Bradley Hendershot paints his life--things that he is familiar with in his everyday world--and his detailed watercolours express his feelings about two distinct geographic regions that have special meaning to him.

In Pennsylvania, many of Brad’s subjects can be found close to his home and studio in Hoppenville, Marlborough Township, in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. “My Pennsylvania paintings depict the rural community and a way of life that is quickly fading into the past. Many of the timber and stone barns and mills, the houses and outbuildings, which are part of the Pennsylvania heritage, are rapidly disappearing. I’d like to feel, in a way, that I have preserved them in my paintings.”

Brad loves the sea and has been summering on Monhegan Island, Maine, for the past twenty-five years, where he and his wife Katy (artist Katharine Krieg) run an open studio/gallery. “In Maine, I paint the rugged shoreline of the mid-coast region and Monhegan Island where I enjoy the smell of salt air and the feeling of sea spray. I’ve always loved the sea, probably a combination of things –the boats, the energy of the surf, the rocks, the storms and the romance of it all. I hope this comes across in my paintings of the weathered clapboard lobster shanties and the granite towers of the lighthouses. On Monhegan Island, I try to capture the remoteness and isolation of this tiny fishing village twelve miles out to sea, which has been an artist’s colony for over 150 years.” Painting on Island during the summer without the normal distractions of everyday life on the mainland allows for his full devotion to the craft.

Hendershot intimately studies his subjects down to the last detail and learns their history and significance prior to beginning a painting. He uses watercolour in a representational manner, and mood and feeling are key elements in his work. Texture is often the real subject of his paintings, and this is where he will use the painstaking process of drybrush, building on the initial fluid washes of watercolor. Using drybrush, details are built up in multiple layers using many small strokes of the brush and very little water with the pigment.

Brad and his wife Katy host open studio events several times throughout the year, and their Pennsylvania studio is always open by appointment. His original work can be seen on his web site and in numerous galleries from Maine to Pennsylvania. Giclée reproductions of his paintings are available through his family’s publishing company at stonerowpublishing.com.

Bradley has earned signature artist membership in the American Society of Marine Artists (ASMA), signature professional artist status in the International Society of Marine Painters (ISMP), signature membership in the Pennsylvania Watercolor Society (PWS), and signature membership in the Philadelphia Water Color Society (PWCS). His works appear in public and private collections nationwide and around the world, including numerous corporate collections.

You can visit Bradley's website to view more of his work here.