Braldt Bralds

Braldt Bralds was born in the Netherlands, where he attended the Grafische School in Rotterdam. For a time, an art career was the last thing on his mind. In fact, his only art education consisted of a mechanical drawing class and on-the-job experience as a typesetter in a printing shop. Even so, he eventually fell in love with art and worked very hard to develop his own style.

Soon Bralds was a popular and successful advertising artist in his home country. He spent two months in the summer of 1978 in New York, where his first job was painting a cover for Time magazine. That work gave him a “feeling of good fortune,” so he moved to the United States in 1980 to live.

Once he was established in his new home, his fanciful yet realistic style attracted many fans and collectors. Since that time, Bralds’ career has been one success after another. His work has appeared in publications such as Time, Newsweek, Omni, TV Guide, Rolling Stone, National Geographic, Cats, Cat Fancy, and many more. He has illustrated book covers for publishers such as Avon, Simon & Schuster and Warner Books. He has lectured and held workshops in cities all over the world, including Brussels, Tokyo and Seoul. He is currently represented and is published by Greenwich Workshop. He has also been commissioned by the U.S. Postal Service to illustrate a stamp program. This farm animal series will include a pig, cow, chicken and sheep and was issued in 2001.

Among his awards are three gold medals, three silver medals, and the Hamilton King Award from the Society of Illustrators. His advertising art has won an Andy, a Clio, as well as several gold and silver awards.

Although best known in prints for his fanciful yet realistic paintings of cats, Braldt's career includes many other successes in both commercial and fine art. In addition to his art career, Bralds is proud of his contribution to education. He has taught at New York’s School of Visual Arts and was an independent student counselor for their Masters Program. He now serves on the International Advisory Board of the Art Institutes International, which established a Braldt Bralds Illustration Scholarship in 1993.