New Paintings by Bruce Nygren

With origins as a plein air landscape painter, Bruce Nygren decided to introduce fantastical floating objects into his compositions. Thus began the body of signature works, whereby classic mechanical and stuffed toys are featured in still life arrangements that are surreal yet contemplative. Sometimes landscape elements are introduced. Each of his paintings reveal human warmth and humor.

A longtime resident of south Minneapolis’s Longfellow neighborhood, Nygren has been painting fascinating arrangements of vintage toys and other objects he has collected since his days as a student at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Like many an art student he was drawn to the trove of visual stimuli in antique and thrift stores. Two of his earliest finds and continuously featured characters are a circa 1930 Steiff mohair covered, excelsior stuffed elephant on metal wheels and an iconic red painted pressed steel dump truck from Wyandotte Toy’s 1930’s lineup.

Interestingly, Nygren holds high regard for two farflung American artists of the early twentieth century. Early on he developed an appreciation for the exquisite drawing and storytelling skills of Carl Barks, a cartoonist known for his contributions to Walt Disney’s Donald Duck and his own character Scrooge McDuck. On the other end of the spectrum Nygren continues to admire the draftsmanship and technique of famed painter and illustrator N.C. Wyeth, known by many for his 1911 illustrations for the publishing house Charles Scribner's Sons classic, Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Image: Monkey, Globe, Kangaroo, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches