Towards the end of my last semester, at the University of Missouri, I won the grand prize in Artistic Expression for the Undergraduate Visual Arts and Design Showcase.

With the prize money, I traveled to Italy and I attended a two-week painting workshop at the Florence Academy of Art, Italy. My artwork focuses on baroque classical paintings and learning the painting techniques used for the prominent works of that time period is incredibly important for the quality of my work.

As I learned the traditional techniques to paint classical portraits, I had the opportunity to immerse myself in the culture and see the works of Caravaggio and Diego Velazquez; who inspired most of my work.

During the first week of the workshop, the first image I copied to learn the process in which the classical portraits were developed was Lorenzo Lotto's "Portrait of a Young Man with a Lamp". This image shows the piece in progress.

This is the final image for the first week of the course. "Portrait of a Young Man with a Lamp". (Available for Purchase)

During the second week of the course I studied Antonio Mancini's "Self Portrait". My image is on the right. (Available for Purchase)