Bridget W. O’Brien (b. 1997) is a Canadian-American painter living and working in Bloomington, Indiana. She is currently an MFA candidate at Indiana University (2026). She received her BFA in painting from Indiana University-Purdue University and Seoul Women’s University in 2020. After the pandemic settled, she did a post-baccalaureate at the New York Academy of Art. She works primarily with oil, acrylic, and pastel.

Statement

My current body of work involves creating individual plein-air oil paintings I am making on-site, in Indiana, Michigan, and Southern Ontario. I am interested in capturing the effects of both environmental disaster, and the triumphs of ecological preservation initiatives, in these landscapes. I combine and complete these paintings, 6 at a time, in my studio – drawing upon live studies of human anatomy, and personal film. This process explores the literal imposition of the human form onto the landscape, and the disturbing imprecision of my own memory. Utilizing techniques of figuration and abstraction, this process of re-articulation serves as a personal meditation on transfiguration, healing, and loss.

Pivotal to these works is an unnatural ‘glow’ to the under-painting that peddles a pitch of heat throughout the work. This relates to the bizarre film of heat and smog from wildfires in North America that we have experienced the past few years. To create this effect, I experiment with marigold, dyer’s chamomile, and goldenrod pigments from the plants I grew and foraged during the wildfire season, and combine those pigments with iron found in decaying industry near my home. These pigments, in combination with beeswax from my family’s hives, allows for an investigation into the material sources of the plants and animals impacted by shifting climate patterns in my home region, and their remarkable resilience and adaptive strategies.