The Cape Ann Summer School of Art presents:
Leo Mancini-Hresko –
Five-Day Landscape Painting Workshop
MonDAY, August 31 - Friday, September 4, 2026 from 9 am - 4 pm, en plein air
RAA&M Members: $800 | Non-Members: $850
Join Italy-trained, Boston-based landscape painter Leo Mancini-Hresko for a five-day landscape painting intensive hosted by the Rockport Art Association & Museum. Rockport is hallowed ground for American Impressionism and remains a place of enduring artistic legacy.
Each day we will work together on site, with daily demonstrations and substantial time for individual work at the easel. Demonstrations will focus on the clear stages of Leo’s approach to painting: first, establishing a strong linear design; then organizing a coherent value structure or tonal pattern; and finally, layering expressive Impressionist color into the tonal plan to capture the fleeting effects of light and atmosphere. This method offers a flexible framework rooted not only in Impressionism, but also in older traditions of picture construction reaching back to the Baroque.
While Leo’s primary focus is oil painting—and he is especially drawn to the opalescent, jewel-like qualities achieved through careful layering, vibrating color, and rich surface texture—students who wish to draw or work in water-based media such as gouache are very welcome. Primarily, this class will be focused on arranging shapes and using design and perspective (both linear and atmospheric) as a means to create images of spatial structure and distance.
In the event of inclement weather, sessions will move indoors to the Rockport Art Association & Museum, where students will paint interiors and further discussions of linear and atmospheric perspective will take place. Though not a Rockport artist, Leo is deeply inspired by the town’s historic painters and its ongoing, living artistic tradition.
Exclusive Lecture: Leo Mancini-Hresko
Thursday, September 3, 2026, 5:00–6:00 PM
Join us for an adapted version of Leo’s 2024 talk on Impressionism, originally presented at the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, Connecticut, in conjunction with their Impressionism 150 exhibition. We will also look closely at works from RAA&M’s collection as examples of strong picture-making.
In addition to painting instruction, all workshops include guided gallery walks throughout the area, evening lectures and an exhibition of historic Cape Ann paintings at the RAA&M. Enroll now!
Leo Mancini-Hresko (b. 1981) is a Boston-based painter with a lifelong devotion to drawing, painting, and the living traditions of the craft. His earliest engagement with art began in childhood through 1980s graffiti, which was thoughtfully redirected in his teens toward figure drawing and painting.
During a study abroad program in Italy in 2000, Leo discovered the Florence Academy of Art, where he studied before joining the faculty and remaining part of the school until 2011. During his years at the Academy, he served as Director of the Drawing Program for Sculptors, taught plein air painting workshops, and lectured extensively on artist materials.
Since 2012, Leo has worked from his studio in a historic mill in Waltham, Massachusetts, where he paints and periodically hosts workshops and events. He travels regularly to paint, exhibit, and teach, and has long lectured on the technical foundations of painting, demonstrating practices such as grinding paint from oil and pigment, preparing painting supports, and constructing works using sound, archival methods.
Although trained in historic academic painting methods, Leo became deeply engaged with Impressionism as a means of recreating light and color through the expressive, physical properties of paint itself. His practice moves between direct observation on site and sustained, deliberate studio work. Central to his studio practice is the belief that a painting can emit its own sense of light back to the viewer, achieved through layered surfaces, varied handling, and techniques that have animated painted surfaces since the Baroque. For this reason, he works primarily in oil paint and is drawn to its opalescent, jewel-like characteristics.
His paintings have received numerous awards and are held in public and private collections. He exhibits regularly and has participated in solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States, Greece, England, Italy, Ireland, and Russia.
An active member of the Rockport Art Association & Museum, Leo lives and works in the Boston area with his wife and two children, continuing to view painting as a living, evolving tradition sustained by close looking, disciplined craft, and an ongoing conversation with the past while looking forward.
Cancelation Policy for CASSOA Workshops: Up to two weeks (fourteen days) prior to the start of a workshop, participants may cancel and request a refund, minus a non-refundable $100 registration fee. Tuition will not be refunded after this two-week period. This policy is strictly enforced.