National Guard March, Portland, Maine 1940

I was born in Portland, Maine in 1933. My earliest childhood memory is setting fire to a field with a magnifying glass when I was about 6 years old. I really thought the thing was going to race through the whole neighborhood, but I managed to stomp it out before anything terribly tragic happened. Still, […]

The Barnstone Studios were mentioned in Robin Longman’s editorial essay, “A Serious Look at Art Education”, in the July, 1985 issue of The American Artist magazine. It is gratifying to have one’s views considered along with those of nationally important educators who are associated with undertakings such as The Getty Center for Education in the Arts and the Metropolitan Museum of […]

This article is for the video students who are participating in the Barnstone Studios drawing exercises. Some of the bottles can be hard to find, especially the small Perrier bottle which set the standard for small bottles. It’s design…its internal geometry…all of the other bottles stood in awe of it’s elegance. But alas, the Perrier bottle is so elusive, that it […]

The master painters are an excellent source of inspiration and technique. One of the most important techniques we can learn from them is called Figure-Ground Relationship (a gestalt psychology principle). This is a technique that can help clearly define the subject by use of contrast. It’s also known for creating illusions, but for today we’ll just focus on some great examples containing a light […]

Today we are going to take a look at this excellent painting called “The Wave” by William-Adolphe Bouguereau. We’ll see how he uses the root 5 grid to inspire the model’s pose which is full of rhythm. Just by looking at the painting we can “feel” that something masterful is going on in the background. What is it though? Why does it appeal to us […]