The most common question Vern Bartley hears at his art shows is always: “Is that a photograph or a painting?” Invariably the next one he hears---often spoken with a touch of reverential awe---will be, “How did you do that?”

Both are reasonable inquiries for the man who describes himself as an “Image Creator.” Though Vern first picked up a camera in 1959 and has made his living shooting everything from aerial photos to wedding portraits to medical images, it wasn’t until a few years ago that Vern first began perfecting the art form that now has people talking.

Orné is the French word for “embellish,” and the term perfectly describes what Vern achieves with his art. Each image begins with an artfully captured photograph applied to high-quality, archival canvas. Using a series of meticulous brushstrokes, Vern then embellishes each image with acrylics and varnishes to achieve a multi-dimensional finished product. With only ten limited-edition prints created for each image, the pieces are unique in more ways than one.

Molly O’Hearn---a West Coast art collector who recently purchased one of Vern’s Orné images at an Oregon art gallery---was awestruck by the format when she first saw it. “I’ve never seen anything like it before,” she said. “It’s almost surreal. Vern’s work is so different from everything else I’ve seen. The image just pops off the wall.”

Just as the brushstrokes add body and dimension to Vern’s artwork, his diverse background helps form the heart of each piece. A firefighter/paramedic for eighteen years, Vern went on to found Oregon’s most successful air ambulance program, for which he served as CEO for twenty years. Throughout his career, Vern’s camera was always clicking---both literally, and metaphorically.

“My images are usually a product of something I’ve captured earlier in my mind, and I’ve released a duplicate image onto the canvas,” he explains. “The creation is so much more than simply clicking the shutter or manipulating the brush over the canvas. It’s the complete experience that I get to create for the viewer. That’s very exciting to me.”

Oregon oil painter Barbara Slater had the opportunity to view some of Vern’s Orné pieces recently and was intrigued by how Vern has blended two art forms to create something altogether different. “It’s not a photo or a painting, but really a very creative image,” she said. “What he’s achieving is a depth you couldn’t get through only one of those art forms.”