Baltimore is a crawl with artists - from traditional painters to avant-garde videographers - and has been for many years. Why? Consider the city's low cost of living, its major art schools, cultural amenities, and access to major East Coast cities - plus the growing attraction of Baltimore's existing art community.

For some artists, Baltimore itself is a powerful attraction. For many of the painters and other visual artists who live here, inspiration surfaces in the city's native architecture, social environment and natural setting (think rowhouses, backyard cookouts and Druid Hill Park). So many, that this article is little more than a glorified and incomplete list of them.

We can divide the roster into two broad categories: artists who generally are naturalistic or realistic and others who make a point of stylizing their material - simplifying shapes, exaggerating colors, etc. This division is, of course, crude: Every artist imposes style on what they see, and many artists work in a range of styles.

The godfather of the more-or-less realists is Raoul Middleman , who has taught for many years at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Hugely productive, Middleman paints city and countryside alike, but his signature work depicts the city's aging buildings and industrial structures, rendered in spontaneous brushwork.

The work of Bill Tamburrino, a veteran federal housing employee, as well as an established painter, hews closer to optical facts of form and color, while subordinating detail to authentic light. Others in this painterly tradition include Katie Rickman (who does landscapes on metal chairs as well as canvas), Barbara Gruber, Greg Fletcher and Patricia Bennett. In their hands, Baltimore takes on the timeless qualities of French Impressionism.

One of the city's best-known painters is Crystal Moll, whose brightly colored canvases tend to focus on Baltimore's most conventionally picturesque streetscapes. Moll's work appeals to tourists and the public as well as her artistic peers, who admire her skill and sense of design.

With more somber palettes, Michael Bereznoff and Mike Kronner look at street scenes far from the historic harbor. They share a taste for boiling down the details of a scene to essential forms without sacrificing a naturalistic feeling. Mark Karnes, by contrast, takes great interest in the minutiae of daily life. His interiors and street scenes - centered in his Rodgers Forge neighborhood - are intimate and atmospheric.

A smaller number of Baltimore artists specialize more in human activity than in cityscape. Tony Shore, who grew up in Pigtown and Morrell Park, built his reputation on portraits and tableaus of people he knows. His style has evolved from caricature to sober realism - all rendered on black velvet.

A number of "genre painters," such as Bruce Norris and Charlie Newton, have specialized in street corner and bar scenes.

For our second broad group of artists, the urban environment serves as a jumping-off point for graphic invention. Best known is Greg Otto, whose work has been heavily marketed in posters and postcards. Otto renders accurate perspectives of landmark buildings, then fills them in with high-key colors, often set off by black. While Otto's approach is appealingly decorative, it is also intelligently conceived. Like Otto - but more so - David Thompson and Malia Furukawa radically simplify and flatten architectural forms and colors, but they prefer anonymous, commonplace scenes. The results verge on pure abstraction.

Leslie Schwing, a very versatile artist, takes an almost expressionistic approach in recent cityscapes. Her buildings and city lights dissolve into broken geometric forms and lively patterns. Going still further into the realm of abstraction, Tom Miller (best known for his book, Can a Coal Scuttle Fly?) applied vivid color and flat form to street scenes such as the recently restored mural on the east side of Harford Road and North Avenue.

I could go on - and maybe I should. If I left your favorite artist out, let me know:  urbanitebaltimore.com

A number of the painters listed here have Web sites, including:

Raoul Middleman (raoulmiddleman.com)

Katie Rickman (kg.rickman.com)

Leslie Schwing (amberlady.com/gallery)

Greg Fletcher (amberlady.com/gallery)

Crystal Moll (CrystalMoll.com).

Others are represented by private art galleries, notably Craig Flinner (505 N. Charles St.); C. Grimaldis (523 N. Charles); Gomez (Meadow Mill, 3600 Clipper Mill Road) and Galerie Francoise ESF (2360 W. Joppa Road, Lutherville), and the Canton Gallery (2935 O'Donnell St.). Gallery exhibits rotate from month to month, but some locations (such as Flinner and Canton) have large stocks of artwork available for browsing.


Tom Chalkley is a Baltimore cartoonist and illustrator.