Greenwich Master Artist To lead Impressionist Painting Workshop At Historical Society

GREENWICH, CT — Greenwich resident and master artist Dmitri Wright will lead a painting workshop on Sunday, Oct. 19, at the Greenwich Historical Society, guiding participants through the Impressionist techniques once practiced by members of the historic Cos Cob art colony.

The workshop will allow aspiring artists to explore the approach used by American painters such as Childe Hassam, John Henry Twachtman, Elmer Livingston MacRae and J. Alden Weir, who lived and worked in Cos Cob during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Wright will teach in the en plein air style — painting outdoors — a method the original Cos Cob Impressionists often used to capture the natural light and scenery surrounding the Holley Boarding House, a gathering place for many of the artists. Participants will create their own works in the same landscape that inspired the early Impressionists.

The workshop coincides with the Historical Society’s new exhibition, The Holley Boarding House: Inspiring American Impressionism. Attendees must bring their own art supplies and refreshments. Registration information is available at greenwichhistory.org.

Wright, whose artistic lineage traces back to key figures in American Impressionism, studied under Reuben Tam as a Max Beckman International Scholar at the Brooklyn Museum and trained at Cooper Union with Wolf Kahn and Will Barnet. His mentor, Samuel Brecher, studied under Charles W. Hawthorne, a student of William Merritt Chase.

Wright has served as master artist and instructor at Weir Farm National Historic Site and taught Impressionism at Silvermine Art School. He currently curates "Then and Now" at the Cos Cob Library and is featured in the 120th Anniversary of American Impressionism exhibition. His plein air gear and demonstration works are on permanent display at Weir Farm.