What I have been doing --warning, paintings--

This is a gallery of photos all taken with my PhaseOne P25 (yes very old, but very good colors too)

http://leonardobarreto.com/

As some know I am working as a full time painter now and will have a one man show March 16. If you have SKETCHUP you can see a 3D model, just download the with the link on my website.

I am having a lot of fun but feel as if I a "cheating" my old sweetheart photography.

I really like the way Capture1 5 is doing this web galleries -it calls it a web contact sheet- because of the animation, the color conversions and the ease of it all...

Thanks
Leonardo
ps sign the GUESTBOOK -and come to the show if you happen to be in Bolivia je je

Leonardo,

I'm really enjoying the show. Are the orange blanks or art? Is that the size of the place? What happens there normally?

asher

I like it.

Asher Kelman said:

Leonardo,

I'm really enjoying the show. Are the orange blanks or art? Is that the size of the place? What happens there normally?

asher

Click to expand...

You actually downloaded the SKETCHUP file? fantastic ! I actually wanted to have a feeling of the size of the gallery and the amount of art I have ready too feel it up -I am ok-, not the final cuarational order that is yet to be done by Nota's Director. So, yes, the orange "pieces" represent o works on paper about half meter in size that is shown in the web contact.

The gallery is exactly that size and shape and is the best and largest in the city, so I am very exited about the show.

Asher: do you use SKETCHUP at all?

Thanks
Leonardo

ps I am now in the North of Chile on vacations, hope I have some images to show...

I like your work, Leonardo. I enjoy abstract expressionism / action abstration from the 1950's and 1960's which much of your work resembles. Nice 3-D gallery mock-up via that "Sketch-Up", too!

Don't be concerned about "cheating" photography. There were many painters who also enjoyed, and used, photography. Several 1930's-era surrealists, for example, were exceptional with the camera.

Ken Tanaka said:

I like your work, Leonardo. I enjoy abstract expressionism / action abstration from the 1950's and 1960's which much of your work resembles. Nice 3-D gallery mock-up via that "Sketch-Up", too!

Don't be concerned about "cheating" photography. There were many painters who also enjoyed, and used, photography. Several 1930's-era surrealists, for example, were exceptional with the camera.

Click to expand...

Wasn't there a french painter who coult shoot a bit

Mike

leonardobarreto.com said:

...As some know I am working as a full time painter now and will have a one man show March 16. If you have SKETCHUP you can see a 3D model, just download the with the link on my website.

Click to expand...

Hi Leonardo,

You are a man of many talents, congrats! Good luck with the show

Cheers,

thank you all for the kind words, I am happily doing "non contemporary" abstract expressionist action painting only because I like it. Working as an assistant to Tom Powel in New York -a bit more than 10 years ago- we used to photograph the work of Willem de Kooning (April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) and when I felt like I wanted to try painting it was that what I felt like doing.

The difference, I think it is that most -if not all- of the School of New York began their work as figurative painters, and I am beginning from their legacy of abstract painterly all-overly point and try to see where time and work will take me....

Also I feel that all of what they where doing was sort of dismissed in pursue of conceptual art with the absolute premise that "it has been done" is the kiss of death to anything that "has been done". And to do something the first time as the greatest achievement per-se.

So, my work is conceptual in the sense that I want it to have no concept at all. More like soccer. Same soccer ball, same number of players, size of field. Same rules. Just a different game every time...

Show went really well... now I can take litle brake and mabe do a photography one...

Leonardo,

Congratulations from me personally and on behalf of fellow OPFrs! What a splendid achievement. I hope you sold a lot! How long did the collection take to paint and did it include work from New York?

Maybe you might share how you went about organizing your life for this effort.

Could you PM me the url's for your pics with .jpg at the end so I can make the images you have posted appear. I tried to find them in your facebook pages but didn't recognize how to do it.

Thanks for sharing your success with your friends and well wishers!

Asher

Thank you Asher and OPFrs. So far I sold 16 pieces, so it is at the level of success. All the work was done since the last show that was May last year except for 6 smaller acrylic on paper pieces that I made when at art school in Mexico (Universidad Iberoamericana). The two years I was in New York I did not paint at all since I had no studio. I did the beginnings of a series of ships -remember?- at SNUG Harbor Staten Island. I want to see if I blow them up and show them. They where shot with a baby Graflex 6x9 cNeg. film. (I did not wanted then to risk getting mugged with the PhaseOne, but I want to go back it it and shoot some more)...

Regarding my life and this it is simply that I have to adapt to our diplomatic life. I have no work permit here, so all of the proceeds will go to a charity institution. I also have to manage the house and be childmanager to Roberto (8), so painting is perfect for all of that. I work after the kid goes to bed, or when he is in school etc. In that sense it is much more practical than photography.

This is the facebook link:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=148079&id=668172083&l=d763534090

At the opening I explained that I believe that one can use oneself creative energy in the same way with photography as painting.... or with a cell phone. (some of the pieces where done on my PALM and printed on my EPSON, framed and sold in series of five, all sold out)

Thank you Asher for supporting my work here. I really apreciate it.

Asher Kelman said:

Leonardo,

Congratulations from me personally and on behalf of fellow OPFrs! What a splendid achievement. I hope you sold a lot! How long did the collection take to paint and did it include work from New York?

Maybe you might share how you went about organizing your life for this effort.

Could you PM me the url's for your pics with .jpg at the end so I can make the images you have posted appear. I tried to find them in your facebook pages but didn't recognize how to do it.

Thanks for sharing your success with your friends and well wishers!

Asher

Click to expand...

leonardobarreto.com said:

Thank you Asher and OPFrs. So far I sold 16 pieces, so it is at the level of success.

