina Fačková
Imagine FX

Hipsters of the Coast
Infected by Art
Picture

Hilary Clarcq wins the jack gaughan award at boskone 58

February 18, 2021
The New England Science Fiction Association presented the award during Boskone this last weekend. Hilary says of receiving the award "This honor feels even more special because my 2016 SAS mentor, Scott M. Fischer, is a prior recipient. I have also monitored two classes with Dan Dos Santos (another prior recipient). And it looks like a few other SAS alum are also on the list of recent winners. I'm grateful to NESFA for the award and to programs like SAS, which set off the trajectory of my ongoing artistic journey."
Check out Hilary's website here

Check out Hilary's Instagram here
More about Boskone 58
More about The New England Science Fiction Association

ANNOUNCING THE WINNERS OF THE second SAM Portfolio PRIZE!

February 10, 2021
Time to announce the winners of another HUGE round of the Prize! Sixty three artists submitted more than 250 artworks. Juror Jeremy Cranford had total freedom in selecting one winner but he went above and beyond by selecting not only a first prize winner, but also two honorable mentions and providing commentary about his choices. We are super grateful for this dedication from a great art director in reviewing the work of artists in the SAS and IMC community. Congratulations to everyone who entered this round of the contest. It has been great seeing all of your work.  ---and remember that we'll be doing this prize again with the July portfolio updates.

Message from the Juror, Jeremy Cranford, Art Director at Blizzard Entertainment:

I always feel quite honored and humbled when chosen to be on a jury. The first time looking at batch of over 250 + images is a bit overwhelming. There are so many good images it’s easy to find something to really enjoy in each one, but then I must get to work and start critiquing them on what I feel is important. Which has the composition, the drawing, the rendering of color & light, the concept / narrative and then something I call the “X factor”.  Something an image has that’s hard to put it to words but has some originality and just feels cool. While using these fundamentals as my yardstick the judging process still gets tricky. I end up thinking: “Wow, what a cool drawing, but the values are off.” “What a great composition but too bad that part of the drawing is off.” That process continues until I’m down to my final three favorite images out of the batch which I will show to you now.

First Prize: Elizabeth Peiro 'Vin'

Winner of the $500 purse!
Picture
Jeremy's notes:
​I really like the active composition, the drawing is solid, the values are solid and it has fun sense of mystery and feeling that something is about to happen.

First Honorable Mention:
​Dane Cozens 'The Fishing Trip'

Picture
Jeremy's notes:
​I like this for several reasons. The use of a strong diagonal and big vs. small in the composition. Great colors and values but most of all this one really had a great story and used the perfect POV for telling the story.

second HONORABLE MENTION:  Bruce Brenneise ‘Great Salt City’

Picture
Jeremy's notes:
​I really like the sense of scale here and even the super saturated colors work for me but mostly his one was all about the X-factor status. The image takes me back to the magic and sense of wonder that I find appealing in the works of Moebius or in films like “Nausica of the Valley of the Wind”.
Congratulations again to everyone who entered! 
Picture

paige Carpenter's 2022 Llewellyn Astrological calendar now available for pre-order

February 2, 2021
"The World's Best Known, Most Trusted Astrology Calendar" has now been illustrated by Paige Carpenter and is available on Amazon for pre-order. 
Check out more of Paige's art, including some of her work that will be included in the calendar on her portfolio page:
Paige Carpenter
Order the calendar Here
Picture

Dan Cohen'S painting now SHOWING IN SURREAL SALON 13 AT BATON ROUGE GALLERY CENTER OF CONTEMPORARY ART

Dan Cohen's work will be included in Surreal Salon 13 a show curated by Thinkspace. The show is on view at the Baton Rouge Gallery in Louisiana through January 28, 2021.  Thinkspace is a gallery and curatorial group based in Los Angeles. They have been an important force in the Pop Surreal and Contemporary Symbolist art movements for the last decade and a half.
More art by Dan Cohen
See the online exhibition: here
Baton Rouge Center for Contemporary Art: here
More about Thinkspace: here

