Katherine Bradford’s recent paintings can be read as hilarious and catastrophic, decorative and sublime. They are concerned with the ocean, populated by boats and bathers, as a metaphor for the vagaries of modern life. Like many maritime artists before her,
Bradford enjoys capturing waves with vigorous brushstrokes, but she does not aim at rendering nature realistically. Instead, she subversively imitates abstract art, reinterpreting it in her own figurative idiom. The result is an original and inimitable tribute to contemporary art by this New York-based painter who also is a long-time member of the Maine arts community.