Born in Seoul, Kate Sammons, an American contemporary realist painter, was raised in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois where she attained a degree in painting from the University of Illinois with honors. Sammons studied one year with John Michael Angel in Florence, Italy, two years with Nelson Shanks at Philadelphia’s Studio Incamminati, and three and a half years with Anthony Waichulis at Ani Academy Waichulis in northeastern Pennsylvania. Today she lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.
Anthony Waichulis (1972- ) is an American contemporary Trompe L’Oeil painter from Northeast Pennsylvania. A graduate of the Baltimore Schuler School of Fine Arts, he is represented by the John Pence Gallery in San Francisco. In 1998, Waichulis opened The Waichulis Studio (TWS). In 2010, The Ani Art Academies project adopted Waichulis’ highly successful training system to provide an intensive multi-year art skills education to aspiring artists around the world. Soon after, The Waichulis Studio merged with The Ani Art Academies to create a new entity, The Ani Art Academy Waichulis.
Nelson Shanks, (b. 1937- ) is a portrait painter. Among his notable commissions are President William Clinton; Diana, Princess of Wales and Charles, Lord Spencer; and Pope John Paul II. He studied at The Kansas City Art Institute and in New York at the National Academy of Design, and the Art Students League. Nelson, and his wife Leona Shanks, founded Studio Incamminati in Philadelphia, PA to provide a place where artists devoted to realism could study painting and acquire other skills necessary for successful artistic careers.
Michael John Angel, born in England in 1946, emigrated to Canada in 1961, and moved to Italy at the beginning of 1989. In the late 1960s, he studied in Florence with the renowned Pietro Annigoni. From 1982 to 1988 he was the Director of the National Portrait Academy in Toronto, Canada, and from 1992 – 1995 the Assistant Director of the Florence Academy of Art in Florence, Italy. 1997 saw the establishment of his first school in Florence – the Angel Academy of Art.