Picture

Lucas Film's Star Wars Celebration art show features Candice Dailey's art

January 14, 2021
Candice Daily was one of only 22 artists selected by Lucas Film to represent the 2020 Star Wars Celebration Art Show. Check out her work among some of the other winners on the Star Wars Celebration website.
​Star Wars Celebration Art show here
More art by Candice here
Picture

Melissa gay's work from artist's residency now featured in online exhibition at light grey art lab

January 9, 2021
The exhibition called "Together", features art from the artists who were selected for the Light Grey Art Lab's Iceland and Norway artist residencies in 2019. Melissa's image is of an ancient arctic fox she encountered while participating in the residency.  Light Grey Art Lab is an illustration-focussed gallery in Minneapolis that hosts residencies , art camps, and art camp international programs to places such as Iceland, Norway, Scotland, Japan, and various National Parks. 
See the exhibition here
More about Light Grey Art Labs
More art by Melissa Gay
Picture

Covenant, Allen William's first art book kickstarter ending soon

January 2, 2021
​Covenant: The Art of Allen Williams kickstarter ends January 7th. Allen has done a lot of concept work for movies and has also won many awards for his illustrations. This book allows a look into his other work. It is described as "The personal graphite, pencil and oil works of Allen Williams collected in a beautifully produced book." As of this writing it has been (predictably) very successful, earning more than four times it's goal so it's time to see what stretch goal treats will be unlocked for the people who get in on it now.
Allen's kickstarter here:
Covenant, The Art of Allen Williams
Check out more of Allen's art here:
Allen Williams
Picture
Hope Doe
Picture
Kaysha Siemens
Picture
Sarah Finnigan
Picture
Joseph Weinreb

Haven Gallery Little Big V exhibition shows sas/imc alumni

December 18, 2020
Hope Doe, Kaysha Siemens, Sarah Finnigan, and Joseph Weinreb all have work in the show running from December 12, 2020 through January 10, 2021. You can find the artwork on the Haven site and on the online art platform Artsy.
Hope Doe
Kaysha Siemens
Sarah Finnigan
Joe Weinreb
Haven Gallery
​
Artsy
Picture

Ken Cunningham's work showing soon in surreal salon 13 at baton rouge gallery center of contemporary art

December 12, 2020
Ken's work will be included in Surreal Salon 13 a show curated by Thinkspace. The show is on view at the Baton Rouge Gallery in Louisiana January 5-28, 2021.  Thinkspace is a gallery and curatorial group based in Los Angeles. They have been an important force in the Pop Surreal and Contemporary Symbolist art movements for the last decade and a half.
Ken Cunningham
Baton Rouge Gallery Center for Contemporary Art
Thinkspace
Picture

Iryna Khymych's art featured in a special promotion for the book the invisible life of addie larue

Dec 1, 2020
People ordering advance copies of this New York Times Bestseller received a set of postcards featuring character art, including this work by Iryna.
Iryna Khymych
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
Picture
"No Strings Attached" which sold recently through 33 Contemporary

Maryam Gohar showing with online gallery 33 Contemporary

November 25, 2020
Maryam's work has bee featured regularly by the group Poets and Artists. Now she's showing through founder Didi Menendez's online gallery 33 Contemporary.
Maryam Gohar
More of Maryam's work at 33 Contemporary
More about Poets and Artists

Picture

rovina cai illustrated the latest book of the bestselling folk of air trilogy--being released for sale today

November 24,2020
​2020 has been a big year for Rovina. Among other projects, the King of Elfhame marks the publication of the third book that includes both her cover and interior illustrations. She also won a gold award in the Books category this year in Spectrum: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art. 
Rovina Cai
See more art form King of Elfhame and read an interview with Holly Black about the book here
Buy The King of Elfhame at your local bookstore (they need your help) or here
More about Spectrum here
Picture

