The Art of Color
Introducing Our Newest On-Demand Class
William Glackens. Race Track (detail), 1908–9. The Barnes Foundation, BF138. Public Domain.
$100; members $90
(3 modules)
About the Class
Discover how artists speak through color.
Color is one of the most powerful and expressive parts of an artist’s vocabulary. It is also a core element of the Barnes Method, our unique approach to engaging with art. In this new on-demand course, you’ll explore how artists use color to shape meaning, emotion, and structure—learning to see not just what a painting depicts but also how it’s constructed.
Drawing on works from the Barnes collection, The Art of Color introduces you to the fundamentals of hue, saturation, and value and shows how painters across time have used color to create harmony, tension, and mood. You’ll develop a more attentive eye and a deeper, more intuitive understanding of what’s happening on the canvas.
About the Experience
- Learn at your own pace. Access course modules anytime, anywhere. Watch and rewatch as many times as you like.
- Engage through short, focused lessons. Each video distills key ideas into clear, engaging lessons.
- See every detail. The Barnes’s deep-zoom Visual Experience Platform (VXP) lets you explore paintings at an extraordinary level of precision.
- Practice the Barnes Method. Interactive prompts encourage you to pause, observe, and apply what you’re learning directly to the art you’re seeing.
Watch this brief introduction to the course and read more below.
Modules
Module 1
The Basics of Color (4 videos, 55 minutes total)
Understand how we perceive color and explore its three fundamental properties: hue, saturation, and value.
Module 2
The Qualities of Color (4 videos, 64 minutes total)
Examine how color behaves in paintings and how artists combine and contrast tones to shape visual impact.
Module 3
The Effects of Color (4 videos, 73 minutes total)
Discover how artists use color to suggest depth, light, space, and emotion—turning pigment into feeling.
Instructor
William Perthes
Perthes is the Bernard C. Watson Director of Adult Education at the Barnes. He has taught courses at the Barnes as well as the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and West Chester and Villanova Universities. His scholarship focuses on American modernism and the abstract expressionist painter Robert Motherwell.
The Barnes Method
Barnes Method courses follow the teachings of Albert Barnes and Violette de Mazia. Classes focus on rigorous formal analysis and direct visual engagement with works of art. In this method, close looking at art helps build critical-thinking skills that can be carried beyond the gallery walls.
Go Further
In Focus: Henri Rousseau
Study Rousseau’s enigmatic paintings using our state-of-the-art interactive platform. Zoom in on his strange imagery, and discover why Rousseau continues to captivate.
Close-Looking Immersion: Rousseau’s Scouts Attacked by a Tiger
Spend an hour exploring this magnificently theatrical jungle scene. Instructor: Kaelin Jewell
The Traditions of Art
Trace art’s evolution from ancient to modern times while immersed in the Barnes collection galleries. Instructor: Kaelin Jewell