[3] An architect by training, Bartels was apprenticed to the firm of Wright, Reed and Beaver, but finding no prospect of employment, began working as a clerk.
[4] He established a studio at the family home in Hurtle Square, where public attention was drawn to his painstaking etchings and watercolours.
[5] Later that year he exhibited 22 pen-and-ink sketches at E. S. Wigg's stationery shop which were praised for their design and execution, comparing some with the work of Mortimer Menpes at the Art Gallery of South Australia.
[8] Bartels was much in demand for creating decorated addresses and certificates for presentation at official ceremonies, on account of the beauty and precision of his artwork and illuminated lettering.
Examples include: Bartels was caught up in the typhoid epidemic of 1895 and died at his home on Winchester Street, Malvern, on 18 May 1895.