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| LOUIS T. BENEZET AWARD RECIPIENT
1999 |
Eric Bransby '47
It was a love of fine art that enticed Eric Bransby and his wife, Mary
Ann to Southern Colorado. Both had received four-year certificates from
the Kansas City Art institute in Kansas City Art Institute in Kansas City,
Missouri, studying with Thomas Hart Benton, the famous muralist of the
20s and 30s. After Eric's service in World War II, they arrived in Colorado
Springs to study with Boardman Robinson at the Fine Arts Center. Eric
was encouraged to complete his degree in mural painting at colorado College,
where he also completed several murals, including Settlement of the
West in Colorado College's Cossitt Rotunda Dome. After earning a
Bachelor of Arts degree in 1947, he completed a Master's degree in Fine
Arts at Yale and developed his own unique style that centered on the human
figure.
Eric earned the prestigious Edwin Austin Abbey Fellowship in 1952 and
obtained several major mural commissions over the next 20 years. Over
the decades, Eric developed his specialty - the use of many separate panels
to display a single mural scene.
Eric usually spends many months researching the building or site of his
mural before determining how his own work will be created. As Eric points
out, a successful muralist understands that each mural is intimately linked
to its architectural surroundings. "An easel painting is often seen
for three or four minutes in a competitive show," he explains."It
might be a show stopper, but that doesn't mean you would want to live
with it. A mural is part of the environment. If it's poorly done, even
the most untrained eye senses a conflict with the surrounding architecture."
Eric's work can be seen in public buildings, schools, museums, military
installations, universities and government facilities throughout the Midwest
and West such as the United States Air Force Academy, Brigham Young University,
and the University of Missouri. In 1985, Eric restored and repainted the
original 1930s murals created by his former teacher Boardman Robinson,
at the front entrance of the Colorado Springs fine Arts Center. His most
recent work consists of a 36-panel history of the Pikes Peak region for
the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum.
He is known nationally as a muralist and educator and has participated
in museum exhibitions in Washington, New York, and other art centers in
the United States, England and Russia. Eric is also widely recognized
as an authority on the Buon Fresco technique of the Italian Renaissance.
He is a four-decade Fellow of the National Society of Mural Painters and
is listed in Who's who in American Art, Who's Who in the West, and
Who's Who in America. As a Professor Emeritus of Art and Art
history at the University of Missouri-Kansas, he received the N.T. Veatch
award for distinguished research and creative activity in 1977. Eric and
Mary Ann make their home in Colorado Springs and remain professionally
active, Eric as a muralist and Mary Ann as a water colorist.
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