Studio Afternoon on Portrait Painting and the Grisaille Figure

Guests arrive at a converted industrial studio in Jersey City, where tea is served and the afternoon opens with a walk along the wall of works in progress, each at a different stage. What follows is a talk on how a portrait is actually built: the reference sitting, the choice of pose and wardrobe, the decision about background colour, and the reason skin is carried in grisaille rather than local colour. A live demonstration takes a small panel from mixed grey through a first pass of the figure. Guests then work at easels on their own study from supplied reference, with feedback given station by station. The afternoon ends with a group critique and an open conversation about scale, pacing a studio year, and what changes when a painting is made for a public collection.