Brian Bartlett

Scarborough Fair

2016

Following a BA in Fine Art at Portsmouth, Brian Bartlett was awarded a travel scholarship to the USA, where he gained his Masters Degree at the University of Eastern Illinois. Brian...

Brian Bartlett ‘My work is influenced by my love of painting. In particular Post War British and American Abstraction. I start a piece of work by applying paint at random. Initially ...

Following a BA in Fine Art at Portsmouth, Brian Bartlett was awarded a travel scholarship to the USA, where he gained his Masters Degree at the University of Eastern Illinois. Brian...

This recent body of work is informed by my continuing research into the physical and metaphorical nature of archaeological artefacts and votive objects, allied to the referencing of the symbolic forms and materiality of alchemy. Central to this practical investigation has been the use of ‘gold’, and the qualities that the material, with its obvious chromatic and symbolic values, seems to possess. This has driven both the conceptual and pragmatic concerns within the evolution of this work. Gold is an alluring and complex symbol of many, often conflicting meanings, avarice, greed, wealth but also of purity and celebration, and has been used as the adornment of spiritual and religious iconography as a devotional act for millennia. The titles refer to connections I have made with the forms themselves, often when making a painting a word will emerge which acts as a form of poetic catalyst. ‘Parsival’ or Percivale/Peredur was the knight questing for the holy grail...

Artist's statement: 'My paintings start with an idea, often of an image remembered, it might be a landscape, an interior or a still-life. As I paint, I try to reduce and simplify the...

Following a BA in Fine Art at Portsmouth, Brian Bartlett was awarded a travel scholarship to the USA, where he gained his Masters Degree at the University of Eastern Illinois. Brian...

Signed lower right 'Norden' for Frealon Norden Bibbins (American, 1926-2013) and dated 1976. Additionally signed verso, 'Bibbins'. A substantial 1970's abstract evoking graceful, oceanic forms and comprising fluidly superimposed and adjacent, diaphanous layers of scarlet, rose, lilac, and grass-green against a variegated sunshine-yellow field. This listed California artist, author and musician lived and painted in Alameda and also had a distinguished career with the San Francisco Symphony...

Initialed lower right, 'E.B.S.' for E.B.Stetson (American, 20th century) and painted circa 1965; additionally signed, verso, 'E. B. Stetson'. A substantial, mid-century American Sch...

Signed lower right, 'Charmaine Girelli' (American, 20th/21st century) and painted circa 2015. A very large, American School proto-organic abstract comprising dynamic and fluid trailing forms in primary and secondary colors, contrasted against a speckled and scumbled, aqua and sky-blue background. A substantial and lyrical work by this largely self-taught, Palm Springs woman...

Signed lower left, 'Norden' for Frealon Norden Bibbins (American, 1926-2013) and dated 1976. Inscribed verso, 'Blue Storm', stamped with certification of authenticity and wax seal. A substantial and dynamic work by this California Abstract painter evoking organic floral forms and comprising fluidly superimposed and adjacent, flowing layers of jade, coral and magenta set against an ivory field. This listed California artist, author and musician lived and painted in Alameda and also had a distinguished career with the San Francisco Symphony...

American School, unsigned and painted circa 1975. A vivid and upbeat oil abstract comprising discrete areas of golden-yellow, coral and aqua-turquoise...

Signed lower right, 'B. Lauritzen' for Bruce Lauritzen (American, born 1934) and dated 1970. Framed dimensions: 46.25 x 46.25 x 2 inches A large and dramatic abstract by this notabl...