Biography
Prilla Smith Brackett has been working professionally as a painter
for 27 years. Over the years, she has worked with landscape in a
conceptual way, in that she tends to use landscape to say more than a
description of a place.
In 2005 Brackett and painter son, Matt Brackett, presented
“Complex Conversations: A Place Apart,” at the Art Complex Museum in
Duxbury, MA, paintings and monoprints showing the convergence of
their work over the loss of their ancestral home. Solo exhibitions have included the 2002 show,
“Uncertain Balance,” at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington DC, and an
exhibition,“Remnants: Ancient Forests & City Trees” which traveled to 8 venues in ME, VA, NH, PA,
MA, CT, TN, NY 1999 – 2001. Brackett’s paintings were included in New American Painting #26, a
juried exhibition in print.
Her honors include 2001, 2003 & 2007 residencies at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, a
1998 award & residency at the Ucross Foundation, 1997 & 1998 residencies at the Ragdale
Foundation, a 1994 residency at the Millay Colony for the Arts, a 1992 Earthwatch Artist award in
Madagascar, a 1989-90 fellowship in painting at the Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College, and a
1990 travel grant to Costa Rica. With social science degrees from Sarah Lawrence College and the
University of California/Berkeley, Brackett earned her MFA in drawing & painting from the University
of Nebraska/Lincoln. In addition to a solo exhibition at DeCordova Museum & Sculpture Park (MA),
Brackett has shown at the Portland Museum of Art (ME), Ashville Art Museum (NC), Lyman Allen
Museum (CT), Lancaster Museum of Art (PA), Arnot Art Museum (NY), Fitchburg Art Museum (MA),
Bershire Museum (MA) and in two venues at the 1995 Beijing UN 4th World
Conference on Women.
Her work is in public and private collections, such as the Fogg Art
Museum of Harvard University Museums, DeCordova Museum, Art in US
Embassies Program, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Radcliffe
College, Boston Public Library, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, E. F. Hutton,
Fidelity Corporation, Honeywell, and Shell Oil in the USA, Japan, and Europe.
Artist's Statement
For over 15 years, I have been approaching landscape in a conceptual way, in that I use
landscape to say more than a description of a place. The series “Remnants: Ancient Forests & City
Trees,” for example, emphasized the intersection of the natural and man-made worlds through
juxtaposition and fragmentation of images.
Since then I’ve developed a more contemplative approach. For example, a series of monoprints
and paintings explored the communion of an old family house, now sold, with the trees surrounding
it. From the sleeping porch, looking out to water and trees, the membrane between inside and
outside almost dissolves.
I have recently been exploring the intermingling of the domestic man-made with the natural, in
both monoprints and mixed media paintings on panel. I’ve returned to forest images but have
incorporated a bed or a chair, drawn from furniture that was in the old house. Treating the chair or
bed from another era as if it were either flat or semi-transparent makes it seem less clear why the
piece of furniture is there in the forest. I’m interested in this uncertainty. Forests have played a large
role in our histories, however, and I’m aware of tapping into such associations. Forests have given us
raw material and air cleansed of carbon dioxide. They have been scary places on the edges of
civilization. They have been places of refuge and hidden secrets, of solace and spirituality, of make-
believe. I hope to create spaces where the imagination can wander and memory can surface.
Availability & Pricing
Most of the work on this site is available for purchase. For work on paper prices range from $400 to
$2500. For oil and mixed media on canvas or panel the range is from $1200 to $9,000. For specific
prices, contact me.
Giclée limited edition prints
Not to be confused with my hand-made, unique prints, these giclée prints are museum quality prints
on paper, made to reproduce several of my large, sold paintings. They are made digitally by a high-
end fine arts printer and are priced individually at $350.
Click here to see the available prints.