Gregory
Bridges was born in 1951 in Melbourne, spending
his early childhood in a house built and
designed by his father in country suburb
of Melbourne. His father Ronald was an Optometrist
and Mechanical Engineer, his mother worked
in photography, teaching Photographic colouring
at Swinbourne University. Greg’s mother
encouraged his creative ability, which was
apparent
at an early age.
The family moved to Sydney when Greg was 12 years old, when his father accepted
a position as General Manager of a large Aluminium company. At this time he created
his first Futuristic work, which was selected to be sent to The British Isles
as examples of Australian Children’s work.
In 1962 he was gaining an interest in Science Fiction, being inspired by the
background cities and designs from movies like Forbidden Planet. There were also
books the family had that he was fascinated with including many works by HG Wells
and Robert Louis
Stevensons work. In the movies he loved the design of the cities these held
a
special fascination for him. Like the city in The Wizard of OZ, The ships in
HG Wells War of the Worlds and the design of the steel submarine in contrast
to the old wooden ships in Jules Vern's 2000 Leagues Under the Sea. |
|
In
1965 at the age of 14 in art class at High
School he was introduced to the work of Salvador
Dali by way of Dali’s painting ‘The
Burning Giraffe’. This painting opened
the door to his interest in Surrealism. Drawing
on inspiration
from this work Greg captured those colours
in his own art at the same time and surprised
the art teachers with an experiment of combining
futuristic images like HG Wells War of the
worlds and robotic buildings in a 4’x3’ acrylic
work This was to set the direction Greg would
explore. By 1968 he had achieved marks in
Art that placed him in the top ten students
in the state setting the stage for his future
career.
In 1969 he went to college and studied art for the introductory year of the Arts
Diploma. After this he set out to combine the work of fine art, surreal art and
Sci-fi art into his now unique art form. His vision was to create science fiction
art as fine art.
Greg's most known work has a very distinctive style with exquisite detail.
The artwork on this website is currently an eclectic selection from early to
2004 works. |
