UPCOMING IN-PERSON WORKSHOP
Trifecta by instructor Michael Grimaldi
Mixed media on panel 56 x 36 inches, 2025
The Portrait in Mixed Media
With Michael Grimaldi
August 11-15, 2025 - Hudson, NY
Every medium in an artist’s toolbox has inherent capabilities and limitations. In this five-day intensive workshop, students will explore synthetic and analytical approaches to compositional portraiture using a variety of techniques and materials in an extended pose. By combining wet and dry, transparent and opaque, traditional and contemporary materials, students will learn to strategically problem-solve and optimize the working characteristics and permanence of the materials they use. While expanding their understanding of the narrative potentials of contemporary portraiture students will be invited to subvert strict interpretations of drawing’s painting’s underlying definition and categorization.
During daily demonstrations and discussions, students will be introduced to a variety of monochromatic materials (including substrates, grounds, isolating layers, media and solvents, etc) and techniques that combine these materials without sacrificing permanence. While the demonstrations will focus on tonal design in monochrome and will examine the impact of a wide value range on representation and visual storytelling, students are encouraged to work in/incorporate color*.
*Upon registration, students will be provided with a suggested materials list that can be expanded upon and/or abbreviated. Throughout the workshop, students will be encouraged to use whatever materials they wish but will be encouraged to experiment with additional materials to enhance and expand the working characteristics within their drawing/painting hybrids
PAST IN-PERSON COURSES
FIGURE DRAWING FROM OBSERVATION with Michael Grimaldi
In this five-day, intensive workshop students will learn the essential tools for drawing the figure and portrait from direct observation. The class will consist of lecture/demonstrations in the morning session and instructed drawing in the afternoons where the advanced foundational concepts of gesture, proportion, perspective, composition, anatomy, and the study of light on form will be thoroughly examined while students learn to apply the concepts and methods essential to life-drawing to their own work. Throughout the week, students will develop holistically organized and spatially resolved drawings of the live model in an extended, 5-day pose.
All Levels
PORTRAITURE AND THE STRUCTURAL ANATOMY OF THE HEAD AND NECK with Michael Grimaldi
In this 3-day lecture series, the structural anatomy of the head, neck and upper thorax will be examined towards developing the advanced skills necessary to draw, paint and sculpt the head from direct observation. By identifying and separating anatomy's underlying principles and studying them independently to create a well-unified and holistic understanding, participants will learn to interpret the visual experience with intelligence, apply this knowledge to their work, and cultivate an ability to strategically problem-solve as they approach representational portraiture. Through interactive lectures and demonstrations, students will be introduced to the in-depth study of the musculo-skeletal system and learn how a working knowledge of anatomy, morphology and kinesiology can be used to translate and interpret the essentials of effective portraiture.
All Levels
