Elizabeth Bradford

She raised three sons on her grandfather's farm in Mecklenburg County, NC. Her family and family history often feature prominently in her paintings, including some of the 366 paintings that make up The Painted Journal, a printed record of her 49th birthday challenge to create a painting every day for a year over the course of 1999-2000. These subjects include paintings from a lily pool made by her great grandfather to eggs gathered from her brother's chickens.

Bradford admits the influence of painters such as Neil Welliver and Herb Jackson in her pursuit to create art, as well as the iconic Vincent van Gogh. Additional influences include the Pattern and Decoration movement of the 1970s, late 19th century painters, and the artists of Abstract Expressionism. She began her art career drawing with colored pencils on paper before advancing to painting with gouache. She currently uses acrylic on canvas and wood.

Bradford's North Carolina roots go back to the early 1700s; the farm she lives on was bought by her great grandfather in 1890. Growing up in rural North Carolina, Elizabeth Bradford says that as a child, she felt "caged", but that in making art, she found freedom from control. While in college at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, she took a trip to the Sahara desert which influenced her appreciation for the greatness of the outdoors. Her paintings, which depict wild landscapes, are a way of breaking free for her.