Art of peace

When Betty Bradley, 69, was in the second grade, she proclaimed that she wanted to be a nun, and in 1960 she took her vows to become a Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration, a group that describes itself as “a community of Catholic sisters working together to extend God’s kingdom on Earth – bringing peace, sharing life, building hope.”

Bradley also hopes that her paintings bring peace to a viewer. “Once at a gallery showing someone came up to me and said, ‘When I look at your work, I see peace,’ ” Bradley said, “That’s good.”

Bradley’s work does convey a sense of peace. Watercolor is her main medium which she applies to paper and, more recently canvas, with a brush or a spray bottle. “I like to do ‘pouring’ and letting it do its own thing,” she said. “Pouring” allows the watered-down color to form its own organic-looking shapes to the painting which add to its overall flowing effect.

Her subjects range from architectural pieces to abstract. Her piece, “Dreamworlds,” shows texture and circular designs that look like floating bubbles that contain worlds of their own or distortions of the world that they float in. Her floral designs are almost ethereal and angellike, and her piece, “Free Spirited,” has half a dozen birds frolicking in a dreamy sky.

Bradley grew up in Spokane and earned a bachelor’s degree from Viterbo College, LaCrosse, Wis., and a master’s degree from Seattle University. She has worked as a teacher in elementary and high schools, as a director of religious education for preschool through adults, was a co-founder of an art gallery in Oregon, and director of the Clare Center in Spokane.

Bradley began watercolor studies in 1990 when she lived next door to a nun who taught art. Since then, she has developed her skills with the help of more than a dozen artists well-known in their fields, including the two and a half years she studied with artists from the North Light Art School in Cincinnati.

Retired now for the most part, Bradley is a full-time artist. She is a member of the Spokane Watercolor Society where she held executive positions from 1999 to 2003. She taught watercolor classes from 1993 to 2007, her paintings hang in public and private collections in a dozen states, and her résumé lists 100 group and solo showings of her work in Oregon, Wisconsin, Washington and Idaho.

Currently, her work can be seen online, at the Gallery of Thum in downtown Spokane and at On Sacred Grounds in Valleyford through the end of September.

At a recent showing of her work in Omak, Wash., , a woman approached Bradley and said, “When I look at your work, I hear ‘Take time to look at the beauty in the world.’ ” The comment acknowledged Bradley’s talent in bringing peace to others through her roles as both an artist and a sister.

In her artist’s statement, she writes, “Involvement in the process of painting nourishes and energizes my spirit. The beauty and goodness surrounding us in all of creation elicits a personal response that wants to be visualized and shared.”