Breehan James

Bio

Breehan James was born and raised in the Fox River Valley of Wisconsin. She received her MFA from Yale University and a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art. James has participated in many residencies and fellowship programs, most notably at the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Norway, and the National Gallery of Canada. She was awarded fellowships to participate as an Artist-in-Residence for Arts in the Park at Quetico Provincial Park, The Stowe School in England and at the Vermont Studio Center. James exhibits her paintings internationally and is the recipient of the prestigious Marie Sharpe Walsh Foundation studio award “The Space Program” in New York City.

A Wisconsin native, Breehan James' rarified work is centered on connecting to nature and experiencing wildness. James paints specific locations she has explored at her family’s northern Wisconsin cabin and in the wild Boundary Waters of Minnesota. Documenting flora and fauna in all its complexity through countless brushstrokes, her work has a beauty that transcends actuality and provokes contemplation. Rugged boreal forests, beautiful night skies reflected in lakes, deer hunters, and cottages in the woods populate her paintings and evoke a psychological state of being both lost and found in nature.