Avatar Schmonson Dalglish is real life artist Dennis Paul Batt. I previously wrote about the American Masters of Stone Art and Schmonson has done a good job entering the virtual world to bring this art to attention on a world wide platform. Although I had met Schmonson a while ago and the sole purpose of our meeting was to bring the Lapidary Art to the fore (http://secondlife.blogs.cnn.com/2008/02/), I knew very little about Schmonson's own career as an artists (other that the fact that he too creates pictures in the Lapidary style). Well Schmonson has now opened an exhibition of all his own work at the crossworlds gallery, lynto land (119, 138 287). Lapidary artwork is also displayed in the next area, giving information about the great artists who created these wonderful pictures. Schmonson's own part of the exhibition includes his work created over the years and also gives a biography of the artist. The real life Dennis had graduated High School in 1969 and then travelled. He lived in Turkey for a year and started creating nearly one painting a day, working with tempera to begin with, then moving on to gouache. As you look at his exhibited work you can see that he paints mostly from nature, working in geometric patterns rather than the more conventional forms of painting adopted by most artists. The pictures have clean lines of vibrant colours, depicting country scenes, birds and numerous views of nature, as well as mystical and spiritual work. The information in the gallery says that the style of the artwork is called ‘Neo-Synthetism, explaining that he uses personal symbolism to portray the subject matter. Schmonson (Dennis) has used Second Life very successfully, not only to bring the Lapidary Artists (Dennis being one of them) the credit they deserve, but he has taken the opportunity to show us his own wonderful, rich collection of his work. Crossworlds gallery, lynto (119, 138, 287)