Brenda Stichter, artist

Shadowed With this second tiny landscape, I want to share the second guest blog post (of three) written by my son! I love his writing and his thoughts, and I hope you do too.  4" x 4" framed Painted with the finest quality heavy-body acrylic paint on acid-free, heavy weight Fabriano watercolor paper Click here to purchase via my website. Hey; this is Jake Stichter. I'm Brenda's son. I'm a musician, a woodworker, a guitar builder... I am a maker. I'm also a recent seminary graduate – I received my Master's degree in Media Arts and Worship from Dallas Theological Seminary a few weeks ago. My wonderful mother offered to let me serve as a guest author on this blog space to discuss some ideas that have been percolating in my head for the last little while as I've been progressing through my degree. I'm sure this audience doesn't need to be reminded of how difficult it is to promote your art. We live in an era where the internet has truly permeated o

Across the Lake A tiny landscape is in the works in order for me to try a different surface treatment to see whether I can make it behave the way I want it to. It is, of course, highly abstracted, but I am learning as I go. I painted a pair of these little gems today, and will release another one tomorrow. All of this came about because I saw a painting last weekend that I loved, but sadly, didn't buy, and it made me strike out in a new direction.  4" x 4" framed Painted with the finest quality heavy-body acrylic paint on acid-free, heavy weight Fabriano watercolor paper Click here to purchase via my website. At first these small landscapes were far too busy for their size. Since I want to maintain an abstracted approach, I needed to simplify to a smaller number of shapes in the composition in order to have a more pleasing whole. I found that it was absolutely necessary to have value sketches - even more needed than when I paint larger works. Isn't that interesting, a

Winding Down   Somehow, it just doesn't seem like it could be autumn yet! We were just talking this morning about how thankful I was that the lock-down started in the spring, because I felt like it would be just too discouraging during the gray, bleak winter. And here we are, almost to autumn! 20" x 16" Painted with the finest quality heavy-body acrylic paint on acid-free, heavy weight Fabriano watercolor paper Ready to frame Click here to purchase via my website. One of the things I especially love about early autumn is that we get to celebrate my daughter's birthday! With that in mind, I would like to share a comment she posted on one of my pieces. It is a good example of her thoughts and writing. (You may be getting a little bit overloaded with my kids these days, but I love who they have become as adults, and think they have great things to share.) "I love that beauty is valuable precisely because it's disposable and frivolous... In a similar vein, how mu

Hey; this is Jake Stichter. I'm Brenda's son. I'm a musician, a woodworker, a guitar builder... I am a maker. I'm also a recent seminary graduate – I received my Master's degree in Media Arts and Worship from Dallas Theological Seminary a few weeks ago. My wonderful mother offered to let me use this blog space as a place to discuss some ideas that have been percolating in my head for the last little while as I've been progressing through my degree. This essay is a re-working of a project I did for one of my classes, and it touches on something close to my heart: creativity. I know that every person has some form of creativity in their life, and I want to encourage more people to feel free to bring that creative passion into their surroundings! This is written from a specifically Christian viewpoint, but even if you don't share my religious persuasion the things I'm saying still ring true for you. I hope you enjoy my small piece of creative outlet, and I

Working Title - John 14:1-3 Today I am releasing a work that I finished and signed last week. I shared it on Instagram, and was encouraged by the response there. (By the way, usually Instagram is the first place you can see my work. I invite you click here to follow me.) As I mentioned in a previous post, I have been working on a new series, and this is the first of the pieces that I have ready to post. It is rich with color, texture, and iridescent accents. I used collage, which I seldom do, and I find myself entranced by the work as a whole. The colors that come from layering and the textures are just fascinating.  12" x 12" Painted with artist quality heavy-body acrylic paint and mediums on 1.5” deep gallery wrapped canvas Click here to purchase via my website. This series has an interesting story. As often happens, the beginning concept came as "finished" ideas. But even when the concept is finished, there is often a big time gap as I work to plan the first lay

Reading Great Books This is a jewel of a painting! I cannot even describe the textures, depth of the colors, whispered shimmer and shine. SOLD 5" x 5" Painted with artist quality heavy-body acrylic paint on 1.5” deep gallery wrapped canvas Click here to view on my website. I finished a C.S.Lewis book yesterday called Surprised By Joy . I thought I had read it before, but it sure felt new to me this time through. I love having things to think through, and new references to authors and concepts that I can learn about, and this book was packed with those things. Along with the new 'clues' to follow, I found references to many of my favorite authors. One of those is George MacDonald, an old Scottish author who I first read when I was in college. (My first introduction to his work was The Fisherman's Lady , edited by Michael R Phillips, and I highly recommend this book. It has elements that were surprising to me at the time, and I saw such humility and holiness in the