Bruce Coffin: No Shortage of Talent

On Saturday, January 12, 2008, Detective Sergeant Bruce Coffin unveiled a large painting he was commissioned to do by the Police Unions, depicting a roll call from the 1940s. The event occurred at the third annual Portland Police Department's Recognition Ceremony, held at the Holiday Inn by the Bay.

It will be installed at Headquarters on Middle Street.

Doesn't it make you feel as though you're in an old detective movie?

That's Chief Tim Burton on the left and the very talented artist Bruce Coffin on the right.

Bruce Coffin is a tall, elegant man with the voice of a TV or radio announcer. He has been interested in art his entire life. As a youngster, he drew all the time. As is common with many children who have a talent for drawing, he was treated specially because of this artistic gift. Coffin has had no formal training, but his wife Karen encouraged him to pursue his love of art after Coffin’s mother showed her some of the things he’d created during his youth. Karen bought him lots of art supplies and signed him up for a short period of art lessons as a surprise. Coffins says "I picked it up quickly; I read and tried to do things on my own."

Coffin enjoys working with watercolors and oils, and especially likes the effects he can achieve using glazes on oil paintings. He has an affinity for the outdoors and enjoys painting landscapes.

He also likes to do portraits and has done many of deceased relatives of the people who commission him to do such paintings. "You get drawn into portrait work. I try to capture what those people appeared to be at their best; the way you’d want them remembered." Pet portraits are another area where Coffin excels, and he’s done numerous commissions of animals. Coffin also has a Web site featuring many fine examples of his work.

Coffin hit it off and became friendly with a local artist, Suran (Sam) Kaklegian, who had been in art his entire life. Kaklegian became his mentor and was "a huge influence. He gave me critiques that were really helpful. After Sam died I did a pencil drawing of him for his wife Suzanne."

All of the Wyeths are favorites of Coffin, particularly N. C. Wyeth, whose work he was fascinated with when reading books in childhood illustrated by him. Norman Rockwell is another artist that Coffin admires. "His portraits tell a story," says Coffin.

At the present time, Bruce Coffin’s art is a second career. He’s a Detective Sergeant working for the Portland Police Department, where he’s been on loan since 2004 to the Joint Terrorism Task Force. Coffin’s law enforcement career spans a 23-year period. He started out working a foot beat and has been in many different units, including patrol and traffic, where he investigated fatal accidents. Coffin joined the Detective Bureau in 1997 was promoted to Sergeant in 1998, rejoining the Detective Bureau as a Detective Sergeant in 1999, and holding that rank since then.

Coffin says that he has become more of an extrovert because of his art, and he enjoys combining his art and his law enforcement career. In 2006 Coffin did a portrait of Sergeant Michael J. Wallace, who was a beloved member of the Portland Police Department and had mentored many of the young officers. An award had just been named in Wallace’s honor and Coffin presented his painting at the department’s Recognition Ceremony, in 2007. The painting was very warmly received and now hangs in Headquarters.

Coffin shows his work in Portland’s summertime Sidewalk Art Festival and will be having an exhibit in August at The Gallery of Casco Bay Frames.

This painting of a sunrise over Portland's skyline was done from a view along Back Cove, where Coffin often jogs.

After retirement, he plans to work on his art full time, quipping, "I won’t be a starving artist because I’ll have a pension."

I hope you’ll mark down his opening date on your calendar.

Comments

[MARC]

HE IS VERY TALENTED AND I HOPE HE KEEPS UP WITH HIS "SECOND CAREER"

[Himayak Guzelian]

I`m very proud American/ Armenian like your mentor Suren Kaklegian, also I hear your beautiful voice in message box when you want speak about my son Shara Mike Guzelian ,Good people never lost name and recognition, Best Wishes To you and Portland Police Department, Yours, Guzelians.