Isthmus 2019

Bo Bartlett made this painting, Isthmus, and I’m immediately drawn to the tight handling of the paint – it looks almost airbrushed. It's so controlled and meticulous. The cow is this warm, fleshy colour, reflected in the still water. The texture is smooth, almost porcelain-like, which makes it feel a little unreal, like a dream. Look at the way the light catches the curve of the cow's back, so carefully observed, and yet the scene itself is so improbable. What’s a cow doing on a sandbar? It reminds me of the surrealism of Magritte, this feeling of the uncanny made all the more strange by the hyper-realism of the painting. It’s like Bartlett is saying, “Here’s a cow, and here’s a dream, and maybe they're not so different after all.” Art is an ongoing conversation, isn't it?