Don Stone (1929 - 2015)
Born: Council Bluffs, Iowa
After graduating from Gloucester High School and Vesper George School of Art, he was drafted into the Navy where he served as a Gunnery Yeoman on a destroyer. While in the Navy he painted portraits of the ship's officers. His painting of the ship in battle hung in the officer's quarters. After the Navy, he returned to teach at Vesper George and the New England School of Art. In addition, Stone was a successful commercial artist and cartoonist at the Boston Post and the Lowell Sun.
In the early 1950s, he realized that he wanted to be a fine artist. In 1954, he was invited by fellow artist Paul Strisik to go on a painting trip to Monhegan Island, Maine. He fell in love with the island and spent the rest of his life painting this beautiful place and the people who lived there. For 40 years he conducted painting workshops on Monhegan Island. His workshops were enormously popular because of his remarkable knowledge of painting and his unique sense of humor. He considered Monhegan Island his true home.
Don Stone was elected to full membership in the National Academy of Design, American Watercolor Society (Dolphin Fellow), American Society of Marine Artists (Fellow), Salmagundi Club (Honorary Member), and New England Watercolor Society (Lifetime Honorary Member). In addition, he was a member of the Guild of Boston Artists, Allied Artists of America, Hudson Valley Art Association, Rockport Art Association (Lifetime Member), North Shore Art Association and others.
His work is in the following Permanent Collections:
American Art Review Magazine,
Cape Ann Historical Society, Cape Ann, MA
Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Marietta College, Marietta, OH
Mobile Art Museum, Mobile, AL
University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH
Peabody Maritime Museum, Salem, MA
The Canton Art Institute, Canton, OH