Press Release!

This year, Jan Bartelstone is celebrating 50 years of fine art photography in New Mexico. He is working now on his last photograph.  Because of a medical condition that began 12 years ago, his eyesight has diminished to a degree where this image will be his last. Enclosed are 40-plus of the many images that helped to create an extremely successful career celebrating the surreal landscapes of his home state, his creative collaboration of New Mexico window architecture/landscape and his cultural portraits.
Briefly, he has had one-man shows and has been the featured artist at several prestigious Santa Fe galleries. Through his own efforts he has sold well over 100 very large images across the state and region. His work is a part of the New Mexico state permanent collection at the Roundhouse in Santa Fe.  He has also sold over 20 large framed images to municipalities through the state of New Mexico Arts Division, from Raton to Las Cruces.

 These large pieces have also been purchased by several five-star destination resorts, many private homes, dozens of financial institutions and call centers, to mention a few. Mr. Bartelstone has devoted his subject matter to the surreal geography across the state, to the cultural richness that are our Native American and Hispanic peoples and to his favorite of subjects - his Ancient Window series.  This all started at the end of 1984 when he published a series of elegant fine art posters that sold hundreds upon hundreds of prints across the region, several of which he has copies of: a young Navajo man with sand running through his hand, a sepia image of an old church with a mysterious figure, an indigenous grandmother handing down her corn moccasins to her granddaughter, and a 20th generation adobe maker dreaming of building his newest home.

He has always been amazed that he can travel within 1 1/2 hours from home to be able to capture pristine wilderness, some of which are mere minutes from the center of Albuquerque. The landscapes, many of which were taken from film originals, measure as large as 6 feet to 8 feet in length.  His first book sold out of its original printing of 1,000. All of his imagery is intended to communicate a depth of culture and awesome landscape that only larger pieces could realize.

He has several very large examples of these printed on archival exhibition-quality paper for review.