Vernon Bradley: Dimittit In Artes is a film about the painter Vernon Bradley by fellow artist and film-maker Martin Laird. The film is a portrait of the artist as a middle-aged man wrestling with his own mortality while attempting to write, as he puts it, “the next page in the history of Orkney art.”
Vernon Bradley: Dimittit In Artes will premiere at Stromness Community Centre at 7.30pm on Friday the 7th of June. Tickets cost £5 at the door, and one lucky person on the night will be going home with one of Vernon’s paintings.
Dimittit in Artes was filmed just prior to Vernon Bradley’s recent highly successful exhibition at Northlight in Stromness, and follows the alleged sale of one of his paintings to a private collector for the incredible sum of three million pounds.
The film begins with a short biography of the artist.
As a self-described “Christian atheist looking for the light”, Vernon is then engaged in conversation by a psychopomp, or spirit, in his painting studio.
Together they reflect upon the role of the artist in society, the nature of Bradley’s work, and the often controversial or upsetting subject matter he tackles.
The film shows a different side of the artist to the one he displays publicly on social media, but does contain strong language and adult themes.
Martin Laird said:
“Vernon Bradley has been pestering me with film projects for about 2 years. Dimittit In Artes is not the film he wanted to make, but it’s the one he got. Lucky for him he has the screen presence of Brad Pitt.”
Vernon Bradley said:
“After years of hard work for both of us, it’s fitting we’ve come together to produce a somewhat surreal but sincere piece of art.”
