Pastor of Munstergeleen

[Scott Bartner]

Pastor of Munstergeleen
Oil on linen, 75cm x 55cm


One of the perks of being a portrait artist is that every once in a while you get the opportunity to immerse yourself in the life of an interesting person. The Pastor of Munstergeleen asked me to paint his portrait after seeing the portrait of his friend and colleague Pastor van Horne (posted here a number of months ago). We decided the portrait should be connected to an incident which happened a few years ago in the Pastor

[Garth Herrick]

Dear Scott:

This is a masterpiece in every respect, and one of the most stunning portraits I've seen. I would say you have been very successful at achieving your intent of a sensitive portrait of a pastor reflecting on the wonders of life and spirituality. The chromatic and compositional harmony could not be better. I love the way you have so carefully designed the pastor's pose. This is a portrait all of us should take the time to study and enjoy, I hope this generates for you many more stimulating commissions of this caliber. Thanks for sharing this.

Sincerely,

Garth

[Sergio Ostroverhy]

Hello Scott,

just amazed by the delicate treatment of the hands...

[Scott Bartner]

Garth: Thank you for your quite overwhelming remarks. I think the absolute beauty of this Forum is the role it plays as a source of inspiration, so that artists living thousands of miles apart can become excited and stimulated by each other

[Peter Jochems]

I think it's the best painting I've seen here on the forum. It reminds me of the best works of Holbein.

[Linda Brandon]

Scott,

This is an astounding painting, piercing and calm and - can I say this? - very spiritual in a clear, intelligent and unsentimental way. I can't tear my eyes away from that face.

There are a couple of artists on the Forum that paint in ways that seem to me to be essentially unphotographable, and you're one of them. I would really love to see this in person.

I always feel a little out of my league commenting on your paintings because they seem so different compared to my own style. It's amazing to me that you can portray such intensity with such tight brushwork and careful color control.

[Jane Bradley]

I keep coming back to look at this - amazing richness with such subtle use of color - Wonderful.

[Cynthia Daniel]

Lovely, lovely portrait!

[Jean Kelly]

Scott, do you think you could post a detail of his face and hand? The form has a grace and beauty that I would love to see close up.

Jean

[Scott Bartner]

Thank you Jane, Cynthia and Jean. Jean, I've posted details of the face and hand.

I posted the house to show how the weave of the linen could be used to simulate roof tiles--someone should give that place a coat of paint.