Adorned: Figure Painting, Symbolism, and Storytelling Presented and Taught by Chrisi Karvonides-Dushenko 

A Three-Day Professional Workshop for Artists - Limited to 6 Painters

• July 22-24, 2026 9AM to 4PM (1-Hour Lunch Break) 
• Location: Hermosa Art Lab / Gallery of Hermosa, 136-138 Pier Ave., Hermosa Beach, CA
• Contact: Email: galleryofhermosa@gmail.com Phone: (323) 364-6606 
• Tuition: $450

Adornment has long served as a powerful form of visual storytelling. Across the world,
ceremonial garments, masks, jewelry, body painting, textiles, and symbolic objects transform the human figure into an expression of identity, community, spirituality, and celebration. 

This three-day workshop explores how artists can draw inspiration from global adornment traditions to create expressive and contemporary figurative paintings. Rather than reproducing cultural garments, participants will investigate the visual language of silhouette, symbolism, pattern, color, and transformation as tools for personal artistic expression. 

Each morning and afternoon session begins with a presentation featuring examples of adornment traditions from around the world. These visual introductions serve as creative prompts for studio explorations that encourage interpretation, experimentation, and storytelling.

Through painting, collage, mixed media processes, and guided exercises, artists will discover new ways to define the figure, develop distinctive silhouettes, integrate figures into landscapes, and create narrative imagery that moves between representation and abstraction.

Participants are encouraged to work from their own established figure templates and drawing methods. Simplified figure templates will also be provided, allowing artists to focus on composition, storytelling, and painterly exploration without the pressure of having to construct the figure from scratch.

The workshop emphasizes creative discovery, visual experimentation, and the development of a personal artistic voice inspired by the human impulse to adorn, transform, and tell stories through the body.

Suggested Materials List will be provided after registration.

About Chrisi Karvonides-Dushenko

Chrisi Karvonides - Dushenko is a fine artist and costume designer for opera, theater, film, and television. Chrisi is known for costume projects such as HBO’s Big Love, Carnivale, and season 1 of American Horror Story.  Recently, she has designed opera costumes for several American and European companies, including Santa Fe Opera.  She is designing a new opera for The Royal Swedish Opera in 2023 and is the head of Costume Design at UCLA’s School of Theater, Film, and Television.

      As in costume design, Chrisi is a painter searching for new ways of expressing her love of visual storytelling.  Of course, painting people is a passion.  She is fascinated with carnival performers, lovers, street people of foreign lands, and children bearing gifts.   Her flower images are eye candy, and the still lifes are not so “still."  Chrisi also has an affinity for painting unique images of  “seascapes”.  Most of all, Chrisi’s paintings celebrate color and honor the simple delights of daily life.

      Chrisi has extensive costume design training from Yale University's Graduate School of Theater Design, Emerson College, the Art Students League, and FIT of New York City. Chrisi has also trained in painting with California contemporary painter Robert Burridge for the last eight years.  She has also taught workshops at the Palm Springs Art Museum and for Young At Art.  In addition, Chris teaches Costume Design Processes and Rendering techniques in Italy, Finland, Japan, Mexico City, and Prague.