Finding perspective in the landscape
Bruce Mortimer does not describe his work as rural.
But his landscapes will feel familiar to anyone who spends time in open country.
Wide horizons, open space, and a single element holding its place against something much larger. It is not farming, but it is the same land farming sits in.
Originally from England, and raised in the Netherlands and South Africa, Bruce Mortimer has called New Zealand home for nearly two decades.
Trained as a geologist before turning to art full time, his work has always been tied to land, structure and space.
Photography came first, particularly black and white work, and that way of seeing still underpins everything he does. His practice has since moved into painting and more conceptual work, but the focus has not shifted far. The relationship between people and landscape remains central.
For Mortimer, the idea of separating rural from non-rural landscape is not something he considers.
“This is a natural reflection of my interests, or perhaps better expressed as those aspects of the world that have
the most impact on my insides.”
What draws him back is scale.
“I don’t feel small in my own company, or when protected by four walls, but out in the open landscape my actual relevance in the world is more undeniable.”
It is a feeling that does not need much explaining to those who spend time in open country. The land has a way of putting things into perspective.
“It takes those open landscapes to create that humility.”
That sense of proportion carries quietly through his work. Often it is a single element, a tree, a shed, or a figure, set within something much larger.
While his work is not explicitly rural, he acknowledges the role of working landscapes in New Zealand.
“For many, the rural, the worked, adapted landscape is the link between the grandeur and our people.”
How people respond to that depends on where they stand. For some it is an escape. For others, it is part of daily life.
“Those lucky enough to be able to make a living at the same time as enjoying a view of a landscape every morning find depictions of landscape to perhaps be more an extension of their own identity.”
Mortimer describes his connection to landscape as instinctive. He can step into a place and find subject matter quickly, particularly when light and conditions align. Time spent in a place deepens that understanding, but the initial response is immediate.
Photography remains central to that process.
“I suspect it underpins everything.”
It taught him how to see. Composition, structure, what holds and what does not. That discipline carries through, even as his work has shifted into painting.
But the relationship between the two is not always direct.
“Many of my photographs, attractive as they might be as photographs, don’t make good references for painting at all, at least not for me.”
What carries across is the way of seeing, rather than the image itself.
His work is often described as minimal, though he sees that as something still being worked towards.
“It usually isn’t minimal enough.”
The aim is not to strip everything away, but to remove distraction.
“There is no need for visual clutter in the landscape, because when we are in it, we are not experiencing the multitude of sensory input that we might have been immersed in a city.”
That restraint extends to how he finishes a piece.
“With paintings, I always leave them unfinished. This is paradoxical of course, because the unfinished painting is precisely the finished one.”
It leaves space for the viewer to come to it themselves.
New Zealand plays a role in that process, not just visually, but in what it allows.
“We should never underestimate how our country nurtures us and provides us with a safe place to discover ourselves, and that removes a huge obstacle when you are trying to find your soul amongst either the chaos or the mundane.
His photography remains grounded in landscape. Painting, he says, is where his focus shifts.
“When it comes to painting, my goals are somewhat different. Style, originality, and conceptual depth are far more important to me here, and I feel they make my work more important to the viewer also.”
It is a different way of approaching the work. Less about recording what is there, and more about creating something that stands on its own.
“In every hundred things you see, there are very few that will resonate with you, whether they are a little lane behind a fence, a flower in the field or a distant farmhouse whose roof has real character.”
That selectivity shapes how he measures success.
“And in a world with a lot of flowers, roofs and lanes, if my artwork can find resonance with a small number of people then it has become for that person that roof with character amongst the ordinary, whilst I move onto my next attempt to be original.”
More of Mortimer’s work can be viewed at brucemortimer.com.
Comments