Bruce Harvey

Bruce Harvey is a New Zealand wildlife artist who was born in 1931.

Bruce Harvey’s foray into the art world began at the Otago Museum, painting the inside of display cases. It was also at the Otago Museum where Bruce met Lilli Daff who had illustrated a book for the New Zealand Forest & Bird Society. Possibly her carefully executed bird paintings had some bearing on his later career. Later Bruce worked as a freelance designer and director on some major campaigns including during a latter period working with Raymond Ching.

'New Zealand Botanical Paintings' - 40 full size works with text by E. J. Godley, and published by Whitcoulls in 1969 was a first in this field for Harvey, but it was during this botanical period that he had paintings on display in the New York Museum of Natural History, and four of his works were purchased for their permanent collection by the Hunt Memorial Library, Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburg USA.

In 1971 Reeds published his book, 'A Portfolio of New Zealand Birds' and the American publishers, Tuttle & Co took part of this run for their own market. Bruce Harvey followed up this entry to the American market by sending samples and colour slides to various Arts Advisory Councils, which resulted in many requests for his work. He is represented by the Kennedy Galleries in New York and the Country Store Gallery in Austin Texas, and has had a major exhibition of Vanishing American Wildlife in New York.