Join Sam D’Ambruoso as he demonstrates the tools and techniques for creating “Charcoal Portraits” on Wednesday, October 13 from 6:30 – 8:30 pm at the Riverfront Community Center, 300 Welles Street in Glastonbury, Connecticut.

Capturing the essence of mood and maintaining a good likeness of the subject are Sam’s objectives as he develops a portrait in charcoal. “I’m continually searching for the play of darks against lights, the light becomes the drama, the feeling, the truth, which moves the viewer.”

Sam has more than 20 years of experience teaching workshops in the United States and Italy and enjoys the process of revealing how to produce a successful piece of art, whether it is a portrait, landscape, or still life. Sam’s workshops in Tuscany, Amalfi, and Sicily as well as in the USA have been widely acclaimed by past participants. A graduate of Providence College, he studied with the internationally renowned landscape painter, Thomas Beuchner of Elmira, New York, advanced landscape painting with Skip Whitcomb of Fort Collins, Colorado, portraiture with the late Joseph Funaro at Paier College of Art, Peter Cox of the Art Students League, and with Laurel Stern Boecke at the Katona Art Center in New York.

Sam is a member of Connecticut Plein Air Painters Society, the Lyme Art Association and is an Elected Artist at the Kent Art Association.  He has been in regional as well as national landscape and figure shows.  Sam is listed as an official United States Coast Guard Artist. Current projects include original paintings of the New England, Tuscany, Amalfi, and Capri Italy as well as selected portrait commissions. He was elected a landscape-painting instructor at the Arts and Materials Show, sponsored by American Artist Magazine, in Pasadena, CA. Many of his paintings are in public and private collections worldwide.  His most recent landscape of the Connecticut River area was installed at the State of Connecticut Governor’s residence and now is included in the State’s Permanent Art Collection.