FACes & PlaceS
The Arts 2004

Gail Bracegirdle
by Marilyn Bullock

I first experienced and fell in love with Gail Bracegirdle’s delightful watercolors on one of my visits to the Riverbank Gallery in Stockton, NJ (one of the galleries that carries her work.) I was so pleased when I finally got to meet the artist and to add her to my “to be interviewed” list for NewHopePennsylvania.com.

Representational watercolor artist Gail Bracegirdle was born in Philadelphia, although she thinks she “should have been born under a palm tree - at least in a place where the weather is a bit warmer in winter.”

When she was twelve her parents moved to Levittown, PA to be closer to Rohm & Hass where her father worked as an engineer. Gail grew up in a creative environment - her mother took art lessons, all five children studied piano, and everyone in the family was (and still is) either artistically or bookishly inclined.

While most children do not even know what a textile designer is, Gail knew at an early age that textile design was what she wanted to study. She learned about textile design from her uncle, who had been a textile designer at her grandfather’s textile mill.

Gail majored in textile design at Moore College of Art in Philadelphia. After graduation, she followed her textile design professor, Georgia Woeber, who was starting up a freelance fabric design company in Jenkintown. She worked for Georgia for 15 years – even commuting to NYC when the business moved there. She worked as a freelancer for 10 more years.

Gail lived in Newtown for much of that time and, to stay close to the local art community, occasionally took evening art classes in New Hope. She decided to move to New Hope in 1975 and met her now husband Will Lewis in the parking lot at Village 2. The couple rented in New Hope for over ten years before purchasing a property in Bensalem 15 years ago. (This is where Gail still lives and commutes to her wonderful art studio at the Canal Works in Bristol, PA.)

Anxious to get back to fine art, Gail finally made the break from textile design about 12 years ago. She took a couple of watercolor classes just as a refresher and has been creating award winning watercolor paintings ever since.

Understandably, having just left the world of textile design, Gail started her watercolor career by painting flowers before moving onto other subjects. Though her work is representational, Gail’s design approach is abstract. Once she has selected her triadic palette, Gail generally starts with an abstract value study.

One doesn’t always think of a tactile surface in the context of watercolor paintings, yet this is where Gail excels. She manages to add the look and feel of texture to her paintings in traditional and nontraditional ways. Some of her paintings start by wetting the paper and gently crinkling it, creating a batik-like effect on the finished painting. Of this technique Gail says, “Trying this approach shouldn’t be an end in itself. Instead, let it lead you to different ways of looking at your artwork.”

Gail is also known for her unique “quilt paintings” where she recreates traditional quilt designs and patterns by layering watercolor textures and colors and then actually using her sewing machine to sew the design outline.

Gail has been teaching watercolor painting for over nine years. Her watercolor workshops at Triangle Art Center in Lawrenceville, NJ are a hit every season. She also runs “Out and About in Bucks County,” a series of plein air classes she holds during summer months. Her “Sunday Morning in the Garden” outings are similar but take place in local gardens. Last year she also ran a workshop for the Grounds for Sculpture in Trenton, NJ.

Gail is having a one-woman show at The Hopewell Frame Shop in Hopewell, NJ. From March 5 – April 30th, 2004. You can also view her work at the Bucks County Tourist & Visitor Center on Street Rd., from March 1 – May 31, 2004. The Artist’s Gallery in Lambertville carries her work as well. You can reach Gail at gbracegirdle@artspan.com.