North Georgia Arts Guild - Penny Bradley

From the North Georgia Arts Guild Penny Bradley’s W!ercol"s

By Susan Brewer

Happiness seems a part of the watercolors that Penny Bradley paints, whether dogs, cats, children, adults, or aged men. You can see it in their faces: their loving smiles, eyes, and looks. What a gift that is to have, the ability to portray that kind of warmth and goodness in an animal or person.

Penny has worked at it. She has been translating three dimensions into two since she was a child. When she looks at a face, she recasts that visual information into planes of color and shape, and areas of light and dark. Her portraits begin with drawing and end with water and the colored paint. She brings life to “life,” and when I asked her to describe how that happens, she opened with two questions: “What do you see there, and how do you get a three-dimensional thing down on your two-dimensional paper? I have to look at life, whether it’s a house or a person (or a dog), and say, okay, those are just shapes and colors… and some lines. And I’ve got to put them on my two-dimensional piece of art and make them look like I want them to. Seeing is learned, and practiced, though maybe some people are born with it. I practice—I need that.” Penny takes great pleasure in stepping outside the normal way of seeing. She likes investigating the puzzle before her, analyzing it, taking it apart and putting it back together. Next, she went on to describe the process of painting. “The beauty of watercolors is that you put paint on the paper and let it mix itself. You need to have a light touch. The JVUZ[HU[JOHSSLUNLPZ[VJHW[\YL[OLSPNO[;OLIYPNO[LZ[JVSVY`V\JHUNL[PZ[OLÄYZ[JVSVYSHPKKV^UVU[OLWHWLY(UK the fewer the layers, the more brilliant the paint is. If I have to throw more paint on there to make the portrait look right, I have to do it. But I don’t like to.”

Then she talked about the ongoing work sessions she takes part in with a group called Studio Alive that meets at the Bascom Center for the Visual Arts in Highlands, North Carolina. “We’re a mixed bag of artists, of all different levels. We draw directly from life every week. We get to see each other and talk about what we’re doing (outside & socially distanced). We sketch, or use pastel, or paint, or whatever. We bring our own supplies, and have a good time kind of helping each other out, talking about what we see and how we’re putting it together, how we’re interpreting what is before us, and how we’re putting it down. We all love to draw and create, and we don’t all do the same thing. If you can look at the chaos that’s out there and make some sense out of it – that sharpens your skills to do whatever you want to do.”

“I want to do paintings that I can be proud of, but the most important thing is that the purchaser is thrilled with the painting they get. I let it be known up front that if they are not happy, they owe me nothing.” Once, a woman sent her a photograph of an Australian Shepherd to paint. “When I emailed her back the picture that I had painted to see if it was to her liking, she told me, ‘Well, in that picture that I sent you – he had just gotten out of the pond and his hair was wet. Could you dry him off just a little bit?’” Penny was able to “dry the dog off” and her customer was happy in the end.

Penny doesn’t do this full time—she has other irons in the ÄYL·I\[ `V\ JHU YLHJO V\[ I` LTHPSPUN OLY H[ jwptbradley@ windstream.net.

The North Georgia Arts Guild is a growing collective of 100+ members who seek to celebrate the art and artists of our community. For more information – northgeorgiaartsguild.com

Susan Brewer has been writing articles featuring North Georgia Arts Guild members since April 2017. Email your comments/ questions to her at sbrewer991@gmail.com