Geometric Abstraction: The Art of Stylizing, Abstracting, and Composing Imagery
David Sommers
- Live class
- All levels
- Up to 25 students
Dates: October 10th & 24th Time: 6:00 - 8:00 PM EST Cost: $225
Geometric Abstraction — The Art of Stylizing, Abstracting, and Composing Imagery
Inviting all artists who have dreamt of following in the footsteps of their favorite artists of the last few centuries, and yet want to keep their work original and in their own style. Unlock the design secrets of painters like Cezanne, Picasso, and Mondrian with this two-session course titled Geometric Abstraction — Stylizing, Abstracting, and Composing imagery. This class will offer a brief introduction to the golden section followed by a focus on the rhythmic structures that past painters have employed in sketching out their ideas into paintings. As a result, we will examine ways to bring a more dynamic energy to our own designs before we start new paintings or redesign previous works. Dave Sommers, the workshop leader, will offer examples of his own work and demonstrate how he abstracted them to varying degrees. Some of his more traditional landscapes will also reveal how these design systems can still be employed in more representational art work.
Class participants will be invited to bring images ready for the first session along with tracing paper. Then, we will examine how to simplify your design with a limited range of linear directions. Homework will follow in which you will finish your designs of a current or past work and upload a photo of it for a group critique and brainstorming session. By the end of session 2, we will create and refine a new rhythmic design that follows a long-standing tradition of simplifying directions and locating objects on key divisions in the rectangle of our choosing. Join us and uncover the seeming magic of great design that painters of yore employed, and implement those secrets in your own art work!
$500 And Under Gallery
About David
David Sommers is a multidisciplinary fine artist based in the Lehigh Valley, PA. With 30 years of experience, he synthesizes past art traditions with a modern, multidimensional viewpoint. His work reflects a Cubist-Realist style of geometric shapes, organized on diagrammatic intersections that fracture color, space, and shape. His work is on display in private collections and at three Penn State Hospitals, including a large mural at Penn State Health Hampden Medical Center.
For 10 years Dave has been a resident artist at the Banana Factory Gallery in Bethlehem, PA, and is a high school teacher. Dave has also has presented at various churches locally and in Latin America on the role of visual art in theological education and preaching.
The artist matrix: your personal art style profile
Roger Brinker
- Art History
- Live class
- All levels
- Up to 25 students
Dates: July 12th & 26th Times: 6:00 PM - 8:30 PM EST
What’s Your Personal Art Style Profile?
Join us for this upcoming adventure in artistic self-discovery! Discover and develop your own, unique artistic style using an innovative tool created by Senior Instructor Roger Brinker to complement the Barnstone Method program. The Artist Matrix is designed to identify your individual artistic preferences, direction and desires by how you respond to a series of design attributes that are present in any work of art.
Using the art style personality profile tool, you will:
- Deconstruct artwork and style attributes
- Be guided as you begin your research into both historic and modern art styles
- Discover how to expand your originality and bring previously unforeseen influences into your work
- Understand how your unique artistic preference choices can be combined into your own unique style
- Learn how to use this style tool regularly to adapt your creative work to new influences and technical approaches
Understanding and developing your personal artistic style is an exciting, incredibly rewarding lifelong adventure, combining intellectual study, exploration and discovery. Join us and learn to chart your personal path to your unique artistic style!
$500 And Under Gallery
What students say about The Artist Matrix
While I was already familiar with Roger Brinker’s Artist Matrix from past classes, I still found it incredibly valuable to do it again. It’s a great way to learn how your taste and/or style matures over the years. I always discover a couple of artists I didn’t know about.
In addition, it re-inspired me to experiment more and try new things. It can help an experienced artist out of a rut, or help a new artist find their style. I’d highly recommend trying the Artist Matrix regardless of your skill level. There’s always more to learn.
~ Livia Schuman
The Barnstone Method Intensive: Foundation in Drawing & Design
Roger Brinker
- Drawing
- Live class
- All levels
- Up to 25 students
Enrollment for the 2025 summer session is now open! Ten weeks of classes will begin Wednesday, June 11, 2025 through Wednesday, August 13, 2025
Sign up early & Save! Regular price $1500 - pay in full by December 31, 2024 and save $500!
