A Place by the Ocean 2002

Bo Bartlett made this painting of a woman in a place by the ocean using oils, and look at the way he builds up the layers! You can see it's about a process of looking and seeing, and then slowly revealing the scene. The painting has this beautiful, almost hazy texture. The sunlight seems to be caught in the layers of paint, kind of like dust motes dancing in the air. See the way he's handled the quilt at the bottom of the bed? Each patch is almost like a little painting in itself, full of texture and subtle color changes. And then there's the woman, bathed in this soft light. The light glints off her skin, see where it catches her shoulder and the curve of her back? It’s interesting to think about how this painting recalls earlier American realist painters like Edward Hopper, but it also has this very contemporary, intimate feel. It’s as if Bartlett is reminding us that art is never just about the subject, but about how we see and experience the world around us.