Jackie Bradshaw

Jackie Bradshaw is a self-taught folk and outsider artist based in Kitchener, Ontario, whose paintings feel like storybooks cracked open mid-dream. Working in acrylic and watercolour, she first found her way into art in the most everyday of places - her home daycare, using leftover paint to make mirror-image blots and then “finding” tiny worlds inside them. Living with neurodivergence and chronic illness, Jackie talks about painting as a way to keep the demons at bay, and her work carries that mix of survival, play, and quiet joy: rivers grow faces, trees sprout arms, houses float, and small figures wander through surreal, tender landscapes that feel both childlike and deeply wise. Inspired by artists like Maud Lewis (she’s literally in the process of painting her whole house) and rooted in community projects from hydro-pole murals to collective shows, Jackie has placed many works in private collections around the world, offering collectors intimate, imaginative scenes that hum with resilience and a stubborn belief in small, everyday magic.

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