Artist. Sculptor. Creative Force. Dreamer. Visionary. Craftsman. Aesthete.
The first seven of many monikers that come to mind when considering the
force of will that is contained in the artwork and mind of the
Wimberley, Texas artist, Gil Bruvel.
As a child he began e xpressing himself through drawing and painting. Born of
French parents in Australia in 1959, Bruvel was raised in southern France. His
father’s cabinetmaking shop became a classroom,Gil learning early on about
precision and three-dimensional design by carving and creating in wood. As a
young teen he was accepted into a respected art restoration workshop, where he
received an intensive hands-on education in art techniques and history. He began visiting the United States in the mid-1980s, had his first American solo show—a sell-out—in Laguna Beach, Ca. in 1988, and settled in this country in 1990.
Since then, Bruvel has passionately pursued an organic surge of artistic expression
through a range of mediums and forms. Among them: painting, graphite
pencil, bronze-casting, functional furniture, mixed media, public sculpture, and
works in stainless steel. “I find continual and ever-changing inspiration in the
constant observation of the infinite layers within my surroundings,” Bruvel says. “If
there is an intention to understand and completely open oneself up to what is
being observed, then patterns start to