Balancing the Chaos

The same friend who introduced me to Paul Cristina and his amazing work, saw his recent show in New York City. She took photos for me so that I could show more closely his work and the many layers included in his amazing art. 

I love the way he has used string to define areas and to bring tension to the face. 

The portraits are all drawn with charcoal. 

Such yummy layers. 

We are very excited that he will be teaching his first Bellissima Art Escape next February in San Miguel de Allende, where artists gather from all over the world. We have room for just five more artists. You can find the details here. 

Here's what Paul said in an advertisement for a local workshop on charcoal he held in Charleston, SC where he lives. He'll be teaching this as part of his workshop in San Miguel. 

"This charcoal workshop will be primarily focused on portraiture and the various ways of capturing the expression, likeness, mood and emotion of the subject. Experimentation of method and technique with the charcoal medium will be heavily encouraged during these sessions. During the workshop, we will be drawing portraits from life and photographs with varying degrees of realism, depending on the individual's skill level.

My focus and objective for the workshop will be to teach people how to draw in a more intuitive and visceral manner, as oppose to technical rules and confinements that can potentially stifle, restrict and overwhelm a lot of people's creativity and thought process. My goal is to strengthen creative sensibilities and to equip you with the proper tools of understanding and intuition in order to become better, more confident and capable artists.

We will also be covering a wide variety of the foundational aspects of the charcoal medium (ie blending, shading, values, techniques, tools, etc.)."

Charcoal portraits, paper layering, sanding, scratching, excavating and unearthing. Balancing the Chaos. Is it February yet?