'Speaking of the Arts': Paula Brett

Paula Brett is a painter living in Atlanta. Her abstract images are meant to “evoke wonder and delight” and employ rich color and expressive gestures to convey a sense of surreal light, lush plants and shimmering water.

The daughter of another artist, Brett at first pursued a formal education in physics. Still, she gravitated toward art as a career when she found herself staring down the barrel of five more years of physics courses. She instead found in art-making “something primal and wonderful” and went on to earn a master’s in fine art at Columbia College in Chicago.

Today, in her paintings, she aims to create experiential environments for viewers, “like you’re in a world of twisting and twirling brushstrokes and wild colors,” she says. She describes an intuitive painting process, working quickly and beginning with big, bold gestures that then draw her deeper into detail.