Articles

Aesthetics

Art History

Demos

Galleries & Exhibitions

Knowledge Vault

Recommendations & Reviews

Tools & Techniques

Leonardo Da Vinci, Leda and the Swan

What Would Leo Do

All Articles

  • Interpreting The Tao ‘The Way’

    Interpreting The Tao ‘The Way’

    Sie Ho’s Six Laws These are guiding universal principles of creative guidance.  The straight interpretation from the Chinese doesn’t quite get us to a point of understanding without some additional explanation. 1st. Consonance of spirit engenders the movement (of life) 2nd. The law of bones by means of the brush 3rd. Form represented through conformity

    Continue reading…

  • Training In The Renaissance Workshop

    Training In The Renaissance Workshop

    Training of the ‘Garzoni’ or apprentices in the Renaissance Masters workshop was far different then one imagines.  The length of the apprenticeship varied and the what they were apprenticing to be also differed.  Not everyone apprenticed to be and artist, many were trained to be ‘artisans’. The apprentices were expected to learn to draw and paint in

    Continue reading…

  • Colour Control the Harmonic Palette

    Colour Control the Harmonic Palette

    Frank Morley Fletcher’s ‘Palette Control’ is based on musical metrics of major keys and minor keys 5-3-4 and 4-3-5. https://www.barnstonestudios.com/blog/oil-painting-and-palette-control-newsletter-from-1979/

    Continue reading…

  • Recommended Reading

    Recommended Reading

    Colour The Elements of Color: A Treatise on the Color System of Johannes Itten Based on His Book the Art of Color The Principles of Harmony and Contrast of Colors and Their Applications to the Arts The Art of Color and Design Design & Composition The Elements of Dynamic Symmetry – Jay Hambridge The Painter’s

    Continue reading…

  • Chaos and Classicism

    Chaos and Classicism

    https://www.guggenheim.org/arts-curriculum/resource-unit/chaos-and-classicism

    Continue reading…

  • Keeping It Real

    Keeping It Real

    Realism as an art movement had nothing to do with the point-and-shoot realism that is being put forth from the late 20th century Realist Movement.  The realism of revolutionary France was more about the people that the art. The major painters of Realism in its original form were: Gustave Courbet, Jean-François Millet, Honoré Daumier, and Jean-Baptiste-Camille

    Continue reading…

  • A Lot of Influence on Classical Art Traditions

    A Lot of Influence on Classical Art Traditions

    André Lhote André Lhote  was a major ‘keeper of the keys’ for the classic point of view, his book ‘A Treatise on Landscape Painting’ is an excellent informative read. He was born on July 5, 1885 in Bordeaux, where he learned wood carving at a furniture maker’s studio at the age of thirteen. A little later

    Continue reading…

  • Myron Barnstone on Visual Literacy

    Myron Barnstone on Visual Literacy

    Myron Barnstone taught an apprenticeship type art school, known as ‘The Barnstone Studios’ in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley for over thirty-five years.  The core of his teaching revolved around the comprehension and creation of imagery or visual literacy.  Understanding visual literacy starts when you realize that no artist draws what they see, they interpret what they see into visual elements.

    Continue reading…

  • The Holy Grail of Art Education

    The Holy Grail of Art Education

    ‘Visual Literacy’ as a term or concept is not grasped my enough people in the educational arena. Art class unfortunately is viewed as a very narrow field of study and in many cases not even worthy of being part of a curriculum at all. It should, however, be viewed and an essential part of every

    Continue reading…

  • Righting the Vessel of Tradition

    Righting the Vessel of Tradition

    What Would Leo Do? 506. Painting The mind of the painter must resemble a mirror, which always takes the colour of the object it reflects and is completely occupied by the images of as many objects as are in front of it. Therefore you must know, Oh Painter! that you cannot be a good one

    Continue reading…