i went there.....most of those guys from the arc site are dead. the contempoaries that arc pushes follow that tight painting style, and thus addresses only a particularly small niche in art today. certainly this doesn't necessarily qualify them as "masters".they have mastered the art of rendering, but not the art of "painting".: Keith, you've got some good questions. The first place to start is the ARC website (artrenewal.com). There are links to the classical realism schools and they have some beautiful pictures there by today's classical artists. (wish some of mine were there) I don't know about the newspaper thing, and yes, Rembrandt was da' man.: Can someone tell me why painters sometimes used newspaper in there backrounds? I always wanted to no that. Also can someone inform me on some new masters of today? One more, i just came from the library and saw a self portrait Rambrant painting, unbeliiiiiievable, especailly the pores and highlights, how did he achieve them? No lie , the painting could have been breathing it looked so real.keith