Gwendolyn Bragg

Bio

Gwendolyn Bragg is an award winning watercolor artist, sought after teacher and workshop leader who works in transparent watercolor. She holds a BS in Art Education and a MFA in Painting and Drawing from James Madison University. Her work is a part of private collections in the USA and abroad as well as public collections at NIH, Philip Morris, and the Carrier Library of JMU. She has been awarded signature status in the National, Southern, Alabama (silver), Baltimore and Virginia Watercolor Societies. Her work has been published in Artist's Magazine, Elan, and The Artistic Touch Volumes 4, 5 and 6.

Born in Richmond, Virginia, Gwen has lived and painted in various places in the Commonwealth as well as, for seven years, in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Her love of history, especially that of the ancient Mediterranean, has led her to lead adult students on plein air workshops in Italy, Greece, France, Sicily, and Spain as well as New Mexico, Peru, and Mexico. She currently lives in Northern Virginia with her husband and two somewhat overindulged cats and teaches and maintains a studio at The Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton, Virginia.

Philosophy

Gwen finds beauty in the way light moves across both natural and man-made forms. Capturing these moments in time using transparent watercolor allows her to share what she sees with others and perhaps inspire viewers to look more closely at the world around them and to reflect upon it. The travel workshops that she has led have included opportunities to paint at historic and, almost always, archaeological sites. Her own paintings of these subjects, her Stone on Stone Series, emphasize light and textures and invite viewers to consider the implications of the mutability of all things and the question of what really endures. Her Beneath the Surface Series depicts the movement of water over stones. The visual contrast of the fluidity of the flowing water over the solidity of the stones beneath can stimulate viewers to more thoughtful awareness of the nature, of time, and the various paces of change. In short, her paintings are more than simply visually pleasing; they signify something deeper than the subjects she portrays, inviting those who see her art to rethink and enjoy the world around them in a new way