You will also receive a code to download all 10 lessons (at no additional cost) that are a part of Myron’s lecture set: Foundation in Drawing & Design. This will allow you to get a head start on the class and work through all of the materials once before the live lecture begins in June, 2025. Myron’s class recordings as well as the Roger’s live class recordings will be yours to keep forever!
What you’ll learn
The Barnstone Method Intensive: Foundation in Drawing & Design
The Barnstone Method Intensive: Foundation in Drawing & Design course begins with the selection of a modest cast of characters to serve as the subject matter for your study. Beginning with a family of three bottles, students learn how to assess the particular proportions and shape characteristics of their subjects. Like observing the proportional differences between people, the careful examination of bottles reveals a subtle anatomy of simple geometric shapes that creates the unity and variety for a harmonic structure animating the entire composition.
$500 And Under Gallery
About Roger
Nurturing and building his student’s unique artistic voice from a strong mastery of the skills and techniques that are Western art’s legacy is Roger Brinker’s specialty.
In fact, Brinker invented a new research concept modeled on the idea of an artistic genealogy: by tracing his own teachers’ artistic roots, he was able to chart a lineage that links his students and himself in a line that extends to the very beginnings of Western art. Brinker’s students can see how their training emanates in a direct line to artists such as Edgar Degas, Raphael, and Leonardo da Vinci. A graduate of Temple University’s Tyler School of Art, Brinker was associate and instructor in classical drawing and design at the Barnstone Studios, contributing as education advisor, writing design course workbooks, and developing the curriculum for the Foundation Drawing and Design program now offered virtually.
What students say about Roger
I have really enjoyed working with Roger Brinker as my tutor. He is extremely knowledgeable, and is happy to take time to explain concepts in depth: his patient, engaging teaching approach makes you feel how invested he is in your progress as an artist. Roger Brinker has given me confidence to continue my art education further, and I would highly recommend him as a tutor to any art student.
~Harriet Pearson
I was very fortunate to meet and be taught by Roger Brinker. He brings to each student unique teaching skills, including the ability to distill a complicated topic and explain it in terms that are easy to understand and are readily implementable, as well as his ability to integrate the formal elements of drawing with the “how to” in a medium of your choice. Roger’s teaching of the Barnstone method has compressed my learning curve, allowing me to dissect solid forms with the accuracy needed to provide a viewer with a convincing representation of my story through a pictorial image.
I am early in my art education, and began four years ago with in-person atelier classical art painting. I felt handicapped by my limitations in drawing and design. It is for that reason that I sought and found Roger Brinker, a master guide with the Barnstone Studios.
I was very fortunate to meet and be taught by Roger Brinker. He brings to each student unique teaching skills, including the ability to distill a complicated topic and explain it in terms that are easy to understand and are readily implementable, as well as his ability to integrate the formal elements of drawing with the “how to” in a medium of your choice. Roger’s teaching of the Barnstone method has compressed my learning curve, allowing me to dissect solid forms with the accuracy needed to provide a viewer with a convincing representation of my story through a pictorial image.
I am early in my art education, and began four years ago with in-person atelier classical art painting. I felt handicapped by my limitations in drawing and design. It is for that reason that I sought and found Roger Brinker, a master guide with the Barnstone Studios.
Roger has provided me with the unlimited freedom of observing a subject, determining its proportional measurements, and has taught me methods to creatively distort the subject. For the first time, my drawings are my creation. Roger has opened a new world for me by providing me with the tools to truncate solid forms, take a flat surface and accurately create the illusion of deep space, traveling into the spatial depth of the third dimension.
For those wanting to enhance their artistic abilities, Roger is an exceptional teacher who can write about it, talk about it, and do it. I highly recommend Roger and the Barnstone Method.
For those wanting to enhance their artistic abilities, Roger is an exceptional teacher who can write about it, talk about it, and do it. I highly recommend Roger and the Barnstone Method.
