About the Artist

After thirty six years in the non-profit world with a focus on serving people I discovered that through art I am able to continue my life passions of making life better for others. Through painting I am able to be about the call of drawing others to original beauty, truth and goodness. This congruence of gifting and calling opened new doors to find beauty in every place and to point others in that direction.   In order to see beauty one must become interior to the work and enter into its radiant space and spell.  To quote a phrase of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Earths crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God: and only he who sees, takes off his shoes.”  Seeing has consumed me as I seek to see and express through my painting the beauty of the ordinary, the true and the suffering of the cosmos and all its expressions.  In  Ms Barrets words I have removed my shoes.

My personal motivations for creating visual art is summed up in this quote by Dorothy Sayer…..

 “Professional standards, the standards of ambition and selfishness, are always sliding downward toward expense, ostentation, and mediocrity. They tend always to narrow the ground of judgment. But amateur standards, the standards of love, are always straining upward toward the humble and the best. They enlarge the ground of judgment. The context of love is the world.”  

For  a short video about me go vimeo at https://vimeo.com/194608080 

Art Studios and Galleries where you may find my work include:

Mattie King Davis Art Gallery, Beaufort NC. https://beauforthistoricsite.org/gallery/

Gbradley Studios, Cary , NC   www.gbradleystudios.com

Art Study:

Independent Studio Training from  watercolorist David Stickle, oil paintersLouis Carr, Kristin Dill  Michael Klein & Joshua LaRock 

Art Critique Sessions with Ben Williams, Former Curator NC Museum of Art

Workshops with Colley Whisson, Patti Mollica,  Perry Austin, Lee Boynton, Dan Nelson, and Hyatt Moore

Selected Juried Exhibitions and Awards:

2003    NC State Fair Amateur Fine Arts Competition

2004    NC State Fair Amateur Fine Arts Competition, Second Place Amateur Award

2005    NC State Fair Amateur Fine Arts Competition

2006    Visual Art Exchange Figurative Painting Juried Competition

2007-9 NC State Fair Professional Fine arts Competition

2011    Scope: the North Carolina landscape

Juried by Allie Pitcher, Curatorial Assistant, Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, VA.

2012    Town of Cary Artist program featured Artist with David Foster

2012-15  Fine Arts League of Cary juried members show

2016    Small Treasures  Show

Numerous other local Shows

Art Endeavors:

Owner, founder and Art Director for Waverly Artists Group from 2010-2016 www.waverlyartistsgroup.com  

Co founder of Via Affirmativa an international network of art makers intent on rehumanizing the world through beauty

Founded the Plein Air Paintout in Colorado Springs, CO

Former- Instructor and Board member at Pocosin Arts, Columbia , NC http:/

Instructor of multiple private students

Juror for multiple art shows

Member of Fine Arts League, Cary, NC

Member The Artist Coalition, Angier,  NC   https://theartistscoalition.com/