Bruce Roy Anderson, Landscape

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This artwork "Landscape" is a watercolor on heavy rag paper by noted Arkansas artist Bruce Roy Anderson, 1907-1985. It is … Read more This artwork "Landscape" is a watercolor on heavy rag paper by noted Arkansas artist Bruce Roy Anderson, 1907-1985. It is signed at the lower left corner by the artist. The size is 21.25 x 20 inches. It is in excellent condition. Please note that the white line on the ocean are not scratches, they are a part of the artwork, more likely small boats. See picture #3

About the artist:
Bruce Roy Anderson was a prominent Arkansas architect and watercolor artist in the mid-twentieth century.
Bruce Anderson was born on October 7, 1907, in Newport (Jackson County), the son of George Roy Anderson and Amelia Frei Anderson. He had an older brother, Maxwell, and sister, Bernice. Anderson attended Little Rock (Pulaski County) public schools and graduated from Castle Heights Military Academy in Tennessee. He received a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Auburn University in Alabama in 1929. In 1936, Anderson earned a Master of Architecture degree from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
After the age of fifty, Anderson began to develop his interest in painting watercolors. Anderson was essentially a self-taught artist, but much of his technique was developed while in architectural school, where he studied watercolor, charcoal, and pen-and-ink drawing. Adrian Brewer, the well-known Arkansas artist and teacher, and George Post, the noted Californian watercolorist, were among Anderson’s instructors. Anderson also took painting classes at the Arkansas Arts Center.
Anderson is perhaps best remembered for fourteen paintings of Little Rock’s historic Quapaw Quarter buildings, including the Villa Marre, the Little Rock Arsenal in MacArthur Park, Trapnall Hall, and the Capital Hotel. He served on the board of the Quapaw Quarter Association. An illustrated publication of the Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects said that Anderson’s paintings were easily identified “because they developed from architectural renderings portraying a realistic graphic of the subject. His technique is delicate yet vivid, detailed yet not overdone.”
In 1968, Anderson’s watercolor Low Rent was accepted in the Cooperstown, New York, Art Association’s thirty-third annual exhibition. The painting depicted a multiplex structure of low-cost housing cast in deep shadows. Top prize at the exhibition that year was awarded to Norman Rockwell, the American painter and illustrator, but Anderson’s entry won recognition and drew attention from the French art magazine La Revue Moderne des Arts published in Paris and distributed throughout Europe. The following year, Low Rent was used as the magazine’s cover illustration. Another Anderson painting of the Pike-Fletcher-Terry Mansion (now the Arkansas Arts Center Terry House Community Gallery) appeared in the magazine.
In 1970, Anderson, along with four other artists, founded and incorporated the Mid-Southern Watercolorists (MSW) in Little Rock. Anderson was elected as the organization’s president in 1973.
Anderson exhibited his watercolors in one-man shows and won numerous awards in Arkansas, New York, Massachusetts, California, Tennessee, Texas, Florida, and Louisiana. In 1969, Anderson’s painting Ouachita Mountains was selected best of the show at the Arkansas State Festival of the Arts. It was the twelfth consecutive award-winning year at the festival for Anderson; a record unmatched by any other artist. In 1976, his watercolor Plantation Lullaby won the Governor’s Award at the fourth annual Arkansas Arts, Crafts, and Design Fair.
Anderson was a member of the National Watercolor Society, Mid-Southern Watercolorists, Southwestern Watercolor Society, California Watercolor Association, Arkansas Arts Center, American Institute of Architects, and Guild of Religious Architects. He served on the board of the Arkansas Festival of the Arts. He was a founding member of Pleasant Valley Country Club in Little Rock and the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Board of Trustees.
Anderson’s art can be found in many private collections and in the collections of the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies in Little Rock.
Anderson died on April 4, 1985, in Little Rock and is buried at Roselawn Memorial Park.
Bibliography:
“Architect-Artist Bruce Anderson Started Painting Gourds and the Project Grew.” Arkansas Gazette, September 6, 1970, p. 6D.
“The Architect as an Artist, the Artist as an Architect.” DIMENSIONS: The Official Publication of the Arkansas Chapter, American Institute of Architects (May/June 1969).
“Bruce Anderson, Architect, Watercolor Artist, 77, Dies.” Arkansas Democrat, April 5, 1985, p. 10B.
“French Print 2 Paintings by Arkansan.” Arkansas Gazette, December 10, 1969, p. 28A.
Mid-Southern Watercolorists Collection. University of Central Arkansas Archives and Special Collections, Conway, Arkansas. See less