Bruce Mishell’s first influence from the art world struck in the years of his Long Island youth. The fresh smell of oil paint in the air is a clear memory from those years of the swinging sixties and groovy seventies, when his father would paint oil landscapes in the basement of their house. Born in the 50’s, he was still a very young boy, but he knew from that point on he was destined to be an artist. Art was the only thing that kept him inspired.

So, when he graduated from high school, Bruce grabbed his backpack, hopped in a van with a couple of buddies, and drove across the country to Berkeley, California. For a year he audited classes at UC Berkeley and studied ceramics with the renowned sculptor, Peter Voulkos. Then it was back on the road again and a trek farther north to California’s Redwood forests. He settled in the rain forest in Eureka, California, where he received his AA at College of the Redwoods and studied with such greats at Bob Benson and Michael Moore. The lush forests of California brought him a new kind of inspiration, and following in his father’s footsteps he painted landscapes of the region’s terrain. In 1977, he had his first one-man show at College of the Redwoods, entitled “Watercolors.”

Next on the list was studies in ceramics and painting at Humboldt State University under the guidance of Susana Viola Jacobson, Leslie Price, Louis Marak and Bill Crawford. At Humboldt he started experimenting with his style, creating life-sized abstract kinetic ceramic sculptures, large-scale acrylic figurative, abstract paintings and even delving into black and white photography. Upon graduating in 1983, he had a show at the Humboldt State University Library.

Then 1984, it was goodbye to Humboldt and hello San Francisco. He continued producing and selling ceramic sculptures and doing Raku at the Noe Valley “Atelier.” He had a show at Valley’s Restaurant entitled “Coming Out” of oils on canvas that depicted the early 80’s outbreak of the AID’s epidemic.

In 1987, he moved to Los Angeles where he entered the commercial realm of the art world. While working as the art director for a t-shirt company, he completed a series of color pencil drawings and had an exhibition at the Traction Avenue Gallery in downtown LA.

At this point, Bruce decided to come full circle. In 1989, he came back to New York City. The next three years flew by working at the family business, an interior design and furniture dealership, until his father retired in 1992. . During this period, he developed and honed his skills as an interior designer.

At this point Bruce’s significant other developed full-blown AIDS. The next two years were a struggle as he devoted himself to him until his death in 1994. Bruce was completely devastated, depressed living in a 150 square foot studio and was not working. Then, 2 years later, finding a box of his friend’s oil paints and a canvas, Bruce started painting and never stopped.

For the past twelve years, Bruce has painted what he considers to be his most inspired work.

In 1999, he went back to the Art Student’s League of New York to surround himself with artists and study abstract oil painting with Larry Poons and Knox Martin. In the last dozen years he has put together a collection of over a hundred paintings, and has showed work everywhere from corporate buildings to restaurants and galleries. He also founded BruceAllan Design, which has in the past twelve years grown into a successful commercial interior design company in NYC.

Painting for Bruce Mishell is a transcendental experience. His approach is first to consciously and fully prepare his paints and canvases. Then he leaves conscious awareness and begins to spontaneously apply paint to the canvas. He enters a trance-like state, allowing the subconscious to fully take over. He becomes merely an observer being guided. In this realm of the subconscious he is unencumbered and able to express whatever moves him. He connects with the cosmic force that is always flowing, becomes one with it, and without realizing or consciously attempting he paints brilliant works of art. This is his gift. The process is a “vision quest.”

He is influenced by many painters, ranging from Michelangelo for his form, Van Gogh for his textures, Mattise and the Fauves for their inspired ardent colors and palette, the impressionists for their painterly techniques, and the 20th century painters such as Picasso, Rothko, Kandisky Chagall and Jackson Pollack for their freedom of expression. “I give tribute to all the artists before me for if not for them I would not be painting today,” he says. His current work consists of large-scale, brightly colored, neo- expressionist oil paintings.