Landscape painter and influential teacher, known informally as Pindi, born in Swalecliffe, Kent. As her father was a coastguard officer there were frequent moves and she was mainly educated by her mother. Her early talent was encouraged and after the final move, to Holyhead, in 1913, and tuition by a local art teacher, John Owen Owen, Bridle enrolled at Dublin Metropolitan School of Art, 1915, under Sean Keating, Oliver Shepherd, James Golden and George Atkinson, who especially influenced her watercolour technique. She completed her certificate course with distinction in 1918; among awards was the Dublin Society Taylor Scholarship, 1919–20, enabling her to attend the Royal College of Art, 1921–5, under William Rothenstein, Thomas Derrick being an important teacher, Cézanne a key influence.
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In her final year she taught night classes at the Elephant and Castle School of Art. Her close friends included Henry Moore, Raymond Coxon, Edna Ginesi, Robert Lyon and Phyllis Dodd. From the end of 1925 she painted glass in Clarke Studios, Dublin, from 1926 teaching at schools in Enniskillen, which remained her home; was art organiser in Fermanagh, 1945–51; then was appointed full-time at the Collegiate School in 1955. William Scott and T P Flanagan were notable pupils. Throughout her life she travelled abroad extensively. Bridle won prizes at the Royal National Eisteddfod, showed regularly with the RHA, in 1934 was a founder-member of the Ulster Unit, in 1935 was elected an associate of the Ulster Academy, an Hon. RUA in 1962 and took part in the first Contemporary Ulster Group Exhibition, 1951. In 1980 the Northern Ireland Arts Council funded the film Reminiscence by Kathleen Bridle. Solo exhibitions included a retrospective at Ardowen Theatre, Enniskillen, 1986; the catalogue for the major show which toured from Fermanagh County Museum, Enniskillen, 1988–9, carried an extensive biographical essay by Carole Froude-Durix. That museum, Ulster Museum in Belfast and other Northern Ireland public collections hold examples.
Text source: 'Artists in Britain Since 1945' by David Buckman (Art Dictionaries Ltd, part of Sansom & Company)
