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Bruce Skillicorn
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Biography
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Bruce Skillicorn is an Australian Artist now resident in Virginia, USA, He was awarded his degree in Creative Arts with honors by the University of Southern Queensland (USQ). He also taught theater set design at USQ for seven years over the turn of the millennium.
Bruce has worked toward to be a full time
artist from an early age. In 1990, after many years of painting part time, he finally took the step to make that dream a reality. In the years since, he has exhibited widely, and received several honors including an Australia Day Cultural Award Medallion.
Specializing in Portraiture for over a decade, Bruce was for several years one of 2 official portrait artists for the Queensland state government. He painted numerous prominent academics and politicians including the then Queensland state Premier, for which he was featured in the press and on television nation wide. During this time he also had one of his portraits hung in an exhibition of the Doug Moran Portrait Prize (the richest such prize in the world).
Currently Bruce is concentrating on landscape painting in Acrylics. He is also skilled in a wide range of media and subject matter including, abstracts, pen drawings, pet portraits, water colors, oil painting, reproductions of old masters, theater back drops and other scenic art. Another aspect of his work is in digital media and design.
Born and raised in India where his parents engaged in humanitarian work, Bruce started his art development under the tutelage of Frank Wesley, the "Father of Asian Christian Art".
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Statement
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I believe that art is more than mere decoration. For me it is an interactive catalyst for thought. This is true not only for my "conceptualist work" but also for my landscapes and portraits. We can learn a great deal from landscape and "real world images." I find inspiration in things and people reflecting the character marks of life in an often harsh world. It is the difficulties and trials of life that have the capacity to mold and sculpt us into beautiful people. Even those who are less than perfect in nature add the dynamism to history that eventually leads to progress and growth.
Light is also of vital importance in my work. The beauty of an object is shaped by the light that falls upon it, and is refracted through it. Interest and focus come through the juxtaposition of light within shade, and clear foreground against distant atmospheric haze. We are reflections of the light within which we bathe. A weed is often reviled, but when it is bathed in light, it can become a thing of unusual beauty. The great lessons of life can be found in the real world, the things we see and feel everyday around us. These greatly influence the way I paint, and, I hope the way in which the viewer is quietly spoken to through my paintings.
We are constantly surrounded with beauty that we frequently walk straight by. I choose to focus on beauty. I want my works to inspire and uplift. I have suffered my share of troubles, but have become aware that there is an overwhelming amount of good, beauty, inspiration, and up building and positive things in this universe. For all of the above reasons I am currently exploring beauty in the realism of the real world we live in.
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Exhibitions
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- July 2004 - Shepherdstown WV - Friday Painters exhibition
- Spring 05 -Clark County VA -Spring at the Mill
- Fall 05 -Clark County VA -Fall at the Mill.
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His major awards and achievements
? An Australia Day Cultural Award
? Having a painting hung with the finalists of the Doug Moran Portrait Prize. (At the time the worlds richest)
? Winning the highest achievement award at my art school at USQ, the University of Southern Queensland
? Having numerous one man shows.
? Serving for several years as one of the official portrait painters for the Queensland State Government
? Having the unveiling of his portrait of Queensland's then Premier Wayne Goss covered by all of Australia's national media
? Teaching Set Design for a number of years at USQ.
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