~ The 2025 Fall Seminar at Torri Superiore Italy ~
THIS WILL BE OUR ONLY SEMINAR IN 2025!
Due to the increasingly hot summer weather, there will be no Summer Seminar.
Come spend Three Weeks with us in a 14th century Alpine Village
Origin & Oneness
~ A Painting Journey to the Source of Creation ~
With Jonathan Solter & Daniel Mirante
Saturday September 6th ~ Sunday September 28th 2025
Share your Vision with a group of Kindred Spirits
And enjoy Communal Living in our friendly Eco-village
Origin & Oneness
A Painting Journey to the Source of Creation
with Jonathan Solter & Daniel Mirante
~ NOW IN ITS 15TH YEAR, THE SEMINAR OFFERS 3 WEEKS OF INTENSIVE TEACHING ~
Under the expert guidance of experienced artists, you'll develop Two Original Works
...With JONATHAN SOLTER, you'll learn flow methods with Liquid Acrylics
...With DANIEL MIRANTE, you'll learn the mystery & alchemy of the Mischtechnik
Tuition for the course includes 3 Weeks of Full Accommodation
in cosy apartments with 3 full meals per day.
TORRI SUPERIORE
...is a labyrinthine village of spiralling stairs & narrow passages, built from the local limestone in 1300.
In this cosy & creative atmosphere, the inhabitants live in harmony with Nature,
practicing Permaculture & Sustainable Living.
We will become part of village life ~ sharing in communal meals prepared by the local chef
from fresh and mostly organic ingredients grown in the surrounding fields…
Each Student brings their own unique talent to the Seminar
~ Yoga, Chanting, Live Music ~
to enhance the group experience
Visionary Portrait
with Jonathan Solter
Jonathan Solter will guide you through his unique process of creating a Visionary Portrait which looks beyond the surface of the human body and into the energetic patterns that connect us all.
To begin, we’ll try out various Flow Methods in liquid acrylics. You’ll create a series of small studies to explore the shapes within the human face ~ accentuating their energetic patterns and seeking out their symbolic forms.
To guide you through the technical foundations of acrylic painting, Jonathan will impart his cohesive artistic language of colour, light, and metaphysical form. Through his years of experience as a live painter, he will also transmit quick and effective methods for opening portals to the visionary world.
In a more structured manner, lectures and demonstrations will illustrate his unique approaches to creating organic forms and vibrating colours.
This class is designed for artists who seek to expand their vision beyond traditional figures and portraiture. While many art courses focus on anatomical accuracy, we'll encourage students to explore symbols and patterns while integrating them into the depiction of the human body.
All levels of experience are welcome.
Journey to the Source of Creation
with Daniel Mirante
“Originality consists of returning to the origin.”
- Antoni Gaudí
Over the course of three weeks, Daniel Mirante will guide you in the creation of a layered painting, alternating between oil glazes and a fast-drying egg tempera in the Mischtechnik.
Through daily demonstrations and one-on-one support, you’ll develop an image from its abstract beginnings to a detailed composition that reflects your own connection to Oneness and the Return to our Origins.
During this group journey to the Source of Creation, we’ll move between spontaneity and structure, engaging in a playful dance between order and chaos to bring our inner worlds into focus.
At first, we’ll enter the painting in a visceral and embodied way - moving the paint through decalcomania, mana prima, and the application of natural pigments onto the canvas. Then, in a more focussed manner, we'll advance the composition through a layered underpainting and the Soffio Technique, a spraying method which generates mood and depth.
Through a balance of intuitive creativity and time-honoured craftsmanship, we’ll empower ourselves to express our own unique vision.
All levels of experience are welcome.
~THE TECHNIQUES ~
~ Flow Methods in Liquid Acrylics ~
Acrylic Flow is about letting go and working with the brush movements that come through you. The evolution of the composition is a gradual process - of seeing the forms and working with them. Moving from general to specific, you'll explore the play of shapes, pushing and pulling the lights and darks to arrive at a cohesive composition.
~ The Mischtechnik ~
Within a friendly and focussed environment, Daniel will share his creative process through contemplation & study, spontaneous play & creative world building.
Participants will dive into an intensive, hands-on exploration of the Mischtechnik—a “mixed technique” that layers oil colours with a white egg tempera or casein. To demonstrate, Daniel will work on a new composition while explaining the various stages of his painting process.
You’ll learn to maximize the painting’s opalescence by working in translucent layers. After a dark red foundation applied with energy and dynamism (decalcomania, mana prima), you’ll begin rendering the forms in white through the use of egg tempera and casein.
