DRAWING CENTER STUDIO

Personal Color: Painting the Figure with a Mixing Matrix
A 3-day Intensive Workshop with Neil Callander

Early Registration Deadline: June 13, 2025

Course Runs: July 25 - 27, 2025  (Friday - Sunday)

Friday, July 25: 10am - 5pm
Saturday, July 26: 10am - 5pm
Sunday, July 27: 10am - 5pm

(1 hour lunch break each day)

[ REGISTER HERE ]

Course Fee Discounted for Early Registration:

$465
Student Rate: $394 (with valid student ID)

* 15% discount student rates offered only with valid academic student i.d. We will contact you to obtain verification in advance of the workshop.




Description:

In this workshop, you will move beyond simply recording visual facts or achieving a likeness when painting the human head. Through daily exercises and working from a live model, you will develop a deeper understanding of form, volume, and spatial relationships while learning to see the head as an integrated part of a larger composition. You will explore methods for breaking down the head into a series of shapes, planes, and marks, allowing for a more structured and dynamic approach to painting.

Throughout this workshop, you will create a series of head studies using both limited and full-color palettes, honing your ability to make intentional color choices. You will experiment with strategies for pre-mixing colors and explore how shifts in temperature, saturation, and value can be used to describe form and enhance depth. Additionally, historical and contemporary painting examples will provide insight and inspiration, helping you refine your technical skills and artistic vision.

By the end of the workshop, you will have a stronger grasp of observational painting, composition, and expressive mark-making, equipping you with tools to approach head painting with greater confidence and creativity.

Class Size: Maximum: 15

Materials List:

[ download/print PDF of Materials List HERE ]

Level of Study: This workshop is ideal for artists with foundational experience in live model drawing and painting. Participants should possess basic color theory knowledge and color mixing skills. An openness to experimental approaches and collaborative learning is essential.

AREA ACCOMMODATIONS FOR THOSE TRAVELING TO ATTEND

For those traveling to Cincinnati to attend this visiting artist workshop, there are many exciting or practical options for accommodations. For a special stay within a mile of Manifest's new facility, we would recommend checking with The Clifton House Bed & Breakfast* (https://thecliftonhouse.com), or The Gaslight Bed & Breakfast (https://www.gaslightbb.com). Alternatively, the 21c Museum Hotel is in the heart of downtown just four miles from our location (link). Many other common hotels are within a few miles of our location as well. Those who are new to Cincinnati may want to arrive a day early and take in the Cincinnati Art Museum and Taft Museum of Art.

*We have confirmed that the Clifton House will honor a special discounted rate for Manifest workshop participants when rooms are available.

LOCATION: Unless otherwise specified, all courses are hosted at Manifest's new facility at 'M1' in Clifton at 3464 Central Parkway (see map and directions below). Manifest's new facility provides multiple studio classrooms, private lesson space, a darkroom, a film processing room, and a multi-purpose lecture and class meeting space as well as on-site parking, grounds, and exterior spaces in which to relax, discuss, and make art. The studios are outfitted with professional equipment, furniture, and study aids.

Map to Manifest's M1 Studios   |   Studio Calendar   |   Darkroom Calendar

Manifest's new home on Central Parkway is a historic 1932 structure ideally suited to the various programs of the Manifest Drawing Center (and future Manifest Gallery). Even now, mostly unchanged from 93 years ago, it serves as a playful collaborator in our educational mission. Students and guests are inspired by both the content of our programs, and the spaces in which they occur.

Works by Neil Callander

About the instructor:

Neil Callander is a painter and educator originally from Louisville, Kentucky. He earned his BFA from Indiana University in 2003 and his MFA from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University in 2006. In 2005, he was awarded a full fellowship to attend the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. After graduate school, he worked as a painter in Jeff Koons' New York studio.

In 2007, Neil and his family left New York City to pursue careers in the arts and academia, a move that led them on a journey through the American South, with time spent in Louisville, Kentucky; Starkville, Mississippi; and Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Today, Neil and his wife, Adrienne, are both tenured professors of art at the University of Arkansas. They live in Fayetteville on a three-acre homestead shared with their children, dogs, and sheep.

Neil’s work has been exhibited extensively across the U.S., including solo exhibitions at Goose Barnacle (Brooklyn, NY), Studio Break Gallery (West Chicago, IL), Bowling Green State University (OH), Manifest Gallery and Drawing Center (Cincinnati, OH), Elon University (NC), and the Kentucky School of Art (Louisville, KY). His group exhibitions include shows at Manifest Gallery, the Huntsville Museum of Art (AL), the Mississippi Museum of Art (Jackson), the New Gallery of Modern Art (Charlotte, NC), First Street Gallery (NYC), and the Washington Art Association (CT), among others.

He has lectured on his work at numerous institutions, including Boston University, UMass Dartmouth, Arkansas State University, and the University of Mississippi. Neil is a member of ZEUXIS, a New York-based still life painting collective, and regularly attends conferences held by SECAC (Southeastern College Art Conference).

Most recently, Neil has been involved with Art Week at the historic home of painter Fairfield Porter on Great Spruce Head Island in Maine. He participated in the program in 2022 and returned in 2024 and 2025 to lead a painting retreat he developed.