Page 26 - Deansgate

artist: Bruce Lyons artist: Anna Thomas

I have known Bruce Lyons for some years and always admired his work.
The basis of the art of the artists is patience, time and use of materials that have the

quality of a lush patina. That is thin layers of rust that he forms on the surface made of of
bronze or similar metals caused by way of oxidation.
The colouring of that surface is brown or a sort of green in past compositions and he
continues to use subtle earthly colour in recent work, as in these tow examples. It is with

this tonal subtly that Bruce creates his paintings with. The process literally using the
metal filings – these tiny pieces of metal he then fixes to the underpainting in various
specific patterns and waits to see how the visual appearance changes – over time.
His careful applied brush work follows where he highlights or lays back the shapes he

had created on the surfaces. For me the visual sophistication that Bruce is now showing
in his latest work is an exciting development of artist who has, without doubt, reached a
zenith in great creative painting in the last year or so.