Brenda Stichter, artist

Snowing at Gravesend  The other morning, an artist I follow on Instagram posted that it was snowing in his city, and he was rejoicing in the snow! As I looked at his posts, I was watching the thickly falling snow outside my own windows. The thing that really caught my attention was his comment. "Snowing at Gravesend! Hallelujah!"  9" x 12" 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. This painting started out as a small study, where I am working out how the colors in the first few layers interact with colors in later layers. It is a painting practice that is intended to help me clarify what I should do to finish a large painting I have been working on.  It really came to life, so to speak, when I added the white. ( As a side note, the painting is not yet signed because I like it both vertically and horizontally, so I haven't chosen where to add

This diptych has been finished for several days, and I have been struggling to find the words to put with it. I know what it is about. I "saw" the painting before I did it. But I cannot find the words to explain.  20" x 20" Painted with artist quality heavy-body acrylic paint on 1.5” deep gallery wrapped canvas Click here to view or purchase part A via my website. Click here to view or purchase part B via my website. One morning a couple of weeks ago, I glanced over to the gallery wall in my living room, and saw two of my paintings hanging next to each other that really spurred my creativity. One of them was a textured golden painting, and the other was a rich blue. I loved how the two looked together, and it "painted a picture" in my mind.  This pair of paintings is loaded with texture and lots of shades of shimmering gold paint. It turned out beautifully, and it expresses what I had hoped. But, as I said, I am struggling to find the words to express it! 

I Heart You As we sat at the supper table the other night, my Beloved Husband gave me a sideways look when I took out my phone and shot a photo of a jar of mostly dead flowers that were sitting in front of me. "It's inspiration," I told him.  SOLD 4" x 4" Painted with the finest quality heavy-body acrylic paint on acid-free, heavy weight Fabriano watercolor paper The painting is heavily textured and has a lot of iridescent accents.  Ready to frame Click here to view on my website. Somehow the shape of those hanging heads made me want to grab a sketchbook... maybe I will do that yet! I wonder what they would look like in a sketch.  I want to share a few quotes with you: “Look at space, the face of a baby, or the indefinable glory of a flower. . . . We deny God when we deny the power of beauty and fail to include that language in our spaces of worship...”  Roberta Ahmanson, Christianity Today article on Christ Chapel "For they (art and music) are not the thin

 Pick Me is the third of this little "heart bramble" series that I am posting for Valentines Day this year. These three paintings were inspired by posts from my friend and fellow artist Arletta Rue French. She shared several photos of her artistic heart creations hanging from branches in her snowy woods, and I was so drawn to them! She has an artist's soul, and enormous creativity!  4" x 4" 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. I hope that the cheerful creativity of my friend, and the hope of spring reach out to you through these little works. 

  I have been having so much fun painting these little valentine brambles! I had something quite different in mind when I started, but loved how these were turning out, so I kept going!  4" x 4" 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. My Beloved Husband and I have been reminiscing about the candy hearts with words the we always used to see around this time of year, and I wanted to use the words from the hearts as titles for these small works.  I think I have found some of the older sayings to use and maybe to bring back some old sweet memories  (pun intended) .    I almost think the twigs look springy, even though we are deep in snow and cold right now. Maybe you can see both here. 

Do You Love Me? For the next several days, I plan to release some small works for Valentine's Day, and I am sure loving these little works!  Tonight at supper, my Beloved Husband and I were talking about those little heart candies that have words for Valentine's Day. We think that they have changed a lot since we were young! Anyway, I am going to start titling some of these works with phrases that might appear on those little candy hearts.  4" x 4" 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. I am imagining paper hearts hanging in this winter tree, just waiting to be collected. Can you see the strings hanging down? The painting is heavily textured, and features iridescent accents that peek through the layers.

Don't Rock the Boat As part of my painting studies in preparation for a large work, I painted this small work on paper yesterday. I was intrigued to see that, as happens so often, some of the things I have been thinking about showed up in the work. I think if I had to put the theme into words, it would be peace in the middle of trouble.  The composition of this piece might be called an "all over" composition, which can indicate a scattered focus. The blue colors suggest motion and the metallic golds remind me of nautical themes and maybe even the mast of a boat.  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 or purchase via my website. Two stories about Jesus and stormy seas that  that are told in the Gospels are showing up here, both in my subconscious processing of ideas, and in this image that sneaked up on me, illustrating the same thing. One of the st

The Wordless Book I am going to do a bit of 'housekeeping' with my blog post today, since there are quite a few things to update you on! First, I want to show you this framed group of paintings that I painted last December. (Please ignore the carpet showing around the edges!) Do you remember this group? Though the paintings were originally released individually, they are now permanently mounted and framed.  Here are links to each of the five parts of this piece: A Lump of Coal Christmas Red Snowy White All That Glitters A Real, Live Tree This piece is now available on my website.  Set of 5 paintings, 5" x 7" each, mounted and framed to 12.25" x 30" Painted with the finest quality heavy-body acrylic paint on acid-free, heavy weight Fabriano watercolor paper Click here to purchase via my website. Every Good Gift Here is the second in this newsy update: This painting, Every Good Gift, has won a couple of awards, including First Prize in paintings at  the 92 Cou