Roberto Bernardi

"Hyperrealist painting is nothing new. Derived from photorealism in the 70s, this early aughts art movement aims to turn actual photographs into paintings. These are extraordinary examples by a young Italian painter, Roberto Bernardi. His command of oil painting defies belief." (Courtesy of gizmodo.com.)


That last part is an understatement.

Check out his work yourself at the link above (click on "paintings").

They are amazing... you can spot that some objects (ushc as the cloth in the sink) are painted, I think, but for the most part they are totally photographic.

Does sorta make you wonder why, to a degree... I guess he enjoys the challenge.

However, I must say I can't stand modern terms with the word "hyper" in them ("hypermiling" especially bugs me... basically a stupid term for driving conservatively)

wow, they are pretty neat, i think he does, because he can! :-) if i could paint like that, i would too, hes probably making many more bucks than i do. which is precicely not many! :-)

It's interesting to me - I can understanding doing it once for the challenge of it, but on an overall level, I have to think that there's some sort of transfer technique going on, even if that's just painting from a photograph. That's the point that it loses me at - I do some transfer technique stuff, but in general I don't actually want my finished item to look 100% realistic. I want to use additional techniques on top of the base to create "mood" through color and texture and where I create definition. Otherwise, to me, there is no reason to transfer to a different medium, when the one I have already depicts the scene I wish to show.

"Otherwise, to me, there is no reason to transfer to a different medium, when the one I have already depicts the scene I wish to show."

Unless.. you are selling prints, perhaps?

I think it doesn't just show what the photo shows; there's a glammed-up, luminous and smoother quality to the pictures... at least that's true of the kitchen sink. :-) I really like those ones... the colours glow and shine.

Agree with you though that it's partly the challenge, and the satisfaction of knowing he can do it. :-) It's often the challenge that makes art interesting for the artist. People say it's about self-expression, but in most cases it's a case of "can I do that if I try such-and-such a technique?" I suppose we do think of a scene we want to portray, and find a way to do that. We wouldn't spend time painting/portraying something we didn't like... (Not so sure about that, come to think of it... thinking of dead sharks and such!)

If you go to Roberto Bernardi's site, and view the graphics unfold on the page.. there is one image of him taking a photograph of his work. The lighting set-up looks somewhat elaborate.

He must have cottoned onto the qualities of paint and lighting required.. to take full photographic advantage of the base medium.

As Tootles notes above.. "there's a glammed-up, luminous and smoother quality to the pictures..".

WoW...WoW...I am speechless!!

Hard to believe that those pictures are oil painted stuff...really, really outstanding quality and clarity aswell!

wow...wow....pretty, pretty, pretty amazing!

Thanks for the link Les....nice eye candy as well as talent!