Step by step, you’ll create red, yellow and blue layers - accentuating their warm and cold aspects to create greater depth and dimension. At the same time, the application of sprayed paint through a vaporizer (the Soffio technique) will soften the shapes and create a visual haze to excite new ideas through visionary seeing.
This transformative workshop explores the intersection of Art, Spirituality, and Inner World-building. Join us for a journey of self-discovery and creative expression, guided by Daniel Mirante's expertise and the ancient wisdom embodied in the very materials you use.
We accept students at all levels of experience
from beginners to advanced.
For artists accustomed to acrylics, the transition to oil & tempera
is a rich & rewarding experience, allowing for new explorations in oil’s unique opalescent effects.
JONATHAN SOLTER
~ Biography & Works ~
Jonathan Solter is an artist living and working in the Bay Area.
Growing up in the redwood forests of Northern California, he started making art at an early age with the loving support of his family. This began with mazes and labyrinths, leading to the creation of new worlds from both his imagination and the natural environment; and turning more towards Psychedelic art after high school. He then studied a variety of techniques at The California College of Arts, in both the Oakland and San Francisco campuses, before graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Illustration in 2011.
His career in art began with freelance illustration work and the creation of murals in the Bay Area, parallel with teaching mural painting for a non-profit called ArtStart in Santa Rosa, Ca. Soon after, Jonathan Solter became a performance artist in the Bay Area, doing Live Painting and working full time in nightclubs. This quickly transitioned into music festivals around the world, bringing his unique brand of art and Live Painting to thousands of festival-goers and art enthusiasts. In 2014, the artist became involved with the Phaneros Art Collective, now a mobile art gallery that focuses on bringing Psychedelic art to the world.
He joined the faculty of The Vienna Academy of Visionary Art in 2017, teaching the Winter Trimester and guiding the students through their Architecture of the Soul paintings which were exhibited at their popular year-end show.
In collaboration with other artists from around the country, Jonathan Solter has been painting large-scale murals at festivals and events for the last three years. Today, Jonathan Solter’s artwork specializes in unique psychedelic forms such as higher dimensional travel, ancient civilizations and animism. His surreal scenes, beautifully-depicted in glowing colors, hold resonance with psychonauts and transcendental meditators alike.
Website: https://jsolter.com
Instagram: @jonathan_solter
Facebook: TheArtofJonathanSolter
DANIEL MIRANTE
~ Biography & Works ~
“Ever since I can remember, I was maybe a little more absorbed in that area we call ‘imagination’ or ‘daydream’ than many people around me. It remains one of the most memorable and precious things for me to meet people who are also
deeply keyed into their inner world.”
As an artist, teacher and researcher, Daniel Mirante explores both traditional approaches to painting and the emerging technology within our contemporary zeitgeist.
He brings both creative intuition and technical skill to his teaching, having led many seminars and workshops around the world for the last ten years. As a PhD researcher in Immersive Art (University of East London), he is passionate about advocating cognitive diversity. And, as a painter, he is deeply engaged in reviving shamanistic approaches to art and storytelling. His energetic teaching style and profound knowledge make him a guide well-suited to the student’s exploration of art as a means of personal and spiritual growth.
Daniel believes the circle is complete when experience is transmitted to the next generation. He has led painting seminars in such diverse places as England (Tobias School for Art Therapy), India (Visionary Art India) and Australia (Art Pilgrim workshops). Daniel is also a founding faculty member of The Vienna Academy of Visionary Art, where he taught every year, while also leading three previous Seminars at Torri Superiore (in 2016, 2019 and 2023).
Daniel Mirante brings to the Academy a diverse and exploratory range of painterly approaches and a supportive approach to the creative process.
~ TORRI SUPERIORE ~
A MEDIEVAL ECO-VILLAGE
Torri Superiore is a labyrinthine village of spiralling stairs & narrow passages,
built from the local limestone in 1300.
In this cosy & creative atmosphere, the inhabitants live in harmony with Nature,
practicing Permaculture & Sustainable Living.
We will become part of village life ~ sharing in communal meals prepared by the local chef
from fresh and mostly organic ingredients grown in the surrounding fields…
Each Student brings their own unique talent to the Seminar
~ Yoga, Chanting, Live Music ~
to enhance the group experience
REMEMBER TO CHECK OUT THESE MENU ITEMS
The Academy of Visionary Art is run by The Visionary Guild,
a non-profit Association registered in France under the number RNA W751191486