Brenda Stichter, artist

The Lord is Near This morning in my time with God, I was reading in the Psalms in the Old Testament,  and in Philippians in the New Testament. Sometimes, every verse seems to have something to make me stop and take some kind of action - prayer, meditating on the meaning, looking up similar passages, and so on. Today's Psalm was about the contrast between the righteous man and the wicked person who has "no dread of God before his eyes". It felt meaningful, but didn't hit me quite like passages sometimes do.  But then I turned to Philippians 4, a favorite passage of many people including me! And there was the sentence to stop me in my tracks.  SOLD   11" x 14" Painted with the finest quality heavy-body acrylic paint on acid-free, heavy weight Fabriano watercolor paper Ready to frame Click here to view on my website.  Phil 4:4-5 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your graciousness be known to eve ryone.  The Lord is

Homesick Homesick.  11" x 14" Painted with the finest quality heavy-body acrylic paint on acid-free, heavy weight Fabriano watercolor paper Ready to frame Contact me to purchase.  Though I live a blessed life, and love being able to do what I love (painting and homemaking), still I sometimes yearn for my eternal heavenly home with my Savior. Not only do I anticipate seeing HIS face (absolutely mind-boggling!), but I look forward to having everything in order, the way it should be.  I see the fractures and deep chasms in our culture which seem to grow worse and worse.  Each of us thinks that we stand on the high moral ground, and we can't understand why 'they' don't see it.   I have noticed, too, that most people, from both 'sides', don't want to be divided. It would seem that everyone knows that life isn't supposed to be this way... Without an eternal perspective, I would be tempted to feel so discouraged. I just cannot see how t

"Seems very complex, but I like it," came the reply to my text. It was an appropriate fit to the direction my thought process had been going as I painted. This painting has been complex since the first few strokes hit the canvas!  30" x 40" Painted with artist quality heavy-body acrylic paint on 1.5” deep gallery wrapped canvas Click here to view on my website.  The title has been tricky too. Paradise Lost? No - trite, and it has undesirable connotations. Secret Garden? Same. Fellowship? Friendship? Failure and forgiveness? Consequences?  Many of these things were on my mind as I painted, and in the first layer of paint, the phrase Coram Deo ('before the face of God' or 'in the presence of God') appears several times.  The idea of fellowship with each other and fellowship with God having been lost; the cross being the gate that kept man from an eternal state of death (eating from the Tree of Life in Eden) and the door that allows me back t