Dreamland 1998

Bo Bartlett painted this, Dreamland, likely in oil, with the kind of clarity you only get from a slow, thoughtful process. The colors are muted, the light even, almost like a faded photograph, and everything has this feeling of a memory. What gets me are the surfaces. The smooth skin of the faces, the soft fur on the coat, the rough weave of the sweater – all rendered with so much care. Look at how the light catches the folds in the wedding dress, the fabric seems almost touchable, doesn’t it? And then there’s that first figure, the way the red and white stripes of his trousers vibrate against the brown of his jumper. A weird detail, but it holds the whole painting together, like a visual chord. You might see some resemblance with the clear rendering of Lucien Freud. Just as he did, Bartlett reminds us that painting is an ongoing conversation across time, about how we see, and more importantly, how we feel.