About Jessica Bastidas

Areas of Specialty: Jessica Bastidas is adept at illustration and narrative storytelling, including travel-based art as a form of visual journalism. Media specialties include digital illustration (ex. Fundamentals of Photoshop, CoCreate, etc.), oil painting, assemblage (especially sculpture in combination with paintings), mixed media, gouache, watercolor and more.

Jessica Bastidas has studied both directly with master Myron Barnstone as well as with Barnstone’s associate instructor, master Roger Brinker. Bastidas is a seasoned and experienced artist and art instructor: among her academic credits, Bastidas has a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts, a Master of Arts in Teaching, and presently works as an art instructor at McDonogh High School in Baltimore. Bastides works primarily with figurative art and portraiture in a realistic way, and found the Method’s unique approach to foreshortening with a focus on understanding three dimensional shapes as they rotate in space to be very helpful. In addition, she appreciated the distinct use of the Fletcher Color System and how it can inform artists how to approach color and use color compositionally, as well as the Barnstone figure drawing instruction’s emphasis on an understanding of anatomy.

“Studying these foundational skills opens up the relevance of the history of art to our contemporary world. Once you realize how the masters have used these same techniques, there is no longer a disconnect – students can see in the historical works the very same approaches applied and use them directly in their own works today,” says Bastidas. “Picasso did this all the time: once one has mastered the foundational skills, one can decide which rules you want to break, and which ones you want to bend.”

“A strong foundation in the essentials not only links modern artists to the techniques masters in the arts have studied and used for thousands of years: it also provides each artist the ability to realize their own vision, their own mode of making,” says Bastidas. “This training allows students to see success, gauge their own growth over time, and understand that mastering art is a process, with both benchmarks and setbacks. I am here to help students of the arts navigate that path, and realize their own artistic vision.”

Bastidas has traveled extensively, had her artwork featured in numerous exhibitions (domestic and international, both as part of a group and as a solo artist in the exhibit), and has won many awards and recognitions for her work. For additional information about Barnstone Master Guide Jessica Bastidas, please visit Jessica Bastidas Fine Artist/Illustrator and follow the artist on Instagram, @jessbastidasart

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