BERT ERNIE – AUSTRALIAN REALIST AND ABSTRACT ARTIST

I started painting photographs in 1995. I was 27 years old and didn’t know how to do it, having no formal art training, so I taught myself. Now I am 53 years old and believe I know how to paint an exact copy of a photograph – to the highest level. I believe I am a master at transferring the photograph into a painting. But for many who look at my photorealist paintings, the skill and the technical competence is all they see. But my paintings from the very start of my artistic journey have been more about the subject than the skillfully rendered paint.

Along the way, I turned my hand to a totally abstract style as well. At first it was mostly a way of using up the leftover paint from the realist paintings. But I soon took it seriously. I realised I could provide an amazing feast of colors and forms in the dripped, splattered and dragged paint that made me feel I could tell a story or convey a feeling so much better than with realism.

My 26 year journey (more than half my life, I realise) has left me with around 100 paintings completed. I have sold only one. I have given away sixteen for people to enjoy. The rest I have, many of which I would like to sell. The money isn’t that important, so I offer them at a relatively inexpensive price – except for a few masterpieces – for which I want a little more money.

I have tried so hard over this 26 year journey to get some sort of representation with an art gallery and have failed. I have entered several art competitions and had no success there either. But that’s quite a lot of rejection – but the funny thing is, I don’t care about that anymore. I have always painted for myself, always wanting to impress with my skill with paint, tell an interesting story, and leave those that see my paintings with an impression of utter mastery.