"Vendarla" kickstarter with art by mike miller ending November 25 

November21, 2020
​This is a well reviewed game designed by Hameed Moore and illustrated by Mike Miller and the Kickstarter is only live for a few more days.
Mike Miller
​Check out the game here
Purple Pheonix's glowing review of the game here
Picture

Tommy Arnold NOMINATED FOR A 2020 CHESLEY AWARD

November 18, 2020
Tommy Arnold was nominated for a 2020 Chesley award in the category of Best Cover: Hardback Book by the Association of Science Fiction & Fantasy Artists. He was nominated for his illustration for Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. Tommy's work on this series has been winning huge accolades. Earlier this year his cover illustration for Harrow the Ninth was honored by being selected to also grace the cover of Spectrum 2020: The Best In Contemporary Fantastic Art. 
Tommy Arnold

More about the Chesley Awards here
About Tamsyn Muir's Books here
Picture

​Melissa Gay NOMINATED FOR A 2020 CHESLEY AWARD

November 17, 2020
Melissa Gay was nominated for a 2020 Chesley award in the category of Best Gaming Related Illustration by the Association of Science Fiction & Fantasy Artists. She was nominated for this piece entitled "Summer Dandelion" that was done for the Olde Fae card game, a project by the Changeling Artist Collective.
Melissa Gay
Old Fae Card Game here
More about the Chesley Awards here
Picture

Martina Fackova NOMINATED FOR A 2020 CHESLEY AWARD

November 16, 2020
Martina Fackova was nominated for a 2020 Chesley award in the category of Best Color Work: Unpublished by the Association of Science Fiction & Fantasy Artists for this piece entitled "Spellbinding Terror".
Martina Fackova
More about the Chesley Awards here
Picture

Tran Nguyen NOMINATED FOR A 2020 CHESLEY AWARD

November 15, 2020
Tran Nguyen was nominated for a 2020 Chesley award in the category of Best Cover: Hardback Book by the Association of Science Fiction & Fantasy Artists for her cover of The Storm Crow.
Tran Nguyen
More about the Chesley Awards here
Picture

Bruce Brenneise NOMINATED FOR A 2020 CHESLEY AWARD

November 13, 2020
Bruce Brenneise was nominated for a 2020 Chesley award in the category of Best Color Work by the Association of Science Fiction & Fantasy Artists for his illustration "If Stones Could Cry".
Bruce Brenneise

More about the Chesley Awards here
Picture

Emily Hare NOMINATED FOR A 2020 CHESLEY AWARD

November 12, 2020
Emily Hare was nominated for Best Product Illustration this year by the Association of Science Fiction & Fantasy Artists. She got nominated for the 2020 calendar she produced as part of her successful Kickstarter campaign (that earned triple her funding goal). 
Emily Hare
​Check out her 
​Dragon 2020 Kickstarter here
More about the Chesley Awards here
Picture

Magic Card illustration by Wylie Beckert Nominated For a 2020 Chesley

November 11, 2020
Wylie Beckert was nominated for Best Gaming Related Illustration this year by the Association of Science Fiction & Fantasy Artists. She got nominated for her Magic Card 'Rosethorn Acolyte".
Check out more of Wylie's work here
​ 
​​More about the Chesley Awards here
Picture

Reiko Murakami Nominated for a 2020 Chesley Award

October 30, 2020
Reiko was nominated for Best Magazine Illustration this year by the Association of Science Fiction & Fantasy Artists. The Chesley nomination is for her cover of Lightspeed Science Fiction and Fantasy Issue #104.
Check out Reiko’s work here
buy Ligthspeed #104 here
More about the Chesley Awards here
Picture
Allen Williams, Ophelia and the Faun

Allen Williams Nominated for three 2020 Chesley Awards

October 29, 2020
Allen Williams kicks off our shout outs to all the SAS and IMC alumni who got Chesley Award nominations this year. To be nominated for a Chesley by the Association of Science Fiction & Fantasy Artists is a great show of community respect.  Allen got not one, not two, but THREE nominations, including for Lifetime Achievement. His other nominations were for: Best Interior Illustration and Best Unpublished Monochrome Work. 
Check out Allen's work here
More about the Chesley Awards here
Picture

Rachel Quinlan Wins a Chesley for best product illustration

October 27, 2020
Rachel Quinlan won the 2020 competition for the best product illustration with her tuck box for the card game "Olde Fae" from the Changeling Artist Collective. The Chesley Awards are given by the Association of Science Fiction & Fantasy Artists. They are one of the most prestigious community recognitions of talent in the industry, with winners decided by the ASFA community. 


