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Ad Code: 4
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An example of work by Scott Eliot Bartner
Artwork images are copyright of the artist or assignee
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This biography from the Archives of AskART:
| The following, submitted October 2005, is from the artist.
Scott E. Bartner is best known for his portrait work. He was born
in Washington, D.C. in 1960 and grew up in the suburbs of Bethesda,
Maryland. Despite growing up in an artistic household, Scott
never gave the slightest indication of the direction his career would
eventually take. In fact, it wasn’t until his sophomore year at
Rutgers College, where he was studying economics, that he received his
first exposure to art history in a course taken more on a whim than
with any real intention of studying the subject seriously.
Because of the nature of the courses (two automatic slide projectors
were often used in rapid succession), he began to make quick sketches
in a notebook of the images appearing on the screen, simply to remember
which painting the professor was referring
to.
After college Bartner went directly to business school, earned his
Master’s degree, and soon found himself working as a financial analyst
in a large bank. To him, the work was dull, the environment
oppressive, and in this setting he started to draw. His father,
then Chief of the Medical Illustration Department at the National
Institutes of Health, showed him the basics of drawing and form.
Bartner married a Dutch woman in 1987 and together they decided that,
if he could find employment in the Netherlands, they would move
abroad. He stayed in his wife’s native South Limburg during the
rainy autumn months, beginning his first portraits using pastels to
fill the time. Failing to find work, he returned to Bethesda in
1988 where he resumed his career in finance, this time with a real
estate investment trust. During this period, he began his first
copies of Old Master drawings, drew from models at a local college and
received his first lessons in oil painting from an artist and colleague
of his father, Al Loang. Bartner later took drawing and painting
classes at The American University and was encouraged by his teacher,
Ruth Stroik, to continue his studies. A turning point in his
artistic development was a three-week trip to Tuscany with fellow art
students, where the works of Andrea Del Sarto, Giorgione, Titian and
Caravaggio made a lasting impression.
At some indefinable moment Bartner's art became his real work, and he
would cringe when hearing it referred to as a “hobby.” After
meeting and showing his work to the noted Washington artist and teacher
Frank Wright, he was advised to study with Danni Dawson, a prize
student of Nelson Shanks. Danni set up a rigorous schedule for
him in-and outside the classroom, which included making color studies,
painting self-portraits and still lifes, and copying a large portrait
by John Singer Sargent.
Bartner was hired by the U.S. Treasury Department in 1989. This
was to be his last financial position in America. He spent his
lunch breaks in the nearby National Gallery of Art, studying the old
masters. In 1991, his wife was offered a position in the
Netherlands, and Bartner finally saw his dream of living abroad come
true. He found employment with a pharmaceutical company and
studied in the evenings with the Dutch artist Maarten Welbergen in
Amsterdam. From Maarten he learned a traditional painting
technique that suited his nature and way of working .
When his contract ended, Scott decided to put an end to his business
career and to paint full time. In 1993 he moved to
Maastricht, where he established himself as a professional portrait
painter. Since then he has received numerous portrait commissions
throughout Europe and the United States. Scott currently resides
in Maastricht with his second wife Marianne and daughter
Eva.
Notable portrait commissions include the violinist Janine Jansen, the
pianist Hélène Grimaud, The Bishop of Roermond Monsignor Wiertz, Mr. F.
Barge and Mrs. C. Dreesmann-Barge, Mrs. A. van
Beuningen-Ferrier, Mr Z.F. Baron van Dorth tot Medler, Mr
R.H.M.J. Baron van Hövell tot Westerflier, and Mr J.M. Saleh, former
Governor General of the Netherlands Antilles.
EXHIBITIONS
2005 The Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London.
2005 Overview Exhibition, Gallery Utrecht, The Netherlands
2005 Group Portrait Show, The New Grafton Gallery, Barnes, London
2004 Overview Exhibition, Gallery Utrecht, The Netherlands
2003 Millionaires Fair, Amsterdam Convention Center
2000 Children at their Most Beautiful in the 21st century, The Portrait Company, Haarlem
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