~Richard McCall
As the newly-appointed Director of the visual arts department, I wanted to find a high-caliber draftsperson to help build the new program of study with me: I knew instantly that Roger Brinker would be the perfect person to help build this program. Recommended by my own teacher and mentor, master artist Myron Barnstone, Roger is a master of the human figure and studied sculpture in Rome. In addition to his artistic mastery, Roger is also a natural artistic mentor for his students. His expertise and mentorship has shaped the artistry and lives of countless visual arts alumni.
Over the years Roger has successfully taught many visual arts courses, including 2D Design Foundation, Analytical Drawing, Anatomy and the Figure, Oil Painting and Palette Control, 3D Design and Sculpture, Contracted Studio and Exhibition, and Art History.
Today, I have had the honor and pleasure of working with Roger Brinker in visual arts education for sixteen years. I believe anyone who has the opportunity to study art with Roger is very fortunate, and will certainly learn more than they knew was possible.
~Lorie Reinhard
Oftentimes in contemporary art education, foundational skills and processes are positioned in conflict to free-expression. The truth of the matter is that it is only with the understanding of foundational principles that you will have the true freedom to choose your unique expression because you will no longer be confined by the limitations of your technical skills.
Roger Brinker will teach you to love the challenges of drawing, anatomy, and composition. Being an artist requires discipline, intrinsic motivation, honest assessment and authenticity. Through vision journals, time logs, artist matrixes, thumbnails, proportionate studies, value schemes, mid-point evaluations and revisions, Brinker helps his students to form and sustain their own unique artistic practices. You will set goals, establish personal benchmarks, have successes, work through failures and grow as an artist.
Roger is humble, kind, and infinitely patient. As someone who loves stories, Roger is an instructor who can easily talk for hours about the underlying geometry of a fresco or intricacies of foreshortening. It is easy to get swept up in his stories because his passion for history is contagious. He enlivens the art of the past so that you can make stylistic, thematic, and material connections with your contemporary art practice. He will teach you that we are constantly influenced by the reverberations of what has been made already. Analyzing and understanding this matrix of influences will illuminate what you value in our own work and give you a better understanding of the context for what you are making now.
The ability to critique is a skill built over time, and there is no one better to learn it from than Roger. As a teacher, Roger is direct. With a few swift strokes of his pencil, this adept draftsman can correct inaccurate anatomy or an imbalanced composition with almost annoying speed. He does it with a slight smile and steadfast encouragement. You will be pushed intellectually and artistically. You will have to be brave and ambitious, and you will learn not to hesitate to make changes, even dramatically so.
One of the most important aspects of maintaining an active art practice is community. There is so much value in surrounding yourself with people that are motivated, passionate, intelligent and encouraging. You want Roger as part of that community.
Your artistic future will be built upon the contributions of each individual in your artistic community. In fact, my own decision to mentor and teach art to students at both high school and college levels was strongly influenced by my admiration for my own instructor, Roger Brinker, and many of the pillars of my own teaching practice are built upon systems I learned in the years I studied with him.
Roger instilled in me a lifelong appreciation for learning and creating. He models for his students the importance of ritual, the daily practice of creating, and the value of the artistic process. He is a superb asset in any artist’s continuing education, and I recommend him highly.
~Jessica Bastidas
Learning any new skill can be difficult and intimidating. Having a teacher who’s knowledgeable and gives you clear, easy-to-understand direction makes a huge difference to your learning experience. I promise you, Roger Brinker is that teacher – he breaks down complicated concepts into clear core components, is eager to answer your questions and gives honest, constructive feedback.
Roger had a major impact on my work. He gave me the confidence to create the kind of artwork I’m producing today and helped push my work to new heights. Roger taught me Drawing I, Drawing II and Figure Drawing. He covered concepts like composition, arrangement, value studies, line weight, anatomy, perspective and more.
Roger’s approach to teaching has provided me with a strong tool kit to pull from that I still reference to this day as a working artist. I highly recommend Roger as an arts instructor: he has a keen eye for aesthetics, is a master in the Barnstone Method, and will give you the confidence you seek to discover, refine and grow your own unique style.
~Arta Cabrera