- Hello, I'm Beth McMillan and welcome to ArtEffects.

Flowers, bright colors, gold lea and powerful feminine figures ar just a few of the key elements in the artwork of Braighlee Rain Working in her studio in Sparks, she creates abstract realism por that she calls a safe space to embrace self-love, divine femininity, and the power of the female voice.

(gentle music) - When I'm diving into each pain it's like this puzzle to solve.

I think colors really excite me.

I think the way people's faces and the way the light hits your face is really interesting.

There's something about painting that there is no limitation between colors and values and compositions.

And it is all really exciting and you can create anything that Hi, my name is Braighlee and I am an oil painter and arti living and working in Sparks, Ne I like to say that I paint abstract realism feminine figures and portraits.

I do love like the puzzle piecin putting a portrait together, but I also love the freedom that abstract painting allows me and kind of dive into larger bru and kind of have this ethereal v alongside the portraits and the that bring everything together.

I'd like to think that I create but based in a series.

I love to have pieces that all work together to create a larger storyline.

So the series that I'm currently working on is a collection of 10 paintings showcasing women in my life that are inspiring to me, my friends that have beautiful yet traumatic stories and showcasing a lot of themes and motifs in their life that are reoccurring as women.

All of the paintings together are going to be the entire color of the rainbow, and I'm doing black, brown, whit This one is blue as you can see.

I'm hoping that all of them toge create this harmony of voices of each woman individually.

(gentle music) I try to include a lot of symbol and a lot of like authentic moti from each person and each woman that I'm painting.

- Hi, my name is Ren and I was a model for one of Braighlee's artworks.

I haven't been painted before or been part of something like this so closely.

- I did not have this series in mind at all when I painted her.

She was the first and she had this beautiful blue hair and I put her in a beautiful blu I took her outside and there was a beautiful blue sky behind her and it kind of all came together in a way that those ideas don't really come from me.

- Blue is very significant to me Blue being everywhere in nature, reflected in the sky and water that's all around, but also really hard to find in like finding blue flowers or foo The idea that two things can be true at the same time is I think, necessary for finding p - The blueness is a representati the vastness and the beauty, the but it's also this like such a soft element in our day t - Another significant element of the painting is butterflies.

That's something I connect with.

And having them in the painting makes it a little more personal, a little bit more symbolic for m (gentle music) - The reason I choose art every day is because it's a place where I can feel sa it's a place where I can explore Be curious about like what if this color and this drip, you know, meet each other?

What's gonna happen?

- It's an honor really to have that image of me preserved by ha It started out as a photo, but has evolved into so much mor It becomes not just me.

It's super fun and it makes my heart happy.

- I paint womanhood and feminini because it's something that I'm still processing.

There's a duality in men and wom You know, there's this duality of trying to be like a soft feminine figure and also be this strong, courage My voice as an artist comes from a place of balancing the boldness and the s and you can be both at once.

That's what I'm trying to do is marry the two in a way that is not coming from the masculine point of view, it's coming from a feminine eye.

- I find that subject matter imp especially as a woman myself, having this feminine perspective a little bit different from what's been done in the past.

It's a little bit rebellious and also something that I'm not sure there's enough of yet.

- And it's not that I don't want to paint men.

I do, I think I'm still just processing being a woman.

I love my husband so much and I wanna paint him eventually.

And I wanna paint the wonderful men in my life and people, 'cause I do love painting people It's like a little puzzle that I get to put together.

But I think for now I'm focusing so that their voices can be hear so that my voice can be heard so that we can kind of speak col - And that wraps it up for this edition of ArtEffects.

If you want to watch new ArtEffects segments early, make sure you subscribe to the PBS Reno YouTube channel and don't forget to keep visiting pbsreno.org to watch complete episodes of Ar Until next week, I'm Beth McMill Thanks for watching.

- [Narrator] Funding for ArtEffects is made possible by, Sandy Raffealli with Bill Pierce Meg and Dillard Meyers.

In memory of Sue McDowell.

The Carol Franc Buck Foundation.

Chris and Parky May.

And by the annual contributions of PBS Reno members.

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