​Get the award winning game here
Learn more about ASFA and the Chesley Awards here
Rachel Quinlan's SAM portfolio and links here
Picture

Christine Mitzuk is the Primary artist for Bezier Games' ultimate Werewolf Extreme

October 18, 2020
As the primary artist, she just completed art for over 80 characters, as well as two box cover paintings, environment backgrounds, and the graphic elements on front and back of the cards in this new edition of the now classic game. 
To see more about the game, available in 2021, click here 
Follow Christine's work on Ultimate Werewolf on Instagram here
Christine Mitzuk
Picture

Joseph Weinreb's Solo Show at Haven Gallery

October 10,2020
Running until October 17, the exhibition entitled "We're Not Meant to Remember" is Joe's first solo show at Haven Gallery on Long Island in New York.  Twelve of his paintings will be on display.
Check it out here: Haven Gallery
​Joe Weinreb
Picture

Clark Huggins' New "Reckless Deck" a massive success

October 3, 2020
It's already earned $186,000--more than ten times Clark's fundraising goal! Check it out at the link below. This new project, “Psyche”, is available on Kickstarter only until October thirteen.
Reckless Deck 'Psyche' on Kickstarter here
Clark Huggins

Picture

Arthur Haywood Featured in Fine ARt Connoisseur Magazine article "Three to Watch"

September 13, 2020
The article is in the September, 2020 issue of Fine Art Connoisseur. The magazine website also included a video interview with Arthur Haywood and two other artists: ​Zoey Frank and Richard T. Scott. They are in discussion with Peter Trippi from Fine Art Connoisseur and Betty Standish from the Wethersfield Academy of the Arts. 
See the magazine here 
​See the interview here 
Arthur Haywood
Picture

martina Fackova's first magic card is now released and she's nominated for a chesley award

September 4, 2020
​Congratulations to Martina Fackova on the publication of her first card illustration for the game Magic the Gathering.  Congratulations also for her recent nomination for a prestigious Chesley Award given by the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists. 
More about her Magic Card here
More about the Chesley Awards Nominees here
Martina Fackova
Picture

Three paintings by Ethan Price featured in arcadia contemporary gallery's current exhibition

August 21, 2020
For this show, located in Los Angeles, Arcadia Contemporary provides an excellent virtual viewing experience. Check it out here. The exhibition runs through September 15th. 
Congratulations Ethan!
Ethan Price
Picture

Doug Hoppes 'Dark Art' Kickstarter ends Soon

August 19, 2020
Congratulations to Doug on already achieving more than double his goal! Check out the project here
​Doug Hoppes
Picture

Tanya Harsch released a book based on her recent museum exhibition

August 16,2020
"Sebbie, an Exhibition of Puppetry Paintings," a solo exhibit of 20 paintings by Tanya Harsch, opened at the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation in Waltham, Massachusetts last year. A book based on the show is now available. 
Find out more here
Tanya Harsch
Picture

Sean Price "Art of Price" Kickstarter Until August 20

August 12,2020
Sean Price's Kickstarter has already more than doubled its goal. You can check it out here, and you can also find out more about Sean Price on the Rusty Skill-It podcast. 
Congratulations Sean!

Announcing the winners of the first SAm Art Prize!

