Diana Buitrago (b. 1986) graduated from the Universidad del Rosario in Bogota, Colombia with a degree in International Relations. A strong desire to follow her passion for painting led her to move to the United States where she earned a four year Certificate in Painting at the Art Student’s League of New York. While attending the ASL, Diana studied with several instructors such as Michael Grimaldi, Dan Thompson and Jon DeMartin who further fueled her interest in academic drawing and painting. Upon Diana’s completion of the ASL program in 2014, she joined the Artistic Anatomy Class led by Michael Grimaldi at Drexel University’s School of Medicine. Diana also enrolled in drawing classes at John DeMartin’s private studio in Port Chester, NY before being accepted into Grand Central Atelier’s Core Program where she completed her fourth year certification in Drawing and Painting in May 2019.

Representation is the primary focus of Diana’s work. Her biggest interest as an artist is to express her thoughts and perceptions of reality by studying Nature. Diana’s major focus is Figure and Portraits from life, Still Life and Landscape painting. She is constantly referencing her work by looking and copying old masters work from the Renaissance to 19th Century Russian and European Art.

She was recently awarded with a Certificate of Excellent Award from the Portrait Society of America for her painting “Portrait of a young dancer” in April 2019. In Spring 2018, Diana was selected to be the recipient of the La Napoule Art Foundation/Grand Central Atelier Residency to paint Plain-air landscapes at the Château de La Napoule from August 6-20. She also won the First GCA Painting Prix in December 2017, awarded to best academic painting based on XIX Century Academy standards, a competition judged by principal instructor Colleen Barry. This painting is part of the permanent collection of Prix Winners at Grand Central Atelier.

For two consecutive years, 2016 and 2017, she was selected to be part of the Summer Hudson River Fellowship, to study Landscape under the tradition of the 19th century Hudson River School of Landscape Painters.
In 2016 she was awarded 1st place Cast Drawing and in 2017 Cast Painting Scholarship and in 2018 Excellence in Figure and $5000 each year towards her tuition at the Grand Central Atelier. In June 2013, she was the recipient of the George A. Rada Memorial Scholarship in the Realism Category at the Art Students League of New York.

Diana lives and works in New York City and Jersey City.

Teaching Part-Time Program(s):

Demos Color Studies (Online Course) Self-Portrait Painting (Online Course) Self-Portrait Drawing: Graphite, Charcoal, White Chalk on Toned Paper (Online Course) Winter: Direct Portrait Painting Spring: Studio Landscape Painting: Prep for Plein Air Summer: Plein Air Painting Summer: Direct Portrait Painting