By Rick Evans
When Wayne Pruse was growing up, his dream was to be a guitar player. Unfortunately, he found that he and the guitar didn’t quite take to each other. What he did discover along the way was that his passion for creativity came to fruition through the art of painting. He has spent his life working as a renowned illustrator, painter, sculptor, and arts educator.
Pruse was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and raised in Silver Bay. He began his journey as an artist in 1972 after serving in the U.S. Army. In 1975, he found himself in Bismarck, North Dakota, where he worked for a time at Dakota Printing as a commercial artist. Over time, he became known for his original illustrations and paintings and was able to work as a freelance artist, which led to displaying and selling his works at art fairs across the Midwest. As Pruse gained notoriety, offers for increasingly interesting projects came his way to the extent that he was eventually able to devote himself full-time to art projects of his choosing.
In 1998, Pruse was hired by Unit ed Tribes Technical College in Bismarck, where he worked as the Chair of the Art / Art Marketing Department. As an educator, he taught drawing, painting, graphic design, and sculpture. He worked on a five year project with his students to create five permanent eagle sculptures for the city of Bismarck. These sculptures are on permanent display along Bismarck’s River Walk. In 2002, he created a 25-by-24-foot landscape mural at the Prime Care Medical Clinic in Bismarck, and in 2005, he was commissioned to create a life-sized horse sculpture with a 24-by-8-foot backdrop mural for the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame Museum, located in Medora, North Dakota.
Pruse collaborated with his wife, Lynn Prouty, to develop a creative arts program with Charles Hall Youth Services in Bismarck, where they taught art to young people between the ages of 12 to 18. The agency provided support services and residential foster care for 60 to 70 youth per year.
In 2009, Wayne received a commission from Harvard University to create a sky mural depicting thunderbirds and spirit war ponies amidst swirling storm clouds. The work was part of an exhibit titled Wiyohpiyata (Powers Of The West) and combined works from both Indigenous American and non-Indigenous Artists. The sky mural was displayed at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.
Wayne’s specialty, with regard to painting, is hyper-realism, a technique that makes it easy for one to think they are looking at a photograph rather than a painting.
Many of his paintings can be seen and purchased at the Wayne Pruse – Official Art Store through the Fine Art America website. Wayne and Lynn are back in Silver Bay and are enjoying retirement on the North Shore. The Silver Bay Public Library will be hosting an art exhibit featuring 15 to 20 of Wayne’s paintings. The exhibit will run from November 5th to December 30th. There will be an Artist’s Reception at the library on December 7th, where folks can meet Wayne and Lynn. Both original paintings and prints of his work will be available for purchase during the exhibition.
