A Glory of Painting 2009

Bo Bartlett painted A Glory of Painting using oil on canvas, but when, I don't know. The painting’s surface has a really lovely quality - a kind of matte flatness. The paint isn’t pushed around a lot, it's more like a veil than a crust. It’s smooth in a way that makes it feel very composed, almost like an advert. Look at how the dark tone behind the head of the male figure is laid flat against the sky. It's almost like a shadow, but without a source, so it's more of a formal device. The man’s holding a brush, and he’s wearing a painter's apron. It makes me think about the tradition of artists painting themselves, and how the act of painting can be about more than what’s on the surface, it can be about life itself. Bartlett seems to be in conversation with artists like Andrew Wyeth, painters who embrace a certain kind of American vernacular. Ultimately, painting is an embrace of questions.