Bruce Mortimer - Pencil Photorealist
from the 13th September to the 5th October 2014
Having been a full time professional artist in one form or another for nearly twenty years, with an exhibition history in paintings, pastels and fine art photography, it finally occurred to me a year or so ago to concentrate solely on pencil drawings, recreating an almost photographic feel in landscape and people studies that I had always enjoyed, and that I had gone to the edges of the earth to be amazed and visually touched by. Motivated by a love of tone, texture and simplicity, my growing collection of carefully composed unique pieces have found a genuine audience, who have responded to both my deep personal input into each piece, as well as my discovery of a medium that fulfils everything I ever wanted from my art, both for myself and the viewer.
In artistic terms I am technically agraphite pencil photorealist, since from a normal viewing distance my work appears photographic. Actually though, I am more of a loose pencil photorealist, as I do not concentrate on detail, but more on tone and texture to create the illusion of photorealism. Yes, this could be considered a contradiction in terms, but I am moved to create a photorealistic look from a few meters away, that becomes an experience of pencil line and texture and paradoxical looseness when viewed from much closer. It is almost that by taking away some of the tightness of traditional photorealism and hyperrealism, we end up with a more vibrant, alive photorealistic look.
But, putting the technical side to these artworks aside, these pencil photorealist drawings are really about the content and how the rendering of the subject resonates with me the artist, and you the viewer.