July 29,2020
Sixty eight artists submitted a total of more than 200 artworks in the first SAM Art Prize. The response was overwhelming and  Juror Lauren Panepinto went above and beyond by selecting not only a winner, but also several honorable mentions and she provided commentary about her choices, some of which is included below. 
Congratulations to everyone who entered by submitting a new portfolio or updates!
Picture

Overall Winner: Francesca Resta

Lauren's Notes--
This was hard! There was a lot of great work submitted, and it was very hard to narrow down to one piece. I could pick completely different pieces depending on whether I was wearing my Art Director of Bookcovers Hat, my Gallery Curator Hat, or my Personal Fan of Art Hat, so I chose the piece that most appealed to all three at once: Selkie Niji by Francesca Resta. This piece would make both a great book cover and a fine art piece. I love the texture in it, and the nuance of emotion, but I especially appreciate the visual hierarchy: there’s a lot going on here, in a limited palette, but it catches the eye and then draws it in confidently.
Picture

Honorable Mention 1: Eelis Kyttan

Lauren's Notes--
I really like this composition, and I would put it on a book cover in a heartbeat. The design of the background really supports the strong visual hierarchy well, and there’s a lot of world building in this piece that tells you there’s story here without screaming it at you. 
Picture

Honorable Mention 2: ​​Charis Loke

Lauren's Notes--
I love this piece for it’s really interesting color palette, nice mix of graphic and painterly textures, and strong composition. I itch to put type over this piece so badly and turn it into a book cover.
Picture
Picture
Picture

​Series Honorable Mention: Mike Miller

Lauren's Notes--
Shoutout for a solid body of work. I really love the Boy on the Tower, and Girl with the Sword, and the Child Devil with the Cat. These need to be on middle grade book covers. Great compositions, storytelling, color, and sense of humor.

Thanks to everyone who made judging really hard! There are so many other pieces I’d love to shout out to!

Dan Cohen's latest mural in Portland

July 27, 2020
Recently the windows of a business boarded up due to Covid 19 become Dan Cohen's surface for a commission in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in Portland, OR. Congratulations to Dan for this commission bringing art to the closedown and art to the movement.
Dan Cohen
Picture

annual Enchanted brush Exhibition at the Mazza Museum Features dan Watson

July 15, 2020
Dan Watson will have two of his works shown in his first museum show in the Dudley and Mary Marks Lea Gallery of the Mazza Museum in Findlay, Ohio. The show runs from July 10 through August 7. This year the show will be held online, exclusively. Enchanted Brush is a yearly exhibition curated by the artist Dan Chudzinski. Find out more below. Congratulations to Dan!
Dan Watson's work in the show: Here
More about the Enchanted Brush annual exhibition: here
Dan Watson
Picture

Primary Hughes Showing at Modern Eden

July 10, 2020
Steven (Primary) Hughes' opens his debut exhibition at Modern Eden Gallery in San Francisco July 11. Congratulations!
More about the exhibition here
Primary Hughes
Picture

​Announcing our first juried portfolio competition!

June 26, 2020
Your work will be entered automatically when you update your SAM portfolio or create a new portfolio page this July. Lauren Panepinto—creative Director at Orbit Books will review everyone’s portfolio updates and new portfolio submissions to decide who wins the prize, which includes the following:

—Their win announced on all our media platforms
—£75 (about $100) gift certificate for high quality brushes from Rosemary Brushes
—A free lecture of their choice from the SAS fall lecture series.

In addition, every person who updates their existing portfolio this July will be able to add two more images to their SAM portfolio (see below).

​How do you send in a new portfolio? 

Just email me these things between July 1 and July 21:
  • up to six images of your artwork (1mb-3mb each)
  • a bio
  • a bio photo
  • links to all your sites and socials (promote yourself!)
  • a notation of which IMC or SmArt School program(s) you took part in
—For your bio: you can include specifics about what kind of work you do. This is the way the search feature on the site will find you. For example, use terms like ‘young adult’ or ‘science fiction’ or ‘original art for sale’ if they apply to your portfolio. Just keep it real (don’t keyword spam).

How do you update an Existing Portfolio?

