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July 10, 2025
Creative Contemplation
S4E3 James Lloyd; A Brush with Royalty

Suzanne Lago Arthur, host and creator of The Creative Contemplation Podcast has a delightful conversation with British Portrait Painter, James Lloyd about his exceptional career painting portraits of some of England's most extraordinary individuals including the late Queen herself, Elizabeth the II.

Website: jameslloyd.org.uk
Instagram: @james_lloyd_artist and @james_lloyd_drawings

Representation: Browse & Darby and Galerie Hübner + Hübner

ArtUK.Org

National Portrait Gallery, UK

Bio:

James Lloyd graduated in the 90s with an MA from the Slade School of Fine Art,
following a BA in Fine Art from Coventry and a Diploma from Blackpool College
of Art and Design. He teaches at the Royal Drawing School and has won numerous awards including the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Award, Paul Smith Scholarship, Windsor & Newton Young Artists’ Award, Carrol Foundation Young Artist of the Year Award, First Prize in the BP Portrait Award, and the Ondaatje Prize for Portraiture.

Lloyd has undertaken commissions for many private and public clients and institutions including Newcastle University, the Bank of England, Queen’s College, Lords Cricket Ground, the House of Lords, the Royal Collection and the National Portrait Gallery.

Host Bio:

Suzanne Lago Arthur is a contemporary realist painter from Northern Virginia. Born in Puerto Rico to Cuban-American parents, her artistic explorations were nurtured from an early age by her family.

Through her paintings Suzanne explores the themes of beauty, transience and memory. She has exhibited both nationally and internationally in such venues as the Corcoran Gallery of Art and Art Museum of the Americas in Washington DC, Booth Museum of Western Art in Cartersville, GA, the United States Interests Section, Havana, Cuba and in art galleries across the United States. She holds a BFA from the Corcoran School of Art and an MA in Museum Studies from George Washington University.

Website: www.lagoarthurstudio.com
Instagram: Suzanne Lago Arthur (@lagoarthurstudio)
Logo design by Elisa Nader, Mag7
Artwork, "Abby in Contemplation" by artist Suzanne Lago Arthur
Theme Music by Up North Music

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May 22, 2025
Creative Contemplation
S4E2 Matt Klos; Perceptual Painter of Lived Environments

Suzanne Lago Arthur, host and creator of The Creative Contemplation Podcast has a conversation with Baltimore M.D. based, perceptual painter, Matt Klos about his work and inspiration, his development as an artist and the various roles that he occupies as a creative professional.

Website: mattklos.com
Instagram: @mattklosspainting

Yorkshire Dales, UK Workshop co-taught with Erin Raedeke

Jemulpo Club Museum, Incheon, South Korea

Bio:

Matt Klos received his MFA in painting from University of MD, College Park and his BFA from Columbus College of Art and Design (CCAD). He is a recipient of three Individual Artist Awards from the Maryland State Arts Council (2016, 2012 and 2008). His work has been featured in numerous group and solo exhibitions including the Prince Street Gallery in Chelsea, NY in 2011. He was awarded first place in the Bethesda Painting Awards in 2007 and received an Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant in 2001. Klos currently teaches drawing and painting full-time at Anne Arundel Community College in Arnold, MD and has served as a guest lecturer/critic at various institutions including the New York Academy of Art, Boston University, College of William & Mary, Towson University, University of Missouri, and Mount Gretna School of Art. He is a member of the collective Perceptual Painters and Zeuxis.

He resides in Baltimore Maryland where he co-directs Exeter Gallery which has featured almost twenty solo and group exhibitions since its founding in 2017. He has served on panels and as a juror for exhibitions, residency programs, and awards. His curatorial projects include "A Lineage of American Perceptual Painters" at St. John's College's Mitchell Gallery (2015).

Host Bio:

Suzanne Lago Arthur is a contemporary realist painter from Northern Virginia. Born in Puerto Rico to Cuban-American parents, her artistic explorations were nurtured from an early age by her family.

Through her paintings Suzanne explores the themes of beauty, transience and memory. She has exhibited both nationally and internationally in such venues as the Corcoran Gallery of Art and Art Museum of the Americas in Washington DC, Booth Museum of Western Art in Cartersville, GA, the United States Interests Section, Havana, Cuba and in art galleries across the United States. She holds a BFA from the Corcoran School of Art and an MA in Museum Studies from George Washington University.

Website: www.lagoarthurstudio.com
Instagram: Suzanne Lago Arthur (@lagoarthurstudio)
Logo design by Elisa Nader, Mag7
Artwork, "Abby in Contemplation" by artist Suzanne Lago Arthur
Theme Music by Up North Music

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April 21, 2025
Creative Contemplation
S4E1 Alex Cree; Painting with Imagination from Lived Experience

Suzanne Lago Arthur, host and creator of The Creative Contemplation Podcast converses with British painter, Alex Cree about his training in observationally based, representational painting and how he broke away from a more traditionally realist approach in order to find his own true artistic voice.

Website: alexcree.co.uk
Instagram: @alexjcree

Classes

Galleries:

Tregony Contemporary, Cornwall England U.K.

Fraser Gallery, St. Andrews Scotland U.K.

Alex's Favorite Sketching Pencil

Bio:

Alex Cree has shown extensively throughout the United Kingdom, Spain and Ireland, including: London's Trinity House Paintings, Mall Galleries, Dulwich Picture Gallery, British Museum, RA summer show and the Solomon Gallery in Dublin. Alex is now based in Dorset where he has his studio. In 2002 he was awarded the Sidney Cooper prize for drawing, in 2010 the Denis Mahon scholarship from the Royal Drawing School and in 2012 he received the Phyllis Roberts award from the Royal Institute of Oil Painters.

Host Bio:

Suzanne Lago Arthur is a contemporary realist painter from Northern Virginia. Born in Puerto Rico to Cuban-American parents, her artistic explorations were nurtured from an early age by her family.

Through her paintings Suzanne explores the themes of beauty, transience and memory. She has exhibited both nationally and internationally in such venues as the Corcoran Gallery of Art and Art Museum of the Americas in Washington DC, Booth Museum of Western Art in Cartersville, GA, the United States Interests Section, Havana, Cuba and in art galleries across the United States. She holds a BFA from the Corcoran School of Art and an MA in Museum Studies from George Washington University.

Website: www.lagoarthurstudio.com
Instagram: Suzanne Lago Arthur (@lagoarthurstudio)
Logo design by Elisa Nader, Mag7
Artwork, "Abby in Contemplation" by artist Suzanne Lago
Theme Music by Up North Music