Daniel Bilmes | Immersive Portrait Painting

Workshop: Immersive Portrait Painting

Dates: January 21-24, 2027

Instructor: Daniel Bilmes

Hours: 10am - 4pm

Level: All

Class Size: 12

Tuition: $1600

Includes: Complimentary lunches and drinks served daily in studio

In this transformative 4-day experience, contemporary painter Daniel Bilmes invites you behind the curtain of his dynamic portrait process, where classical foundations meet modern abstraction.

Explore an unconventional planning process that replaces hesitation with clarity. Using unique tools and inventive methods, Daniel shows you how to build structure, gesture, and energy simultaneously, allowing realism and abstraction to coexist in powerful tension. Each stage of the painting is intentional, yet open to surprise.

Expect strong design, confident mark-making, and a deeper understanding of how to construct a portrait. This workshop is ideal for artists who want their portraits to feel expressive, contemporary, and unmistakably their own.

At the end of the workshop, you will leave with new tools, a repeatable framework, and a refreshed way of approaching portrait painting from beginning to end.

Bio

Daniel began his art education at the age of 8 under the tutelage of his father, the respected artist and educator, Semyon Bilmes. Being immersed in art from such an early age had a profound impact on his personal growth and creativity, laying a lasting foundation of curiosity that continues to drive and inform his work today.

Reviews

Bilmes’ work has been dubbed reminiscent of Repin and Rembrandt, both artists whose popularity has survived for centuries." -Art Aesthetics Magazine

Daniel Bilmes' approach is characterized by deep personal exploration, combining realism with elements of symbolism and abstraction. Through tactile textures and delicate expressions, his paintings weave together the magical and mundane. His work is at once hopeful and brooding. Realistic and symbolic. Somewhere between the vitality of the Russian circus and the gravitas of a Churchill speech." -Contemporary Art Curator Magazine

Website

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/bilmesart/

Supply List

BRUSHES: Trekell brand

Bristle Round # 4

Golden Taklon Cat's Tongue 2560 Series # 10

Golden Taklon 2500 Series Round # 6

THINNER

Gamsol in brush cleaner container with lid.

MEDIUM

Oleogel (Rublev brand)

RAGS:

Viva Paper towels – Viva is a Kleenex brand and is recommended.

PALETTE KNIFE

RUBBER TOOLS:

Royal Sovereign clay shaper # 6

Princeton Catalyst rubber wedge # 6

Princeton Catalyst Mini-Blade 01.

PALETTE:

Large palette recommended

CANVAS OR PANEL SUPPORT

3 primed wooden panels, or smooth oil primed linen canvases. All panels/canvases should be sized, gessoed, and lightly toned raw umber with Alkyd Oil.

OIL COLORS:

Ultramarine Blue (Windsor and Newton)

Burnt Sienna (Windsor and Newton)

Yellow Ochre Deep (Michael Harding)

Phthalo Green (Gamblin)

Permanent Rose (Windsor and Newton)

Raw Umber for toning canvas/panel (Winsor & Newton Griffin Alkyd Fast Drying Oil)

These are the colors on the instructor's palette. It is not necessary to purchase all these colors. Students may use the palette they are already using at home, pick from this list to add to their current palette or purchase all the colors on this list.