PHOTOGRAPHY.GALLERY     BRUCE MORTIMER ARTIST 

The artist's inspiration and competency, inseparable from their experience, interests and personality, produces art.

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I was born in England, and grew up in The Netherlands and South Africa. I have explored in 27 countries and have called New Zealand home for the past 16 years.  When I was 23 I rode 15000km on an XT500 around the lower half of Africa in 5 weeks, fixing a terminally broken suspension in northern Malawi with some metal epoxy glue, quite a relaxed experience compared to having a checkpoint guard in Zambia with an AK47 asking me what gift I had brought with me for him. I found some Zimbabwe dollars in my pocket and he seemed accepting and let me go from his brandy breath after showing his colleague my 'smiley little face' in my passport. But not before he picked up my helmet and put it back on my head for me. So when I travelled overnight in a public bus in Thailand I hid my passport in my underwear. Fortunately no-one else took it out or put it back there for me.

I once surfed Tai Long Wan in Hong Kong on a borrowed surfboard - its owner had accidently bitten it when he wiped out and was off to hospital. The board still had the teeth marks in it so I believed his local friends who caringly offered that I borrow it. I'm more caring now, and I try to look after myself and others when we venture into remote Fiordland locations (see photo above) to capture cinematography and generally gain inspiration from everything down there in one of the wettest places on earth. 

I was twelve when I received my first paid art commission, a portrait sitting. Probably because the customer had seen one of my youthful charcoal portraits. I became more interested in landscape than portraits, applied it to my love of photography, and then I got interested in portraits again. I even built my own 6x17cm panoramic camera. I now build my own anamorphic lenses, and my interest in photography has extended into cinematography. I share my still photographs across social media and you can download digital files here.

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I  worked with wealthy clients (the then second wealthiest family in Africa for example), corporates (including Nedbank and Vodacom (South Africa), hotels and interior designers.  I then relocated to the other side of the world with my family and started all over again, in a different era, and in a different way and my focus has been more on traditional mediums in a contemporary style, hand-drawn photorealism, expressionism and large mixed media artworks. Having said that, I have recently upskilled my photography into the 21st century with typical obsessive gusto and it influences me more than ever as I travel every corner of my adopted country and further afield to capture its soul.

After all of the above the only thing that matters is whether my next piece of art has value, presence, emotion and a reason to exist. I let my audience be the final judge of the meaning to them, whilst I plan, or stumble upon my next creative venture.

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