Landscape of all kinds provides Bruce's subject matter: rural, industrial or marine, close-up or panoramic, painted on the spot in all seasons. The practical difficulties of this are put to one side as the vital thing for him is to be able to react directly to the subject - its colours, textures and light - to try to show something of what was special about a particular place at a particular time.

Bruce's materials (oil, gouache or acrylic) provide the strength of colour and tone and allow the variety of marks to be made which together suggest what it was like to be in front of the scene itself - as Bruce puts it, "something said 'Stop. Paint here'".