Weir Farm National Historical Park has announced it will welcome artist Steven Edgar Bradbury as its September 2025 artist-in-residence.
Bradbury is a Florida-based plein air landscape artist who works primarily in graphite. Though he occasionally works in pastel and other media, Bradbury gravitates to graphite because he loves its velvety blacks and various shades of silver and gray.
During his residency, Bradbury plans to make a visual record of Weir Farm and surrounding woods, which he once knew quite well after staying at Weir Farm when he was a student at Cooper Union.
“I actually stayed at the house several times when Sperry Andrews was still alive and I was going to Cooper Union,” Bradbury said. “In fact, it was Sperry who encouraged me to be a plein air landscape artist.”
The Artist-in-Residence Open Studio Program on Saturday, Sept. 20, from 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. is an opportunity to meet Bradbury, view his work, and learn more about the Park’s Artist-in-Residence program. The Friends of Weir Farm will offer light refreshments and fun art activities for children at the Open Studio, an artsy and informal event.
Bradbury grew up in South Florida, studied art at Cooper Union in the 70s, and Chinese painting and calligraphy in Taiwan in the 80s. He then dropped art to become, among other things, a literary translator and literature professor, the latter for almost 20 years. In a leap of faith, he quit his job and returned to Florida in 2015 to pursue art full-time. It was at the water’s edge that he honed the “pine noir” style of his graphite drawings, many of which were started near sunset and not completed until it was too dark to see the page, a practice that introduces an element of chance. Learn more about Bradbury and view his work online.
Weir Farm’s Artist-in-Residence Program continues the creative legacy started by the Weir family through the work of contemporary artists. Weir Farm has inspired thousands of artists for more than 140 years, including over 250 artists-in-residence. The park hosts six visual artists each year to spend one month, from May to October, living and working onsite. The park’s founding legislation highlights the ongoing presence of working artists on the site as a key characteristic of the park. An active residency program ensures the park meets its legislated mission to continue the artistic tradition started by Julian Alden Weir in 1882.