BARRY MASTELLER

Painting and Photography have a long history - but not so much together. I've questioned this for a long time. Since the creation of the first Daguerreotype in the early 19th. Century - many have said that painting is dead - its not and hasn't been. Painting and Photography have enhanced each other in ways never imagined by Louis Daguerre its inventor. Impressionism, early abstraction, cubism and surrealism all came after it and allowed painting the freedom for self expression. Likewise photographers turned from portrait to landscape and still life painting for ideas and inspiration.

Even the word photography has changed so much since Daguerre's invention. I live in the Digital age - my cameras are digital - my software is digital. I can put down my ideas quickly and move on to the next - adding and deleting along the way. Selecting an image and finally printing it is another story. This can be a long process and not unlike painting in its requirement for patience and need to not be pushed too hard. Art needs time to come alive. As a painter I've used photographs as the basis for many of my painting series especially my landscapes and cityscapes; even tearing them up and using them in collage. My recent work is all about photography and what I can conceptually do with it - especially coming at it from working decades as an

artist craftsman and full-time mud wrestler.

My favorite time of day to work in the studio - painting and writing is late at night and in the early morning hours. Sometimes having insomnia can be a bonus but it wasn't always that way for me. Not until I began to explore photography. Night photography has so many things about it that fit my aesthetic - and the way to truly capture light and movement.

Since the light is limited at that time of day and I'm using a moving hand held camera I can't expect to get a “picture.” What I get instead is an image of long exposure red, white, yellow and green light line tracings; from street lights, signals, car head and tail lights, porch lights - the reseeding and approaching sunlight for it's beautiful blues and violets and any other accidental light source that finds it's way onto the sensor of my camera. Drawing is the basis of painting and when I pick up my camera it becomes a drawing tool. Later I process the images I've taken; add and subtract - overlay with collage forms, add line and color until I have an image that satisfies and excites me. Photography is different from painting yet it shares so much of the same terrain - is an open field for ideas and my own personal expression for them - continuing my focus to understand and explore the avenues and byways of my art making process.

Limited Edition Archival Prints

40" x 40" on ChromaLuxe Aluminium.

Titled, signed and numbered on reverse, Float mounted.

Edition 1 through 10 with 1 artist proof.

Gallery and individual inquiries are invited.

email: info@barrymasteller.com

5563D. Insomnolence. 40" x 40" archival print on aluminium. Edition of 10