Bruce Munro

Bruce Munro (born 1959, London) is an English artist primarily concerned with the medium of light. He is best known for producing large immersive site-specific installations, often by massing components in the thousands. Frequently, Munro’s subject matter is his own experience of fleeting moments of rapport with the world and existence in its largest sense, of being part of life’s essential pattern. His reoccurring motif is the use of light on an environmental scale in order to create an emotional response for the viewer.

An artistic diarist, Munro has spent over 30 years collecting and recording ideas and images in his sketchbooks, which he returns to over time for source material. Language, literature, science, and music have also greatly influenced his work.

Life and career

Bruce Beaton St Clair Munro was born on 2 June 1959 in London, the youngest of three children born to Judith Ames and Brian Munro. His parents divorced in 1965.

In 1977, he completed a Foundation course in Art and Design at Braintree Technical College, and in 1982 graduated from Bristol Polytechnic in Fine Art with a focus on painting. He traveled to Sydney, Australia in 1984, intending it to be a six-month working holiday, but instead staying eight years.

Field of Light

The Field of Light is a large scale site-specific light-based installation created by British artist Bruce Munro.

The sculpture slowly changes colour, creating a shimmering field of light.

Field of Light was originally conceived in 1992, when Munro took a trip through central Australia with his fiancée (now wife). To Munro, the red desert had an incredible feeling of energy, ideas seemed to radiate from it along with the heat: "I recorded thoughts of creating a sculpture on a landscape scale, incongruous in size and location, and experienced by the transient visitors...I saw in my mind a landscape of illuminated stems that, like dormant seeds in a dry desert, quietly wait until darkness falls, under a blazing blanket of southern stars, to bloom with gentle rhythms of light." The Field of Light installation was one idea that landed in the artist's sketch book and refused to dislodge from his mind, until finally realized for the first time in 2004.

The Field of Light has been installed in a number of places:

Bruce

The Scots-English language name Bruce arrived in Scotland with the Normans, from the place name Brix of the Manche département in Normandy, France, meaning "the willowlands". Initially promulgated via the descendants of King Robert I of Scotland (Robert the Bruce) (1274-1329), it has been a Scottish surname since medieval times; it is now a common given name.

The variant Lebrix and Le Brix are French variations of the surname.

Actors

Musicians

Munro

A Munro ( listen ) is a mountain in Scotland with a height over 3,000 feet (910 m). Munros are named after Sir Hugh Munro, 4th Baronet (1856–1919), who produced the first list of such hills, known as Munros Tables, in 1891. A Munro top is a summit that is not regarded as a separate mountain and which is over 3,000 feet. In the 2012 revision of the tables, published by the Scottish Mountaineering Club, there are 282 Munros and 227 further subsidiary tops. The best known Munro is Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the British Isles.

The Munros of Scotland present challenging conditions to hikers, particularly in winter. Each year, people die on the mountains. Nevertheless, a popular practice amongst hillwalkers is "Munro bagging", the aim being to climb all of the listed Munros. As of 2009, more than 4,000 had reported completing their round. The first continuous round of the Munros was completed by Hamish Brown in 1974, whilst the current holder of the record for the fastest continuous round is Stephen Pyke, who completed his 2010 round in just under 40 days.

Waddesdon Manor

Waddesdon Manor is a country house in the village of Waddesdon, in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located in the Aylesbury Vale, 6.6 miles (10.6 km) west of Aylesbury. The house was built in the Neo-Renaissance style of a French château between 1874 and 1889 for Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild (1839–1898) as a weekend residence for grand entertaining.

The last member of the Rothschild family to own Waddesdon was James de Rothschild (1878-1957). He bequeathed the house and its contents to the National Trust. It is now administered by a Rothschild charitable trust that is overseen by Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild. It is one of the National Trust's most visited properties, with around 335,000 visitors annually.

Architecture

Prior to the construction of Waddesdon Manor, no house existed on the site. Ferdinand de Rothschild wanted a house in the style of the great Renaissance châteaux of the Loire Valley. The Baron, a member of the Viennese branch of the Rothschild banking dynasty, chose as his architect Gabriel-Hippolyte Destailleur. Destailleur was already experienced in working in this style, having overseen the restoration of many châteaux in that region, in particular that of the Château de Mouchy.