Portrait Painting: Heads Above with Aaron Michael Thompson

The portrait will be the departure point for a discussion of simplification and abstraction in pictorial structure for this four-day workshop. Through reducing the visible to its simplest forms, we will attempt to develop accuracy through layering shape into proportional constructions of the head. Issues of anatomical structure, figure-ground integration, value organization, and creation of light will be discussed. Historical portraits, contemporary portraiture, and working from a model will be included. Some painting experience required; oil paint is the medium.

Aaron Michael Thompson is a Professor of Life Drawing at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. He received his M.F.A. from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He has been represented by The Drawing Room Gallery in Greenwich, Connecticut, as well as The Artist’s House Gallery in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. His personal work and student lineage comes from the teachings of artists such as Edwin Dickinson, Charles Hawthorne, Edward Hopper, all of whom had a very strong connection with Provincetown and Cape Cod. His most recent awards include the Premier Coup Award from the Nude Figure, a national juried exhibition, at the Wayne Art Center and the Barnes Artist residency in Umbria, Italy.