Brenda Stichter, artist

Sprouting “Put the brush down, and back away from the canvas!” For me, it is always an interesting challenge to paint in a representational style while maintaining my own touch. The difficult part of the challenge is deciding when to stop ‘tweaking’ my work. I think many, if not most, artists know the difficulty. Sometime during the last few harried weeks, I painted this reminder that spring will, in fact, eventually be here! We have a maple tree outside our picture window, and the red, blurry buds bursting open against the pale periwinkle sky almost always surprise me. Catching the still chilly weather with the blossom of promise was the goal of this representational work. 12” x 16” acrylic on 1.5” deep canvas, painted edges SOLD   In my reading in the Old Testament this morning, I read how GOD chose to settle the grumbling of HIS people. They thought they should decide how and when they approached HIM – how and when to act as HIS people. They wanted to name the...

RISEN INDEED “Good morning,” whispered my husband. “HE IS RISEN!” “He is risen,” I croaked back, not wanting to be awake yet. It has been an emotional and taxing couple of days since Good Friday. “Are you going to get up and paint?” I have already been thinking and dreaming about my painting, it feels like for all night long. “Not yet…” How does one paint EASTER? The most important day ever in all of history? Especially how does one with my level of experience and proficiency paint such an event? I don’t know if it is possible. Still, the images I have seen in my imagination while my eyes have been closed; there are ideas to start with there. HE IS RISEN! I roll over, kiss my husband, and say, “I am going to paint.” I can imagine him smiling in the dark. “Have fun…” he says. Oh, I will! My palette is clean and white. My brushes and water are clean. I choose a color wheel of paints, including all my favorite shades and hues, and a couple that remind me of Good Fri...

Gray Sabbath So, as it turns out, it doesn’t really matter how I open up this dumb canvas panel. Just get the stupid plastic out of the way. What difference does it make? Really, what difference does anything make. DOESN’T ANYBODY REMEMBER YESTERDAY ? They are all out there in the cold sunshine, heading to Wal-Mart to buy plastic eggs and plastic grass and shiny white little girl shoes. And bunny suits and candy. Tons of candy. WHAT ABOUT THORNS AND NAILS AND BODY BAGS ? If He is really dead – DEAD – then what is the point? My whole life makes no sense at all. Why did I even wake up this morning? I am going to mix paint and paint the whole thing gray. Blah. Lifeless. I just keep on seeing that cross … everywhere. I need some more caffeine. Green and red are the colors that I mixed to make my dead gray. Doesn’t that seem ironic to anyone else? Christmas colors? As if that birth, all that time ago, means anything whatsoever if He is dead. Dead . I need to g...

Good Friday. As I walked out to empty my dirty paint water, I thought about this painting I have to paint. I don’t know. I didn’t even think I could paint it as I did my quiet time this morning. But then, I think I need to. So I am walking out to empty the dirty bucket of water – full from painting a portrait of my beloved daughter. As I pour the pigment laden water in my gravel driveway, I think, “It is like preparing for the worst job in the world. What would that be? Maybe telling someone that their loved one has been killed in an accident? Maybe having to put a pet to sleep?” I came back toward the house with my inverted bucket, with my eyes on the ground, thinking. I moved the large things out of the way so that I could paint, and started to gather my thoughts about exactly which paint I would choose for this awful assignment. I took a panel from the shelf, and turned it to the back to cut off the protective plastic layer. “No,” I thought. “It is the front. I have ...

Offering "Do you think we will be able to be ready if I get up and spend some time in the studio this morning?" I asked my beloved husband on the morning of our Art Show and Open House. I just HAD to paint. I had a painting starting in my head, and it had been way too long since I had a brush in my hand. I headed into the studio, put a big canvas on my easel, and grabbed a favorite dark paint, dioxazine purple, some medium, and a huge palette knife. I knew what I wanted to say, and it was just pure joy getting started!  30 x 40  acrylic on 1.5" deep gallery wrapped canvas Click here to purchase on my website.  2 Samuel 24:24 (NASB) However, the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price, for I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God which cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. Matthew 6:19-21 (NASB) “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth a...

Abstract 025 I am going to play 'catch up' for a few days, and post some work I did before my show. This little 6 x 6 abstract is one I really liked, and it sold at the show!  I have an idea of meaning in this piece, and it is the concept of standing alone, standing firm in difficult times.  SOLD 6 x 6  acrylic on watercolor paper Here are the verses that go with this one.  I Kings 19:10 ... And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.” Eph 6:13-14 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm,  Stand firm therefore...

In Peace First off, I just have to tell you my big news that I learned on Tuesday: I have been chosen as a 2016 Hoosier Women Artists, um, Artist. (Not sure how to word that!) This painting, In Peace , will hang in government offices for a year! I really could barely stay on my feet when I got the notification in my email. I am just so excited about it! Sold at our Open House Second, thank you to all who made it to my Art Show and Open House on Saturday. It was very successful in our eyes, and we really enjoyed seeing so many people. Here is a collage of some of the work that sold.  And now, I am eager to get back to the painting that is on my easel - it is calling my name, I think! I just need to do a little more paperwork and a few more chores first, and...  John 3:30-31 He must increase, but I must decrease. “He who comes from above is above all, he who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all". ...

Husband building a shelf We have been feverishly preparing for an Art Show/Open House at our home for the last several weeks, and it is now "crunch time"!  Our event is scheduled for this Saturday, and there is SO much to get accomplished! I am so very thankful for my husband's help.  Gotta go do more hanging and framing and tagging and...