Bruce Elliott Roberts was born on May 27, 1918 in Montreal, Canada.  He is best known as a marine artist specializing in paintings of sailing ships, fishing vessels, dories, naval engagements and shore scenes.

Early Life

Bruce always wanted to be an artist.  As a child he knew where his passions lie and would sketch ships on his textbooks and notes.  When he was about 10 years old, Bruce ran away to sea.  He had signed on as a cabin boy on a freighter.  The Captain of the ship discovered what was going on and contacted his parents who came and got him before the ship left port.  Shortly thereafter, he was sent to Peeksgill Military Academy at the age of 10 until the 1929 Wall Street crash.  Around the age of 14 or 15, he chose to enlist in the United States Navy where he served for 7 years.

When he was 19 he won First Prize out of 16,000 entries in the prestigious International Propeller Club art contest.  The prize was  a trip to Europe where he took advantage by traveling by bicycle and sketching and painting throughout England and France.   Bruce was in England just before World War II broke out.  Without passage home, Bruce thought he would be stuck in Britain until he met Joe Kennedy Sr.  Mr. Kennedy was able to obtain a position for Bruce on a freighter where he was able to return home.

The crash of ’29 had hit Bruce and his family hard and Bruce supported his family by selling newspapers, clams and fish and working in an advertising agency as an errand boy.  During the evenings, he would go to school to take his art classes.  It was during this time that working for the advertising agency he met the girl who would be the love of his life, Dorothy “DeeDee” Black.

DeeDee was attending George Washington College during the day and Bruce was working nights.  Bruce and his friend would ride the same bus as DeeDee and perform their very own comedy routine at the back of the bus.  This bus however, wasn’t Bruce’s bus – he just rode it with his buddy so he could see DeeDee.  Although they hadn’t been “properly” introduced, and never spoke directly to one another, DeeDee said he made her laugh all the way home.  Once DeeDee got off the bus, Bruce would ride the bus back to his original stop, get off and wait for the next bus to take him into work.

One of his first full time professions was as an Art Director and Graphic Designer.  He had moved to Miami and worked for an ad agency there and one his biggest accomplishments was designing the logo which would be used by Mayor’s Jewelers for a time.  Bruce traveled extensively throughout the Caribbean and South America where he became fluent in Spanish.  He also spent some time in Cuba during the time of Batista, just before Castro took power.

In 1945 Bruce married DeeDee in Washington, DC.  Shortly thereafter he became Captain of the family’s 80 foot schooner the “Delaware”  and lived on it for two years in New York.  After they both realized the cold winters of New York were not conducive to living on the open water, they sold the boat and moved to Florida where they bought and lived for 22 years on a 43′ gaff-rigged ketch named the “Calypso Queen”.  The raised their five children, Christian, Dru, Court, Laurie, and Matthew while cruising the Bahamas and living in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands for a year.

His experience living on ships brought a unique perspective to his work.  He understood how the wind affected the sails, how the waves would crash upon the rocks, where rust would accumulate on a vessel from salt water and where wood would become worn on a ship.

Transition to Artist

Drawn to his love of maritime art, Bruce found a new passion in easel painting.  This transfer was the most difficult for him and although he was well grounded in composition, color and design, his techniques in oil painting had become rusty.  It was quite a struggle but he saw it as a challenge and began reacquiring the fundamentals of painting.  He began building research on his subjects by extensive reading, making scale models and using photography as an aid.  Over time, he amassed a reference file of over 10,000 photographs of model ships, gulls, skies, barrels, wharfs, ships rigging, dinghy and dory boats and ships gear of every kind.  He began displaying his work in local outdoor shows while his wife, DeeDee managed the books, correspondences and arranged his show schedule – all while raising his 5 children.

As his reputation as a premier maritime artist grew, he received commissions such as the one he did for Congress for the South Wing of the Capitol building.  He chose a sea action of the War of 1812 because that section of the Capitol was rebuilt after being burned by the English in the War of 1812.  The painting was presented to the speaker of the House, Mr. Carl Albert, and the Capitol architect at a party sponsored by the Sergeant at Arms of the House of Representatives, Mr. Kenneth R. Harding which was attended by over 200 senators and congressmen.

He said one of the high points of his life was when the Florida Arts Commission asked him to do a painting for the Rotunda of the Supreme Court building in Tallahassee and the total Court adjourned for an hour to accept the painting.

His works received other honors and recognition and he was commissioned to paint for the Rosenberg Library in Galveston, and the Ford and Mellon Collections.

The Educator and Historian

The one piece of advice he offered to other young struggling artists was dedication to the craft.  His personal mantra of “work, think, work”  was not unique but provided him with the self-discipline he needed to ensure that his work was authentic and accurate.

In teaching other young artists he offered these lessons:

• Paint light, light, light
• Open your eyes – your “inner eyes” so that you may see
• The Old Masters are the greatest teachers.  Studies their palettes, their lives, their techniques and their works.  Preferably by visiting the originals in museums or by studying textbooks and prints.
• Paint, paint, paint.  Every day.  All day.  Just as in any other job, for without self-discipline you can’t make it

Bruce was surprised to find that many artists didn’t care to paint ships, or having tried to paint them, realized the amount of heavy research necessary in proper period rigging, naval battles and engagements and sailing techniques to provide the level of detail needed.

Because of his desire for fidelity, each painting was painstakingly researched.  He went exhaustive lengths to consult with marine museums in the United States and Europe but his mainstay was the enormous library which he collected for years  to which he was constantly adding.

The Artist

He treated painting as his job with the day starting at 8am and ending at 5pm – or sometimes 6, if he was really into his work.  He preferred the daylight of his studio but he was often found in his studio at night researching, sketching or studying.  He understood that in order for his work to be appreciated it had to be correct.  He knew the sky, sea and ship must be correct.  The waves must match the wind direction; the sea and sky must match the locale; the ship construction and rigging must match the history of the times and the original sources were always best for the historian.

Often Bruce would make models of ships (or have them built by master model makers) just as the early Dutch and English marine painters did, and then would photograph the models in hundreds of different positions in varying degrees of light and shade in order to understand how the ship would appear.  He once figured that he had amassed over 9,000 photographs of models and ship’s gear (masts, blocks, barrels and details of actual sailing ships) alone.

He experimented with his palettes, sometimes using the palettes of the Old Masters, sometimes the Impressionists and that of a contemporary palette which contained no earth colors and no black.  He tried a palette taken from the English School of marine painters of the 18th century which was heavy with umbers and browns.  He often advised that the artist should “fit the palette to the painting” and not the other way around.  He often studied the works of the great maritime painters such as Turner, Dawson, Patterson, Canaletto, Van de Welde, Constable, Boudin, Daubigny, Twatchman and Homer.

Bruce favored oil and worked on surfaces such as high grade imported linen, masonite and mahogany panels.  He preferred to make the panels himself, carefully building up each panel with three to six coats of gesso then sanding them smooth and finally adding a coat of a special preparation before he would begin painting with the oils.   He used a variety of glazes and impasto – maintaining that Degas was right – each surface must be worked, scraped, rubbed added to, scraped again and repeating this process until it “attained character”.