Artist Antonio Masi with one of his paintings. Antonio Masi, who has won national acclaim for his thrilling paintings of New York City bridges, will be featured in a major essay in The Artist's Magazine's September 2008 issue. (Masi lives in Garden City and Montauk.)

The Artist's Magazine, celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2009, has 170,000 subscribers and is considered by many artists, agents, collectors and gallery owners as the "bible" of the art world. Masi first came to the attention of the editors of The Artist's Magazine when one of his paintings, a study of the Queensboro Bridge, "N.Y. Tramway II," won First Place in the Landscape category in the magazine's "Best Art of 2006" contest. At the time, the magazine described, "N.Y. Tramway II" as "dark and pulsating" and relating "a stirring, overpowering sensation." The 2006 contest received some 14,000 entries, according to the magazine's editor-in-chief Maureen Bloomfield,

Now two years following Masi's contest victory, Holly Davis, associate managing editor of The Artist's Magazine, says the forthcoming essay will show examples of Masi's artistry as well as reveal his immigrant history, his motivations, and-most helpful to other artists-his methods and approaches.

Davis reports that highlighting Masi was an easy choice, saying that his paintings stand out immediately. She also says that she was instantly taken with his artistic commitment to paint the major bridges of New York City. His subject matter is smart and unique, she says. But, in Davis's view, Masi's art goes well beyond his iconic subjects. In sum, Davis finds the body of his work extraordinarily rich. His draftsmanship is "right on"; his point of view and composition are fascinating. Indeed, the more she studies his art, the more she senses the grandeur and power of the bridges, she adds.

"For a lot of people," Davis notes, "a bridge in a city would not be a beautiful thing. But in Antonio's paintings, I detect awe."

Bloomfield explains the significance of Masi's selection.

"To be sure," she says, "it's a feather in an artist's cap to be singled out by The Artist's Magazine."

Bloomfield, keenly aware that being an artist is a solitary occupation, talks about the satisfaction an artist receives from getting this kind of grand recognition. To know people truly respond to your work is a great motivator. Important, too, is that, agents and gallery owners looking for the best artists in the nation know that they will find the best of the best highlighted the magazine's featured essay.

Bloomfield adds that the reputations of numbers of artists have soared after being featured. She cites portraitist Mary Beth McKenzie and watercolorist Dean Mitchell as just two outstanding examples of artists previously featured.

Masi is represented by The Phyllis Lucas Gallery in New York City. His paintings may be viewed online at http://www.antoniomasi.com/. In the last three years, Masi has received more than 50 awards. In addition, his work was recently shown in the prestigious 2008 "Works on Paper" show at the Armory and in the 2007 and 2008 American Watercolor Society's Annual Traveling Exhibition.

Antonio Masi's journey is classically American. In 1947, when he was seven years old, he emigrated with his parents and siblings from Italy to New York City. Fifty years earlier, Masi's grandfather, Francesco, had hauled steel as a part of the workforce that built the Queensboro Bridge. Francesco's bridge-building tales were told and retold in the Masi family, and Antonio, who always loved to draw, was intrigued. Upon his arrival in New York, he was deeply drawn by the beauty of the city's iconic bridges, especially the Queensboro. And it wasn't long before he knew that one day he would paint pictures of the City's major bridges, and he would start-honoring the work and words of his grandfather-with the Queensboro. But it wasn't until 2000, at age 60, after raising three children and retiring from running a successful graphic arts business that Masi was finally able to fulfill his boyhood dream.

"The bridges are in my DNA," he likes to say.

The result is an ever-expanding oeuvre of some 80 paintings.