Just email me these things ​between July 1 and July 21:
  • New images (1mb-3mb each)
  • Tell me if you want me to take down any of your existing images on your SAM page—only keep your best work in your portfolio!
  • You can now show up to eight images, total, of your artwork.
  • You can also update your bio, links, and bio photo.​

Feel free to email me with any questions, and best of luck!
​Matt Mitchell
Picture
Illustration by Rovina Cai, winner of the gold award in the Books category

We spotted 22 ImC & Smart school alumni who won entry into the spectrum juried annual this year

June 15,2020
Each year Spectrum aims to showcase the best talent in the fields of science fiction and fantasy. This year it includes at least 22 alumni of the IMC or SmArt School. This list doesn't include our teachers and honored easel artists at the IMC, some of whom won entry. Congratulations to everyone! Spectrum 27: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art will be out this fall.

Steve Argyle
Tommy Arnold
Wylie Beckert
Bruce Brenneise
Rovina Cai— Winner of the Gold award in the Books category
Hilary Clarcq
Galen Dara
Eric Deschamps
Hope Doe
Allen Douglas
Micah Epstein
Justin Gerard
Chuck Grieb
Ben Hill
Howard Lyon
Aaron Miller
Reiko Murakami
Tran Nguyen
Alessandra Pisano
Vincent Proce
Cynthia Sheppard
Allen Williams

More about Spectrum 27  here
Buy Spectrum 27 it at a local store or here
--also, if I missed anyone, please let me know: smarterartmarket@gmail.com
Picture

Tran Nguyen gets the cover of ImagineFX July Issue

June 1, 2020
There's an in depth interview with Tran inside. Great coverage.
ImagineFX July 2020, issue 188 here
Tran Nguyen

Picture

IMAginefx magazine, May Issue, Features three of David Calabrese's illustrations

May 30, 2020
The lead image of his work, shown in the FXPosé section, is the illustration he created during IMC 2019.
Find ImagineFX issue #186 here
David Cabrese
Picture

Tommy Arnold's Painting will be the cover of this year's Spectrum

May 22, 2020
​The cover of Spectrum 27: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art  will feature SmArt School and IMC alum Tommy Arnold's illustration, originally done for Tor Books' Harrow the NInth. 

Tommy Arnold's site here

More about Spectrum here
Buy it at a local store or here

Picture

Allen Panakal "Ancient Ones" Kickstarter ends Wednesday, May 20.

May 15, 2020
​
It's stretch goal time! Allen's book is fully funded and going for a victory lap.
Check it out here
Allen Panakal
Picture
illustration by Arthur Bowling
Picture
Illustration by Ben Hill

Arthur Bowling and BEn Hill Both win Juried contest for inclusion in: Writers of the Future 

May 11, 2020
Read more about the ongoing illustration contest and see the recently published 36th edition of Writers of the Future  here.
Ben Hill 
Arthur Bowling
Picture

Matthew Huntley's Kickstarter "Vigilant Lioness"

May 5, 2020
The campaign ends soon, on Sunday, May 10. 
To learn about the book and help make it happen, click here

Update May 11, 2020
Congratulations to Matthew Huntley! His Kickstarter was a success.
Picture

new Netflix series "The Midnight Gospel" features work by gregery miller

May 1, 2020
​
Adventure Time creator Pendleton Ward just released a new show on Netflix, The Midnight Gospel. Gregery Miller (IMC 2019) was a background artist on the series and designed the worlds of multiple episodes with his team.

The show: Here
Great Indywire Review  here
Gregery Miller's Patreon Page Here
Gregery's profile Here
Picture

Scott Brundage's New Book

April 24, 2020
"Where'd My Jojo Go?" by Jill Esbaum, Pictures by Scott Brundage
​For sale here
Kirkus review here
Great interview with Scott with lots of good images of the book in progress on the author Jill Esbaum's blog here
Scott's profile on SAM: Scott Brundage
Picture

Arthur Haywood Mural Proposal

April 20, 2020
​
Arthur Haywood had a mural up for public vote until April 22. Click here to see the proposal and learn more about The DaVinci Art Alliance, who sponsored this mural competition in Philadelphia. 
Back to Main Gallery