KalBarteski

Joy.

This is piece is called Joy. (click to enlarge). I began my painting day with the idea that I would do a large happy piece on a huge blue canvas and somewhere in that thought I picked up a smaller canvas that had been painted and painted over and painted over until it was no good for painting on anymore. Rejected. I covered it with pages from a book I enjoyed, but would never read again. Discarded. Repurposed. And then I found myself painting a shiny black crow. Loathed. Misinterpreted. In a dark and serious place. A series of events lead to a series of feelings I'm not all that comfortable with: anger, frustration, pity. This painting comes from anger and what happens when you talk yourself through it so you can see that there are many sides to the story and some of them are sad and some of them are original and some of them just remind you that the very best thing to do is to not give a shit and keep on going in the direction you were before. Your own. Which made me feel like the shiny black eyes of a common crow. Clever. Maybe even dark and twisty. The old tale goes that one crow on your rooftop means sorrow, two crows mean joy. It's up to you whether the second crow in this painting is coming or leaving.

Details for:  Joy  (2009)

Size: 20 x 24 inches (approximately)
Medium: acrylic paint, enamel paint, pencil, ink, paint pen, book pages, matte medium, staples
Base: gallery canvas
Photo: K.Barteski
Collection: 

Price: $750

Meadow

This is piece is called Meadow. (click to enlarge). I have a new painting space and a new routine and all the things that I need to get working on more paintings... but there is always a bit of a hump to clear in opening the lines of creativity. This piece was practice with a new brush technique and somewhere within the brush technique work - Dan was very encouraging and that made me think of my little family and how they have all been very supportive of me getting my painting hat back on. The three trees represent them. The dry brushing in this pieces is done with a paint brush that is 10 years old and special to me because I worked on several memorial pieces with it. I feel like this painting was done with a 'lotta help from my friends'.

Details for:  Meadow  (2009)

Size: 16 x 17 inches (approximately)
Medium: acrylic paint, ink
Base: compressed board
Photo: K.Barteski
Collection: 

Price: $275

(photographic reproduction: $30)

Tiny Art 125

In 2007 I started a collection of pieces called TINY ART. These pieces are all small. They are created in mixed media on all types of substrates. They are for sale: $100 for the original OR $30 for matte photographic reproductions.

This is Tiny Art 125. (click to enlarge). Last weekend was filled with all kinds of reminders from my past. We hosted an art garage sale and that meant pulling up a lot of artwork I have done. Seeing the paintings - brought back all kinds of memories and feelings and a new perspective and the days that have passed me by. This pieces was part of a warm up series for a larger scale painting. 

Details for:   Tiny Art 125  (2009)

Size: 6 x 11 inches (approximately)
Medium: pencil, acrylic paint,
Base: canvas paper
Photo: K.Barteski
Collection: 

Price: $100

(photographic reproduction: $30)

Tiny Art 124

In 2007 I started a collection of pieces called TINY ART. These pieces are all small. They are created in mixed media on all types of substrates. They are for sale: $100 for the original OR $30 for matte photographic reproductions.

This is Tiny Art 124. (click to enlarge). It's fall around here and the texture and colours are warm like cider and layered like pages and pages of old novels. Things begin to slow. I am being haunted by the images of trees and this was a warmup for a larger pieces that I am currently working on.  

Details for:   Tiny Art 124  (2009)

Size: 6 x 11 inches (approximately)
Medium: pencil, acrylic paint,
Base: canvas paper
Photo: K.Barteski
Collection: 

Price: $100

(photographic reproduction: $30)

Tiny Art 123

Look. Something new! I have started a collection of pieces called TINY ART. These pieces are all small. They are created in mixed media on all types of substrates. They are for sale: $100 for the original OR $30 for matte photographic reproductions.

This is Tiny Art 123. (click to enlarge). This little painting is sort of a combination of the hummingbird sketches and the cityscapes... it's hard to explain why that is - but, it is so. I used a stamp to create a background for the hummingbird at dusk. It has a subtle and creamy feel, but the scan seems to drain some of the colours... I am not sure I would do this again, but it seemed to me to be the words of the hummingbird repeated over and over like the wings. You are here. You are here. You are here. The textures of sound and the hum of my thinking...  

Details for:   Tiny Art 123  (2009)

Size: 7 x 12 inches (approximately)
Medium: pencil, acrylic paint,
Base: canvas paper
Photo: K.Barteski
Collection:  Nieka Apell

Price: SOLD

(photographic reproduction: $30)

Tiny Art 122

Look. Something new! I have started a collection of pieces called TINY ART. These pieces are all small. They are created in mixed media on all types of substrates. They are for sale: $100 for the original OR $30 for matte photographic reproductions.

This is Tiny Art 122. (click to enlarge). This piece is another test piece... just listening to some jazz - thinking about colours and techniques and why I like living in the city. Most people want a little quiet place in the country... maybe because they have trouble quieting the noise going on in their own heads. I like the city, the buzz, the background the lives - knowing that when I have had enough silence in my own mind - I can count on the familiar hum of the city.  

