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A Man Of Many Colors

Tribune photo by LOIS KINDLE

Bruce Marsh of Ruskin, 70, is a former college professor whose childhood love of art took him through a lifelong career in the arts. Here, he stands in his studio beside one of his recent landscapes, which was painted on-site, outdoors.

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By LOIS KINDLE

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 21, 2008

RUSKIN - Bruce Marsh fell in love with art when he was a boy. Now, more than 50 years later, he's still painting - and promoting the arts in a community he has grown to love.

"We're so happy here in Ruskin," Marsh said. "We live right on the Little Manatee River and have a number of close friends nearby. The area is Old Ruskin, like it was in the 1940s."

Marsh is vice president of the Ruskin Community Development Foundation's board of directors, is a member of the John Crawford Art Education Studio Advisory Council at the SouthShore Regional Library and a board member for the SouthShore Regional Arts Council.

He is an acclaimed landscape and mural artist, whose medium is mostly oils on canvas. For years, Marsh primarily worked from photographs he took while on vacation. But during the past three years, his preference is en plein air, painting the outdoors using natural light and subjects, with a focus on southern Hillsborough County.

He has won dozens of awards and shown his work in exhibitions throughout the country. He has gallery affiliations in Tampa, New York City, Sarasota and Los Angeles, and pieces in public collections in Washington, New Orleans, Sarasota, St. Petersburg, Tampa and Lakeland. The Raymond James corporate headquarters in St. Petersburg also houses some of his pieces.

"I love painting," Marsh said. "It's frustrating, humbling, hugely satisfying and never-ending. The day I die, I'll still feel there's something more I could do to produce better images."

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Marsh graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1959 with a bachelor's degree in fine art and did graduate work in painting at UCLA in 1960 and 1963. He earned a master's in painting in 1965 from California State University at Long Beach.

He moved to Florida that year to accept a teaching job at St. Petersburg Junior College. In 1968, he was hired as an art professor at the University of South Florida, where he worked until he retired in 2003 and is now a professor emeritus.

"It was the greatest job in the world," Marsh said. "I got paid to talk about what I love, work with young people and paint. The state of Florida was the greatest patron in the world."

In 1980, Marsh married Dolores Coe, an accomplished artist, who later taught at the Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota for 14 years. In 2005, she left to devote herself to painting.

Two years ago, they moved from Lutz to Ruskin after friends told them about a house for sale next door. The couple rebuilt the old, three-bedroom home and added a wing with separate art studios.

Marsh said he's excited that the arts council is making headway in the area.

"Art is important to the community," Marsh said. "At its best, it's an ethical act, showing human beings at their best. Whenever we look at great cultures, we study their art. No matter what form it takes, art involves intelligence, imagination, memory and the physical senses.

"So many people today are caught up in making a living. Without art, we are simply animals. To explore it is to be human."

GET TO KNOW

WHO: Bruce Marsh

WHAT: Landscape and mural artist

AGE: 70

RESIDENCE: Ruskin

PERSONAL: Married to artist Dolores Coe; three children: Nathan, magician in Sarasota; Adam, marine biologist in Antarctica; and Allison, multimedia producer and business owner, Tampa; five grandchildren.

HOBBIES: Flats and river fishing; traveling; reading nonfiction and mysteries; running with his wife at E.G. Simmons Park

Reporter Lois Kindle can be reached at (813) 865-1553 or lkindle@tampatrib.com.

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