the artist

Bo Bartlett

Bo Bartlett

Columbus, GA

Bo Bartlett

https://www.bobartlett.com/

Bo Bartlett is an American realist with a modernist vision. His paintings are well within the tradition of American realism as defined by artists such as Thomas Eakins and Andrew Wyeth. Like these artists, Bartlett looks at America’s heart—its land and its people—and describes the beauty he finds in everyday life. His paintings celebrate the underlying epic nature of the commonplace and the personal significance of the extraordinary.

"Bartlett was educated at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where realist principles must be grasped before modernist ventures are encouraged. He pushes the boundaries of the realist tradition with his multilayered imagery. Life, death, passage, memory, and confrontation coexist easily in his world. Family and friends are the cast of characters that appear in his dreamlike narrative works. Although the scenes are set around his childhood home in Georgia or his island summer home in Maine, they represent a deeper, mythical concept of the archetypal, universal home.

– Tom Butler, excerpt from the book Bo Bartlett, Heartland

Fast Facts

Name: Bo Bartlett

Website: www.bobartlett.com/

Place of Birth: Columbus, GA

Education:
Certificate of Fine Art, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (1976 – 1981)
Certificate in Film, New York University

Significant or special training:
Studied privately in Florence with Ben F. Long
Studied privately with Nelson Shanks

Notable or memorable instructors or mentors:
Andrew Wyeth; Nelson Shanks; Ben Kamihira; Robert Beverly Hale; Will Barnett; Morris Blackburn; Ben Long

Particular field of study or class work:
American Realism

Major influences/admired artists:
Picasso; Norman Rockwell; Grant Wood; Thomas Eakins; Winslow Homer; Edward Hopper; Andrew Wyeth

Favorite materials or media:
Oil on linen, Holbein Acryla Gouache on Arches Hot Press paper, Graphite on paper

Gallery Representation (when Convention Center acquired artwork):
PPOW Gallery

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