Braldt Bralds

Braldt Bralds was born in the Netherlands in 1951. As a child he learned of the profession of illustration, and his course was set. His father brought home scraps of paper from a paper mill, and Braldt drew continuously. When twelve he began attending the Grafische School in Rotterdam, where he was instructed in graphic arts and the printing trade. Aside from this training, Braldt is self-taught.

Once out of school, Braldt became a successful illustrator in Holland. In 1978, on his first day’s visit to New York, he was commissioned to paint a cover for Time Magazine. Since then Braldt’s career has been one success after another.

His work has appeared numerous times on the covers of Time, Newsweek, Der Spiegel, Omni Magazine, The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, Atlantic Monthly and in Esquire, Playboy, Penthouse ,and National Geographic. Braldt has illustrated book covers for publishers around the world, including M. Zimmer Braldley’s “Mists of Avalon”. Advertising campaigns include Levi-Strauss, Grand Marnier, Alfa Romeo, Pirelli Brazil, Kahlua, Japan, IBM International, Celestial Seasonings, and Crabtree & Evelyn. He has designed 3 stamp issues for the United Nations Postal Service’ and the United States postal services.

In 1989 Braldt received the Clio Award for Best illustration of the Year. He has earned numerous gold and silver medals from Illustration and art director clubs around the country, along with the Hamilton King Award from the Society of Illustrators in New York City. In 1997 he was awarded with a Honorable Membership of the Dutch Society of Illustrators and was inducted into the Hall of Fame for his lifetime achievement in the field of international illustration.. In 1993 the International Advisory Board of the American Art Institutes International, where he lectuered yearly, established a “Braldt Bralds Illustration Scholarship”. While living in Manhatten Braldt taught at New York’s School of Visual Arts, for 4 years, including the Masters Programme, and has lectured and conducted workshops throughout the USA, Korea and Japan.

For 10 years Braldt has continuously created work for the publishing house, The Greenwich Workshop. Greenwich has produced limited editions of paper lithographs and canvas giclees from Braldt’s oil originals of feline ‘tongue in cheek’ compositions.

As his illustration career flourished, Braldt continued to develop and focus on his fine art. In 1998 he began a body of work, portrayals of exquisitely detailed stones, which debuted in a one-man show of 25 “Stone Lifes”, at the Gerald Peters Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In 2003 he joined the 707 Contemporary Gallery in Santa Fe, and had a solo show, “Souvenirs”, in August, 2004. And in 2006 he had a solo show, “Tableaux”, at the Turner Carroll Gallery in Santa Fe. In December of 2008 Braldt joined the Meyer East Gallery of Santa Fe, and was honored with a show there in 2009.

Works also include a long time collaboration with ceramic artist Heidi Loewen. After Ms. Loewen constructs, low-fires, then smoke-finishes large, shallow porcelain vessels, Braldt paints trompe l’oeil effects on their surfaces. They were featured at the “Trompe l’Oeil” show at the Meyer Gallery’s in 2009.

In November 2004 Braldt was the guest of honor and featured artist for an exhibition produced by Germany’s “Der Spiegel” magazine. “Die Kunst des Spiegel”, a compilation of their cover art from the last 50 years, toured cities in Europe, China, eventually reaching New York City with the exhibit at The Society of Illustrators in 2006.

In February 2011, Braldt and his wife Margaret produced an exhibition “The Way I Saw Things”, a retrospective of Braldt’s illustration and fine art careers. This is currently being produced into a large format book that will be available to the public in the spring of 2012.