Bruce Miller – Wildlife
Born in Minneapolis in 1952, Bruce Miller showed signs of artistic talent at an early age, Given a set of acrylic paints for seventh grade art class, he painted exclusively with acrylics until 1999, when he began painting with oils.
After high school, Bruce majored in art at St. Cloud State University and expanded his horizons as a world traveler. He returned to Minnesota to seriously pursue his art career in 1975. Miller experimented with a variety of genres including portraits, landscape, abstract and surrealism. Being an avid outdoorsman and Eagle Scout, in 1981 he began painting wildlife.
In 1988 he won his first national contest, Artist of the Year for the Michigan Wildlife Art Festival and since has won over 50 awards and been featured at several major art shows in the country.He has won 23 conservation stamps including the 1993 Federal Duck Stamp and recently the 2015 Texas Duck Stamp. And was named the 1999 Ducks Unlimited International Artist of the Year, The National Wild Turkey Federation Artist of the Year 2008 and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation Artist of the Year in 2002 and 2011. Miller’s work has generated over $10,000,000 for conservation. Conservation of wetlands being paramount in his life.
His work also has won critical acclaim, being selected for the Leigh Yawkey Woodson “Birds in Art” exhibition. His paintings have won two ‘Award of Excellence’ honors, at the Natureworks art show in Tulsa. He has also won two Artist Choice awards at the Artist Studio and Auction at the Calgary Stampede, most recently in 2014. He also does the Dallas Safari Club show in January and SCI in Las Vegas in February. In 1999, Miller was moved by some art he saw at The Museum of Russian Art in Minneapolis. He decided to switch to oil and attempt to paint in a more impressionistic manner. His work continues to evolve after years of intense study.
The city of his residence during the Federal Duck Stamp win in 1993 showed their appreciation for one of their own by dedicating a wildlife preserve, in Bruce’s name.
He was especially moved in 2012 by a once in a lifetime exibit of Nicolai Fechin at the Museum of Russian Art in Minneapolis. You will see the influence in his chicken portraits and cougar painting. He continues to evolve as all art does. And he continues to experiment with expressionistic techniques.
His passions outside of art are bird and duck hunting, and fly fishing. He will fly fish for anything he can, but his favorite sport is doing a canoe float and fly fishing for smallmouth bass with popper flies.