Bo Bartlett "Paintings of Home"

Bo Bartlett, an American realist graduated from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and has a certificate in film from NYU. He has had many one person exhibitions and has had retrospectives at the Columbus Museum in Georgia in 2003 which traveled to the Greenville County Museum of Art in South Carolina, the Frye Art Museum in Seattle, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in California and Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Pennsylvania. 

Everything about Bo Bartlett’s paintings reminds me of Edward Hopper. The landscapes, the architecture and the people he paints definitely remind me of Hopper’s work. In this exhibition, he depicts scenes from his childhood home in Columbus, Georgia, where he has recently made a studio and seasonal home.He has been working on these series of personal and universal paintings for the past few years. He breaks it down that home is not just a specific place or a house or a yard but its rather a town, region and state of mind. In his painting’s he conveys history, both enclosed and re-imagined, some are portraits of notable residents of the artist’s hometown and some include objects from his past. His work depicts the beauty of everyday life.

The reason I find Bo Bartlett interesting is because he is a personal artist and his art reflects is own life. He paints what he knows best and to me that makes the paintings a lot more valuable and obviously more meaningful. For example he has a dual portrait of his aged parents, also the largest work, entitle “Home” which shows Bartlett’s life condensed in time through a scene played out in his childhood home’s back yard. I like when art is meaningful and Bartlett’s focus in his art is to be meaningful. He tells a narrative description of his life but also keeps it open to the public, allowing it to become universal from personal.

His most current solo exhibition is called “Paintings of Home” is taking place at P.P.O.W gallery at 511 W 25^th Street at 10^th Avenue, New York, NY from October 14^th – November 13^th 2010. 

Storm Tharp "Ashby Lee Collinson"

Storm Tharp is an artist who was born in 1970 in Ontario Oregon, and lives and works in Portland, Oregon. His work consists of very unique portraits. I found this artist to very interesting in which the technique he uses to create his art and how well he succeeds at it. The way in which he does this, is that he draws his characters by first drawing contours on the page with water. Before the water dries, he adds drops of ink, which expand into various forms and shapes. This process is repeated in various instances to build forms and light sources, which is clearly shown. After the ink is dry, Tharp manipulated the form in a variety of ways such as drawing and erasing. According to the Whitney, “Tharp takes his inspiration form a wide-ranging sew of influences including 1970’s American cinema and Japanese portrait prints.” In addition his character’s have names, histories, and narratives but they suggest multiple interpretations.

    

Tharp has also exhibited at the Portland Art Museum and the Belleview Art Museum,
Belleview, WA and was included in the 2010 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY. His work is in several public and private collections. He received a BFA in Painting at Washington University in St. Louis.

His most up-coming exhibition “Ashby Lee Collinson” will be help at the Nicole Klagsbrun gallery located at 526 West 26^th Street No. 213, New York, NY from October 29^th to December 31^st 2010.