The Soul of Portraiture: Unlocking Symbolism, Composition, and Complexion in Oil Paint with Manu Saluja

Please use this Earlybird link to sign up for Manu Saluja's workshop! Our Earlybird pricing takes $400 off your course of $3800, making your total price $3400.

You have until Labor Day (September 1st, 2025) to make your initial deposit of $500, saving your seat and securing your Earlybird price. Second and third deposits will be sent within the first and second months of your initial deposit. Total payment will be complete within three months.

• Initial Deposit: $500 [by 9/1/25 latest]

• Second Deposit: $1450 [by 10/1/25 latest]

• Third Deposit: $1450 [by 11/1/25 latest]

• [Total Paid: $3400]

Beyond Labor Day, prices will be $3800 without the $500 Earlybird deposit.

ABOUT MANU SALUJA

Born 1971, Brooklyn, New York

Lives and works on Long Island, New York

Manu Saluja is a contemporary figurative and portrait painter. After receiving her B.A. in Psychology from Barnard College,

Columbia University, Manu went on to study with John Frederick Murray privately and at the School of Visual Arts, graduating

with a BFA in Illustration in 1997. For over 10 years Manu has been on the Painting Faculty at the New York Academy of Art,

where she received her MFA in 2013. She has also taught at Montclair State University and SUNY’s Fashion Institute of

Technology.

Her current work shares narratives of women in her life, diverse in age and lived experiences reflecting on themes of

femininity, familial bonds, cultural identity, and social perception. The figures are often shown in ethereal environments based

on Saluja’s lived experiences - inspired by childhood memories and spaces in and around her native city of New York. These

environments also become the subject of her work.

Saluja’s paintings have been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London, the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, and

the Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art in Wisconsin. Winner of the 2019 BP Portrait Travel Award, her resulting paintings

celebrating volunteers at Amritsar’s Golden Temple in India were exhibited at the Aberdeen Art Gallery in Scotland in 2020.

In 2023 Saluja was unanimously selected by Worcester County Mechanics Association to paint a full-length portrait of

Sojourner Truth who rose from slavery to freedom - a celebrated orator and civil rights activist. Unveiled in 2024, the painting is in the permanent collection of the Hall’s Grand Portrait Gallery.

Her paintings have been featured in American Art Collector, Fine Art Connoisseur, Artists & Illustrators, the Huffington Post,

and Fast Company Design. Saluja has participated in numerous group shows, and has work in public and private collections in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and India.

WORKSHOP DETAILS

This workshop is designed to help you solve one of the most elusive problems in portrait painting: achieving believable,

dimensional, and emotionally resonant skin tones in oil paint within a well thought out composition. Working primarily indoors,

students will work from a live model focusing on one continued pose over 5 days. You will have the opportunity to weave rich

cultural symbolism into your work, gleaning inspiration from Sicilian objects and clothing included in the pose.

Each day includes structured lessons, demonstrations, and individual feedback tailored to each student’s needs. You will be

guided through exercises to compose your portrait with greater visual intention considering cropping, scale, value and color

choices. Using the compositional study as a “blue print” for your portrait, students will progress from an underpainting to the

full color palette. Manu will share drawing strategies for achieving likeness and a system for mixing and modulating skin

tones without muddy results or major guesswork - a method developed from decades of working with diverse subjects and

lighting environments around the world. Whether you’re a beginner or professional painter, you will come away with

knowledge of what goes into creating artwork that doesn't just resemble your subject—but reveals their spirit and narrative.

Day 1 (June 12):

● Welcome and Introductions

● Demonstration on Key Principles of Composition - how to “lead the viewer's eye”

● Exercises: Linear Studies, Tonal Studies

● Demonstration on Underpainting - Materials, Structure Lines, Light and Shade, Edges

● Students work on Underpainting

Day 2 (June 13):

● Demonstration of Color Theory, Mixing Complexion and Elements in Portrait

● Students Mix Out Palette

● Exercise: Small Color Study

● Demonstration of the “Lay-In” with Tips on Mediums/Drying Time of Oil, Handling Oil Paint, Transparency vs. Opacity, Brush

Choice, Edge Handling

● Students Begin on Canvas

Day 3 (June 14):

● Demonstration on Painting Various Textures (Clothing, Objects)

● Students Continue Working on Lay-In Stage, building up value, color and temperature changes, Edge Handling

● Demonstration of Details in the Portrait: Eyes, Nose

● Students build up portrait to incorporate further detail

● Group Reflection

Day 4 (June 15):

● Demonstration of Details in the Portrait: Lips and Ears

● Students build up portrait to incorporate further detail

● Individual Feedback Throughout the Day

● Afternoon Excursion

Day 5 (June 16):

● Students build up portrait to completion

● Individual Feedback Demonstrations as needed

● Final Group Reflection

MANU SALUJA'S MATERIALS LIST:

Canvas

● Frederick’s Canvas Pad 18x24 inches (10 Sheets of Acrylic Primed Cotton Canvas) -OR-

● Centurion Professional Linen Canvas Pad 16x20 inches (10 Sheets of Acrylic Primed Linen)

Other Essentials:

● Recommended Value Scale: https://ebay.to/3nMGION

● 2 Palette Knives (triangular metal shaped, 2-3 inches long - more flexible, or bendable the better)

● Paper Towels

● Soft Cotton T-Shirts or Rags

Oil Paints: recommended brands Williamsburg, Old Holland and Gamblin

(37 ml tubes are fine)

● Titanium White (37 or 150 ml)

● Raw Umber

● Ivory Black

● Burnt Umber

● Yellow Ochre Domestic (Williamsburg)

● Naples Yellow

● Cadmium Red Medium (Terra Rosa also perfectly acceptable)

● Quinacridone Magenta or Alizarin Crimson

● Ultramarine Blue

● Viridian Green

● Cerulean Blue (Cerulean Blue Hue is fine too)

● Cadmium Yellow light or Lemon Yellow

● Cadmium Orange

● Cadmium Green or Permanent Green

● Dioxazine Purple

Palette:

1. Richeson Grey Matters disposable paper palette pad: https://www.dickblick.com/items/03092-2506/

2. New Wave Posh Glass Tabletop Palette - 12x16 inch

https://www.dickblick.com/items/new-wave-posh-glass-tabletop-palette-12-x-16-clear/?

clicktracking=true&wmcp=pla&wmcid=items&wmckw=03481-1026&country=us&currency=usd&srsltid=AfmBOoqUcOz5MnxLOoPvmxy3Vzxy_69MNVLBFRIJhCzzeCDruRgbqQGXr-

s

3. Masterson Sta-Wet Palette Seal Box 12x16 inches

https://www.dickblick.com/products/masterson-sta-wet-palette-seal/

Brushes:

● Soft synthetic brushes: 2-4 round brushes (size 1, 2, 4), 6 flat brushes (2 in each size: 4, 6, 8). Recommended

brand: Winsor & Newton Monarch or Blick Scholastic Wonder White

● Bristle brushes: 4-6 flat brushes (1 in each size: 6, 8, 10, 12), long handle for oil painting Recommended brands:

Isabey specials, and Silverbrush Grand Prix

*If you already have a variety of sizes and shapes of 4-6 brushes, and they are in good condition (not stiff or frayed too

badly) then you can use them of course!