A ‘Bayou’ is a shallow, slow-moving body of water such as a creek or swamp. In her recent works Betsy Bradley has drawn parallels with this kind of occurrence in nature, emulating its process by letting paint be carried by the movement of water. A bayou, though seemingly still, embodies a gentle yet constant shift and teems with aquatic life. Betsy’s recent paintings take on a similar behaviour; always painting flat, her surfaces become living, breathing spaces dictated by natural forces, appearing as in the act of evolving - alive. Colour and pigment disperse unpredictably, embodying a playful transience and embracing the magic of letting things just be.

Betsy Bradley (born 1992, Bath, UK) lives and works in Warwickshire, UK. In 2023 she completed her first major permanent commission, Dakini Ocean, for One Centenary Way, Birmingham. In 2018-19 she participated in the Turps Correspondence Course. In 2018 she gained her MA Fine Art from Birmingham School of Art and in 2015 her BA Fine Art Painting from University of Brighton.

Recent solo exhibitions include:
Betsy Bradley, Vardaxoglou, London (2022); Singing with the Tide, Katie Lindsay Gallery, Killyleagh, Northern Ireland (2022); Chasing Rainbows, Ikon gallery, Birmingham, UK (2021)

Recent group exhibitions include:
The Reason For Painting, Mead gallery, Warwick Arts Centre, UK (2023); Hyphenate, AI Gallery, London (2023); By a Thread, Apsara Studios with A.I Gallery, London, UK (2022); Chasing Rainbows, Ikon gallery, Birmingham, UK (2019); Made/Unmade, QUAD, Derby, UK (2019); Summer Camp, Eastside Projects, Birmingham, UK (2019); New Art West Midlands / Coventry Biennial, Coventry, UK (2019)