M
it’s all about you
Life is a canvas
Renaissance man devoted to performing, visual arts
Story and photos by Laura Pacter
The kitchen is a gallery of some of Bruce Somerville’s
most intricate paintings, such as these three, of Somerville’s
grandmother, a character he portrayed in a play,
and his self portrait.
I
slander Bruce Somerville has always been an artist
at heart. He can often be found on stage as a professional actor in theater, as a contemplative painter and even as a playful pianist. Somerville is a Renaissance man. His artistic vision is especially captured in his paintings, which line the many walls of
his spacious Marco Island waterfront home he shares with
his wife, Irene.
At 35, Somerville started painting in New York City in between his acting career there. “A fellow actor gave a book to
me on art and drawing, titled, ‘Drawing from the Right Side
of the Brain.’ When I read this book, I knew this is the part of
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the brain I’ve been living in most of my life. I remember
calling my sister and saying something happened. I think I
can draw and paint.”
His paintings garnered a number of awards and accolades
from juried art shows in New York and New Jersey. Most
recently, Somerville’s work was selected as cover art for the
annual city of Marco Island financial report and for an art
show at the Art League, Marco Island’s Center for the Arts.
He also recently finished another one-man show at the
North Collier Regional Park Exhibit Hall. Through it all,
Somerville humbly admits it’s his Island surroundings that
inspire his paintings.
Bruce Somerville keeps his sense of humor in
everything he does as he dons a pair of glasses
he designed for an Island fundraiser.
Bruce Somerville and
Irene Horowitz. Irene is
the Director of Education
for Gulfshore Playhouse,
and Bruce is also a professional actor in the Florida
Repertoire Theater.
Bruce Somerville’s paintings of Indian faces
capture the essence of American Indian culture.
Somerville discovered he was of Indian decent
during his own research into his family history.
“I love the water birds here, such as the egrets and the
herons. They are magnificent, and just down the road
there’s the Fakahatchee Strand, and when I finished my
Fakahatchee egret work, it’s hard to tell which is it’s reflection in the water, and which is the real bird,” explains
Somerville of one of his nature scenes.
But perhaps Somerville’s inspiration is also uniquely inside of him as he says, “inspiration is something that needs
to be repeated, because I enjoy repeating things.” His genres
of work include hand-carved wood with American Indian
themes from his own heritage, abstract paintings, portraiture, rural landscapes from his childhood spent in a small
Bruce Somerville
captures the spirit of
American Indians in
many of his pieces.
town in Iowa, and equestrian paintings. He lets the past repeat itself through each painting he creates.
Yet, Somerville doesn’t favor one artistic endeavor over
another. “Painting is solitary and theater is always collaborative as you’re never alone. When I’m acting I want to be
painting, and when I’m painting, I want to be acting,” he
says with a laugh.
“In my work, ‘On Marco, Our Neighbors Can Be a Little
Owly,’ I was inspired by living here on Marco. I can show
you the scene right in our backyard. We planted palms outside, and left for vacation the next day. When we returned,
the two little burrowing owls who often hung out together,
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had four more owls while we were
away. The owls were waiting there
when we returned,” says Somerville
who began painting one of his grandest pieces from that palm tree scene.
In the midst of his paintings, wooden sculptures hang in the Somerville’s
magnificent home. Some of his sculptures are carved into puzzle-like pieces, creating an interactive approach to
his art. Other pieces are intricately
carved from an entire piece of oak,
and stained to bring out the details of
the wooden features.
“One of my favorite commissions
ever was a wooden piece of a mother
and daughter, that I carved from twoinch thick cherry wood, and another
was of a teeny girl in a big hat. It was
also carved from oak, and I gave that
to her grandparents.”
For art aficionados looking to sneak
a closer peek at Somerville’s work,
there are two locations on Marco
launching Somerville’s work into the
public eye. “I always have pieces at
the Marco Island Art League Center
for the Arts, and in the Light Gallery,
in the Shops of Old Marco,” says
Somerville.
Theater-goers who prefer to see
Somerville take the stage, look no further than the Florida Repertory Theater, in Ft. Myers, where Somerville
usually stars during season showings.
Somerville’s last artistic role was as a
father of the lead character, in a revival
of “You Can’t Take it With You.”
Somerville is already to embarking
on painting another piece based on his
recent travels in the Caribbean. He welcomes emails to [email protected]. M
In the Marco Island home of Bruce
Somerville and his wife Irene
Horowitz, the bathroom is adorned
with a vibrant sunset for relaxation.
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Some of Bruce Somerville’s pieces
were inspired from his days growing up in a small town in Iowa,
such as this work he created while
remembering a quiet moment
shared between two friends.