Masterclass: From master copy to living portrait, the practice of Classical Portrait Painting
This five-day masterclass follows the traditional methods of the great Renaissance and Baroque painters, exploring how the ground, underpainting and transparent glazes bring light, shadow and colour into a deliberate order, creating that unmistakable depth of chiaroscuro seen in paintings of the 17th century.
Mornings will be spent studying a painting by one of the old masters, understanding their visual language and how form is constructed through the subtle orchestration of light and dark.
During the afternoons students will assimilate that learning into direct practice, painting directly from a life model, allowing for the development of observation and handling of paint to grow together. The week moves from the discipline in the study of the morning class to the training of direct observational seeing during the afternoon sessions, allowing knowledge to become experience through the careful and expressive handling of the brush and paint. By the end of the week, each student will have both a study rooted in the morning sessions and a finished portrait painted from life.
An important aspect of this masterclass is the opportunity to reconnect with a continuity of knowledge carried through generations of painters. Knowledge not only in the finished works but in the materials and methods through which paintings came into being.
Through hands-on study, students enter that lineage, not just by learning how things were made, but by experiencing the principles that made them possible. In this way, the workshop seeks not only to preserve technique but to contribute to the continuity of a living tradition.
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This five-day masterclass follows the traditional methods of the great Renaissance and Baroque painters, exploring how the ground, underpainting and transparent glazes bring light, shadow and colour into a deliberate order, creating that unmistakable depth of chiaroscuro seen in paintings of the 17th century.
Mornings will be spent studying a painting by one of the old masters, understanding their visual language and how form is constructed through the subtle orchestration of light and dark.
During the afternoons students will assimilate that learning into direct practice, painting directly from a life model, allowing for the development of observation and handling of paint to grow together. The week moves from the discipline in the study of the morning class to the training of direct observational seeing during the afternoon sessions, allowing knowledge to become experience through the careful and expressive handling of the brush and paint. By the end of the week, each student will have both a study rooted in the morning sessions and a finished portrait painted from life.
An important aspect of this masterclass is the opportunity to reconnect with a continuity of knowledge carried through generations of painters. Knowledge not only in the finished works but in the materials and methods through which paintings came into being.
Through hands-on study, students enter that lineage, not just by learning how things were made, but by experiencing the principles that made them possible. In this way, the workshop seeks not only to preserve technique but to contribute to the continuity of a living tradition.
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