Bruce Backhouse is a landscape painter who lives in Johannesburg. Bruce started out as a fine art student at Rhodes University under Brian Bradshaw, then enjoyed a successful 25-year career in advertising as an art director and creative director. He spent eight years managing Image Bank South Africa before becoming a full-time artist in 2004. Throughout his career, Bruce has immersed himself in the vast arid interior of South Africa – the Great Karoo and the Kalahari. His landscape paintings are the consequence of his intense visceral relationship with uninhabited aridity devoid of human manipulation. Preferring to work on location, never from photographs, he is a firm believer in the subconscious development of the artists mark with “time in the saddle”. This body of work, in watercolours and oils, stretches back over countless trips to the Great Karoo over the last 10 years.
Lone Koppierain Near Gariep DamKaroo Preserved Series Near Prince AlbertWide Karoo, Near Hofmeyr – soldKaroo Preserved series, Yardley Farm 2Climbing KompasbergKaroo Preserved Series Square NineFrom the Mountain Hut, Dwarsvlei (Near Middelburg)Red Karoo MountainsClose-up Koffiebus and TeebusKoffiebus, SchoombeeColesberg District (Yardley Farm)Stormberg Near SteynsbergHeaven & Earthly Turmoil, in B&WHeaven & Earthly Turmoil, in B&WImaginary Joburger Series, No. 8Imaginary Joburger Series, No. 15Imaginary Joburger Series, No. 14Imaginary Joburger Series, No. 13Imaginary Joburger Series, No. 12 – SoldImaginary Joburger Series, No. 11Imaginary Joburger Series, No. 10Imaginary Joburger Series, No. 9Imaginary Joburger Series, No. 7Imaginary Joburger Series, No. 6 – SoldImaginary Joburger Series, No. 4Imaginary Joburger Series, No. 5Imaginary Joburger Series, No. 3Imaginary Joburger Series, No. 2Imaginary Joburger Series, No 1 – Sold