n "real life" Bart has been a nonprofit CEO, a business consultant, and a practicing Family Therapist with work experience in many fields.
He originally trained as an anthropologist and studied a wide range of human artistic expression from art to architecture, from the Paleolithic era to the modern, spanning diverse cultures across the inhabited continents.
Sketching since childhood, Bart is self-trained in many graphic media, including photography, videography, digital graphics, and more. His background in psychology includes training in visual perception.
Growing up in a family with artists and master craftsmen was a bit intimidating. Bart did not begin to paint seriously until his 30s, having pursued photography as his main art form instead. But once he found his way with the brush, he never looked back.
Sumi-e painting was his first foray, then he took up acrylics for many years. He works in several dry and water-based media: acrylics, watercolor, gouache, Ceracolors (water based cold wax), pastel, pencil and pen, sometimes mixing them.
Stylistically his inspirations are the Impressionist and Expressionist movements and graphic illustration and woodblock prints (ancient and modern). His style is modeled on those forms of expressive realism, not photo-realism nor abstraction. Painting colleagues have named it "Chaotic Realism!" Subjects range from portraiture and still life to landscapes, with a decided preference for the latter. Bart paints both from imagination and real life. See if you can tell the difference.
Organizing Burlingame Plein Air Painters gets him out to paint more often in beautiful surroundings with great company.
If these paintings stimulate or inspire you, then that is so much the better!
