Publications:
Elaine Adams is an author and lecturer on topics relating to traditional fine arts, classical art training, and California’s arts heritage. As a writer, she has published more than 30 original articles about artists and art history, primarily for the multi-award-winning California Art Club Newsletter. In addition, she has written for the national publication Art-Talk in her own monthly column titled Oro de California (1997-1999). In 2003 her article on Carl Rungius was published in American Art Review. She has also collaborated with New York publishers, Skira Rizzoli, serving as project manager and essayist, on the book California Light: A Century of Landscapes: Paintings of the California Art Club (2010) and the follow-up book California Seascapes and Beach Towns: Paintings of the California Art Club (fall 2017).

Honors:
In November of 1997, Southwest Art Magazine named Elaine Adams one of the country’s “Five Most Notable Women.” The Pasadena Arts Council presented Adams with the Gold Crown Special Award in 2000 for her contributions in advancing contemporary-traditional art. In 2007 the Autry National Center awarded Mrs. Adams with the John J. Geraghty Award for the advancement of traditional fine art in the American West. In 2014 she and her husband, Peter Adams, were granted the Lifetime Achievement award from PleinAir Magazine as well as the Great Art Matters Award from Laguna College of Art and Design for their work in “Communicating the Value of Representational Art.”

Community:
Adams has served on several art committees and cultural boards, including Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s American Art Council (Steering Committee), Pacific Asia Museum (Chair of the 1994 Festival of the Autumn Moon), ArtCenter College of Design (ArtCenter 100 member), Pasadena Symphony (Board of Directors), Rymann-Carroll Foundation (Board of Directors), the American Society of Portrait Artists (Board of Directors), and the California Art Club (Board of Directors). As an art authority, in 2009 Adams, along with two other arts jurors Henry Lien and Chip Tom, selected winning artwork submitted by Laguna College of Art and Design students at Fairhaven Memorial Park in Santa Ana, California; and in 2015 Adams and Christopher Forbes were invited to judge Plein Air Easton’s 2015 Competition, held in Easton, Maryland; and in 2018 she served as the sole judge for the 8th Annual PleinAir Salon Competition hosted by PleinAir Magazine. Since 1993, as a non-paid administrator, she has held the positions of Executive Director/CEO of the historic California Art Club (established 1909), as well as Editor-in-Chief of the California Art Club Newsletter.

Prior to her work in the art world, Elaine Adams studied at the University of Southern California where she received dual bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and economics. After graduation, she worked as an accounts executive for Crowell, Weedon & Co. in Los Angeles, the largest independent investment firm in the Western United States. 

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As a child, Nikita received his training at the Children’s Art School Program in Odintsovo and successfully graduated with honors. He then enrolled in an architectural course at the Moscow Architecture Institute with the goal of becoming a professional architect. However, his life changed greatly after he had an opportunity to come to the United States of America in 2012 as an exchange student. Upon graduating from Cotter High School in Minnesota, where he was crowned Homecoming King, Budkov was awarded an honorable mention in Scholastic Art & Writing from the state of Minnesota. From this point, he was inspired to pursue a career in traditional fine art.

Budkov traveled to Los Angeles to study traditional painting from a different perspective and to master his artistic skills. For three years he studied full time at the Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art and taught two classes at LAAFA during the summer of his senior year. Budkov graduated with top honors from LAAFA and is now a member of the widely recognized and prestigious California Art Club as well as Assistant to the renowned California plein air artist Peter Adams.

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She has spearheaded the marketing effort for a number of art exhibitions and events, including A Community of Angels, the largest public art exhibition ever staged in the City of Los Angeles; the California Art Club’s Annual Gold Medal Juried Exhibitions, beginning with the 94th annual exhibit held in 2005 to present; the Chinatown Art Festival; and the first juried art exhibition to be held at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, Spiritual Spectrum: Paintings and Sculpture by the California Art Club. Beverly was previously affiliated with The Walt Disney Company, where she created and implemented national multi-tiered marketing campaigns for the animation art and other artwork developed at the studio and sold in art galleries around the world. She holds a master’s degree in business administration, with a dual concentration in marketing and finance, from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. In addition, she has a bachelor’s degree in journalism and public relations from the University of Southern California. 

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