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Hi Joan,
Every thing I do, in terms of my teaching, comes from the same place, my ideas about the painter's mindset and relating painting techniques to that mindset. The workshops at SVA are exactly the same format as the out of town ones. The only difference is that one of my SVA workshops is oriented towards figure painting while all my others are portrait workshops. In my ongoing classes I usually have both figure and portrait setups.
I actually think that painting the figure can be more helpful in regards to learning portraiture. The angles and shapes are much more obvious. Traditionally the figure was always studied first. In the past I have seen incredible progress when people have taken both the figure and directly followed with the portrait workshop in a two week period. It's very intense.
In May I did two one week workshops. Below I've enclosed a week two workshop painting by new student Lori Hey, who did both weeks. The second weeks progress seems geometric. Lori regular medium is pastels, so working in oil was a very new experience for her.
Regardless of what form of study (classes or workshops) people choose to experience, they seem to derive great benifit. My main objective is to transform how people think about painting. This is why I always take my NY students to the Met each semester. I like to point out what I believe is irrifutable evidence as to the mindset of all great realistic painters. This is the one great advantage to attending a NY workshop. My out of town workshop students have to settle for a slide lecture. Nothing comes close to seeing the real paintings.
My figure workshop starts July 19th a week from tommorrow. If anyone is interested, they should register asap. The portrait workshop starts July 26. The Met trip is July 25, sandwiched between both workshops. The School of Visual Arts phone # is 212-592-2050.
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