Felicia Forte: the Alla Prima Portrait

Felicia Forte is a Detroit-based professional artist who regularly teaches and exhibits globally. In 2018 she was awarded second prize in the BP Portrait award, and was one of seven artists chosen by the National Portrait Gallery to create postcards to celebrate 30 years of the BP Portrait award.



Alla Prima painting, or wet into wet, single session painting is a stimulating method which teaches you to be present in every brush stroke, focusing only on the essentials, ultimately teaching you great dexterity and control. With demonstration and gentle critique, Felicia will challenge you to correctly observe and record the fundamentals: shapes, values, edges and color.

Do studies, not pictures. Know when you are licked – start another. Be alive, stop when your interest is lost. Put off finish – make a lot of starts. It is so hard and so long before a student comes to a realization that these few, large, simple spots in right relations are the most important things in the study of painting. They are the fundamentals of all painting. Paint the color tones as they come against each other, and make them sing, vibrate.”

Charles W. Hawthorne, “Hawthorne on Painting”

There will be a maximum of 14 students on this course. You can see the materials list for this course here. If you have any questions, please see our frequently asked questions or contact us.



You can read more about Felicia on her web site.