Details for:   Tiny Art 122  (2009)

Size: 6 x 12 inches (approximately)
Medium: pencil, acrylic paint,
Base: canvas paper
Photo: K.Barteski
Collection:  Christy McKenna

Price: SOLD

PRINTS UNAVAILABLE, SORRY.

Tiny Art 121

Look. Something new! I have started a collection of pieces called TINY ART. These pieces are all small. They are created in mixed media on all types of substrates. They are for sale: $100 for the original OR $30 for matte photographic reproductions.

This is Tiny Art 121. (click to enlarge). This piece is an experiment/study/trial for a large scale painting I hope to begin in July. The texture and visual music of a cityscape is very much like a jazz tune to me. And this small painting was very much like an improvised solo - working quickly in paint and pencil layers without waiting for the paint to dry. I used to play saxophone in a jazz band and when I was asked to do a improvised solo I always felt a nervous out-of-control feeling. I wish I knew then that I should have just rolled with it. It lands where it lands and the magic is in the faith that it will be what it will be. This painting became, to my delight, very much like a real city with new and old and fresh and dried ideas. Like a terrific and very short solo. I intend to further explore this feel after I hunt up my Oscar Peterson music and turn it up real loud.  

Details for:   Tiny Art 121  (2009)

Size: 5 x 9 inches (approximately)
Medium: pencil, acrylic paint,
Base: canvas paper
Photo: K.Barteski
Collection:  Christy McKenna

Price: SOLD

PRINTS UNAVAILABLE, SORRY.

Tiny Art 120

Look. Something new! I have started a collection of pieces called TINY ART. These pieces are all small. They are created in mixed media on all types of substrates. They are for sale: $100 for the original OR $30 for matte photographic reproductions.

This is Tiny Art 120. (click to enlarge). This piece is another hummingbird and another quick work designed to loosen up my eye and my hand so that I can work up to a larger piece. I love the speckles on this bird's stomach. I love that the wings are moving too quickly to capture and a hint of line tells us that. I love that the finish of the canvas paper was repelling some of the paint, but not all. I love that painting turn out the way they are supposed to. (Even the ones I toss in the trash.) I love working fast and moving from thing to thing like these beautifully souled creatures.

Details for:   Tiny Art 120  (2009)

Size: 6.5 x 9 inches (approximately)
Medium: pencil, acrylic paint,
Base: canvas paper
Photo: K.Barteski
Collection: 

Price: $100

(photographic reproduction: $30)

Tiny Art 119

Look. Something new! I have started a collection of pieces called TINY ART. These pieces are all small. They are created in mixed media on all types of substrates. They are for sale: $100 for the original OR $30 for matte photographic reproductions.

This is Tiny Art 119. (click to enlarge). This piece is another try at a hummingbird - which leads me to believe that my hummingbird journey is not yet done. There is something surrounding me. I can feel it. I'm like that sometimes - I find something and I try it again and again and again until the magic is complete for me. After a little research I became even more delighted with hummingbirds and their little movements and different body positions. Still, they make me feel like the people that have passed away - are with me.  

Details for:   Tiny Art 119  (2009)

Size: 6.5 x 9 inches (approximately)
Medium: pencil, acrylic paint,
Base: canvas paper
Photo: K.Barteski
Collection: 

Price: $100

(photographic reproduction: $30)

Tiny Art 118

Look. Something new! I have started a collection of pieces called TINY ART. These pieces are all small. They are created in mixed media on all types of substrates. They are for sale: $100 for the original OR $30 for photographic reproductions on smooth coated paper.

This is Tiny Art 118. (click to enlarge). This piece is so important to me. This piece means so many things in the time and space that is right now. Hummingbirds have been haunting me lately. There are no hummingbirds around our house, but I'm sure that I saw one yesterday. The 'father' comments left on this post left me thinking about the people who had lost their fathers. That, in turn, brought back the memories I have of people close to me who have passed on... and how I sometimes feel them close to me, but when I turn they are not there. A light and fast movement like a hummingbird. Thinking of the people who are not here with me - confirmed my belief that when I see something that reminds me of someone I love - living or passed - I believe that person is thinking of me at that moment. They are with me right then... This little painting might not look important, but after a few weeks of just not feeling it - I pushed through and found myself right here. With hummingbird encouragement and the feeling that I was nudged just a bit by forces I can't see. This is me. This is my self and my style finding me - refinding me - like it does over and over again when I think that I am completely lost....  

Details for:   Tiny Art 118  (2009)

Size: 7.5 x 11 inches (approximately)
Medium: pencil, acrylic paint, pencil crayon,
Base: canvas paper
Photo: K.Barteski
Collection:  Jen Emery

Price: SOLD

(photographic reproductions: $30)