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“I was intrigued that a stone had been
slowly changing for millions of years before
I was drawn to pick it up. I wanted to reveal
their silent lives, their hidden beauty.”
Gayle arrived at Braldt’s studio one
day, unannounced. She asked him, “What
are you trying to say?” He replied, “I don’t
know. I don’t know if the paintings speak
to people.” She suggested, “If I may,
I want to bring five of your paintings to
my office to live with for a few days.” Notlong after, Braldt had a solo exhibition,
Stone Lifes, featuring 27 of his paintings
at Gerald Peters.
About seven years ago, Braldt had to
stop working when seeing and painting
became too difficult. “For five years I liter-
ally couldn’t do it,” he explains. In 2011,
I had been introduced to Braldt by Gayle
and had written a profile of him and his
work for this magazine. I knew Braldt had
stopped painting and when I saw a painting(Eventide) on his Facebook page dated 2020,
I was eager to get in touch again.
Braldt’s road back to painting was paved
by a guardian angel in the form of Carol
Anthony. He expressed to Carol that he
wanted to paint again, but doubted his
capability. He also had no place to work.
He asked Abigail Ryan, a mutual friend and
fellow artist if she thought Carol might be
open to collaborating on a piece, to help get
him going again. Carol invited him to herBurst, oil on panel, 24 x 24 "