Click to expand...

Well that's a great achievement! You've not been there that long so that's great productivity.

All the work was done since the last show that was May last year except for 6 smaller acrylic on paper pieces that I made when at art school in Mexico (Universidad Iberoamericana). The two years I was in New York I did not paint at all since I had no studio. I did the beginnings of a series of ships -remember?- at SNUG Harbor Staten Island. I want to see if I blow them up and show them. They where shot with a baby Graflex 6x9 cNeg. film. (I did not wanted then to risk getting mugged with the PhaseOne, but I want to go back it it and shoot some more)...

leonardobarreto.com said:

Do you still have the Baby Graflex? Is that the one from Will Thompson?

leonardobarreto.com said:

Regarding my life and this it is simply that I have to adapt to our diplomatic life. I have no work permit here, so all of the proceeds will go to a charity institution.

Click to expand...

Why don't you set up your own charity, "The Leonardo Barreto Educational foundation" to support Art and Photography teaching and exhibition and then all your proceeds can be used to buy materials and pay your expenses. You would take in some students for free and that would work and be helpful! I'd set t up in N.Y. and you would be off and running. That would work wherever you are located. You would essentially be an NGO!

leonardobarreto.com said:

I also have to manage the house and be childmanager to Roberto (8), so painting is perfect for all of that. I work after the kid goes to bed, or when he is in school etc. In that sense it is much more practical than photography.

Click to expand...

Now this is what most folk miss out on and must be the most enrich experience ever!

Now I think t's time for a few snaps with the Baby Graflex or the Phase One back!

Asher

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Congratulations on your success, Leonardo. Your exhibition looks wonderful. And, hey, it doesn't hurt to be able to drag the local diplomatic corps in to buy works, either! But I think (speaking as someone very close to a major museum) that your work would have found an audience under nearly any circumstances anywhere in the world. There's a bit of a resurgence in interest in mid-20th century abstract/action expressionism, which your work appears (judging by the little pics) to echo.

Well done!

Ken

Thank you for your kind words. I appreciate it coming from someone from my community of photographers here at OPF. But at the same time I am intrigued by what you are saying in your post.

About 3 years ago, I was told by a friend that owns a gallery in West Chelsea that "your work is not contemporary". I ended up working as a photographer to her documenting the galerie's work. I am not afraid of criticism of my work, but I was puzzled by it being described as not contemporary [I am, after all, a living artist and the work was recent].

Most of what I documented during the two years was very conceptual. A lot of monochromatic elegant and clean "smart" work. Opposite to painterly. One artist I visited to document at his studio had a wall full of color patches with numbers and names for each one, more like a meticulous illustrator than a bohemian painter that grabs whatever paint he has left since there is only money for beer.

Then there is Jeff Koons studio that I had the chance to visit with about 50 people working in what looked like a billboard company --from the time when they where not done on plotters-- even when Jeff himself was not even present.

I have nothing against all of this, or video installations, laundry piles in the floor (New Museum @ Bowery NY) but It was getting a bit strange that at biennials there was less and less painting and more and more darkened rooms with low quality video projections of whatever the artist thought would be cool enough.

I am a bit disconnected here in Bolivia even though we go to NY twice a year -- I saw gerhard richter white paintings recently and really liked it-- so I am very interested in what you just said about a wind of change away from all of this --probably related to the economic crisis?-- since I heard other people mentioning it.

I am definitively following the "dogma" of not worrying about a concept or doing something already done. Similar as, for example, tennis. Same rules, same size court etc. different only in the particular performance.

I wonder if photographers contributing to the art market are experiencing similar changes and if so what is the direction from and/or to that things are moving?

Thanks again Ken

Don't get me started on this subject, Leonardo. In brief, I believe that we've entered a long dark period in the art world which started at about the same time that the major investment banks created special art/antique collection departments for their personal wealth services (i.e. clients with at least $10 milion to invest). That spawned people like Koons, Hirst, etc. That's also spawned a parallel crowd of vacuous stinkers in the photo art world. It's become all about the money, all about insecurity, as epitomized by Larry Gagosian one of the biggest purveyors today.

So the gallerist that remarked that you're not "contemporary" was paying you a bit of an indirect compliment, Leonardo.

Don't get me started. I have an ever-lowering gag reflex.

Congrats

Hi Leonardo,

I have just read about this success of yours and I think you have done a wonderful job! Congratulations and may many more exhibitions follow.

Cheers,

Ken Tanaka said:

Don't get me started on this subject, Leonardo. In brief, I believe that we've entered a long dark period in the art world which started at about the same time that the major investment banks created special art/antique collection departments for their personal wealth services (i.e. clients with at least $10 milion to invest). That spawned people like Koons, Hirst, etc. That's also spawned a parallel crowd of vacuous stinkers in the photo art world. It's become all about the money, all about insecurity, as epitomized by Larry Gagosian one of the biggest purveyors today.

So the gallerist that remarked that you're not "contemporary" was paying you a bit of an indirect compliment, Leonardo.

Don't get me started. I have an ever-lowering gag reflex.

Click to expand...

Hi Ken,

Sounds like a very interesting story. If you want to tell some more, I am all ears.

Cheers,

Well done Leonardo.

Selling 16 pictures is very impressive. I hope that you will keep us in touch with your ongoing work

Mike

"Hi Ken,

Sounds like a very interesting story. If you want to tell some more, I am all ears.

Cheers,
__________________
Kind Regards,

Cem "

Me too, but not if we make you bomit ... je je

Best
Leonardo
ps Who is your favorit art photographer?

[editoria discussion fair use doctrine]

Burzinsky ?