Brenda Stichter, artist

Oak Tree  This morning I painted a second in this small series of my favorite trees. These are specific trees that I love, too, not just something made up or googled. Today I am offering this oak tree that we see on our way to town. This tree has to be more than a hundred years old, and I have actually painted it before , as it appeared in the winter.  6" x 6" Painted with artist quality heavy-body acrylic paint on 1.5” deep gallery wrapped canvas This lovely old tree is on property that looks to be owned by a business. Thankfully, there is a parking lot right next to it where we can pull up to take photos without trespassing or bothering anyone. It looks to me like it is a healthy tree, and I hope that it lives longer than I do! My Beloved Husband and I have talked about what all this tree has 'seen'. He was born in this area, and would have passed it with his parents before he was even in elementary school. When I first was dating him and visiting his family here, t...

Peach Tree  I hadn't quite decided whether to do this little representational piece, but this morning, after cleaning my brushes (more on that in a minute), I just sort of found myself painting! I have been considering doing a small series of some of my favorite trees on these small canvases, and today I just jumped in and started.  This is painted from a photo of our ancient peach tree, taken in the spring time, at least a year ago. Last year a powerful storm came through and a huge limb broke from the tree. Now it is a small, crooked shade of what it once was. We hope that it will still be able to produce peaches, because the peaches from this tree are delicious!  6" x 6" Painted with artist quality heavy-body acrylic paint on 1.5” deep gallery wrapped canvas, collaged paper Click here to view on my website. If I continue with this whimsical series of trees, I may need to look for some of the new-but-not-yet-in-use paintbrushes I have set aside. As I cleaned the br...

Broken  Several months ago, I entered a painting contest hosted by my favorite art supply source, Jerry's Artarama. I was so excited to see that my painting had won first prize, and I received a gift card to Jerry's. Woot! A kid in a candy store could not be more excited than I was to spend that award on new art supplies that I had not yet tried.  One of the things I ordered was a box of canvases that are thicker and of a different shape than I have worked on before. When the box arrived, it had been crushed, and one of the canvases was damaged beyond usefulness. Or at least, I thought so at the time. (Just so you know, Jerry's was more than generous in replacing the broken canvas!)  48" x 18" Painted with artist quality heavy-body acrylic paint on 1.8125” deep gallery wrapped canvas (that is broken) Click here to view on my website. "Why don't you paint on that one the way it is? It might be interesting." My Beloved Husband saw the potential of that...

Kintsugi Blue I am excited to share this new painting - it is my best painting ever! Of course, I think that about every new painting I do... or at least many of them!  There is so much packed into this painting. I blogged about some of the influences and one of the early layers on the painting here . There are shattered treasures and broken hearts, tears and loss and shadows. But there is also light and beauty.  In that last blog post, I mentioned the concept of kintsugi, which is a Japanese technique of mending ancient tea ware or other items by putting the pieces back together and adding gold. This repair then makes an item that is more beautiful and valuable than the original.  There is another Japanese term, wabi-sabi, which references appreciation for imperfection. (If any of my readers are more fluent in these terms and traditions, please forgive my minimal knowledge!) I find both of these concepts appealing, and feel like both apply to more than tea ware!  20...

Pop-up Storms  Last night, my Beloved Husband and I invited a friend to join us for pizza and ice cream, and then to work on a project that has been too long delayed. What a pleasant evening we had together! It has been good to be reconnecting with friends and doing "normal" things again. After not long enough sitting and visiting over supper, the three of us tore into the project at hand, which is still in progress. When we came to a standstill, we started home, and you should have seen the beautiful skies! There were pop-up storms here and there, and with the sun setting, the contrasts of light and shadow and the reflected color in the clouds was spectacular. Of course my Beloved Husband pulled over so that I could take a few photos.  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.  My Bible reading this morning started out in Psalm...

Work in progress This morning's studio plan did not include this painting that I have worked on all day,  on and off . The emotion has been building since the art fair, or maybe much longer, for this one. I am not sure how to express it, but I want to share some of what has been painting itself today. (And I really doubt you will recognize this work when it is done - just so you know.) I was surprised at how many people I saw at the art fair  - people I know, yes, but also all the people I didn't know. Everyone came by my booth, since it was across from the food trucks. I noticed so many people. And I don't know why, exactly, but I felt like I had to pray for a lot of them. Sometimes I could see trouble on faces or in the way people walked, and sometimes it was something I could not put into words, but I just knew they needed prayer. So I prayed. And at times, I felt burdened, maybe because I thought they felt burdened.  Some very sorrowful news came our way, too, in the ...

Substance of Things Hoped For Click here to view on my website  During last minute preparations and set-up for the Village Art Fair in Winona Lake, IN this past weekend, I received an email saying, "Your Image Has Been Selected... Congratulations!" This will be the third time that I have been privileged to have one of my paintings chosen to be reproduced in the Christian Seasons Calendar , which orders the year by liturgical seasons rather than a traditional monthly format. While, I have to admit, the liturgical framework is not particularly familiar to me, I appreciate the international reach this calendar has, and the new ways to envision and draw my focus to my Heavenly Father during the year.  36" x 36" Painted with artist quality heavy-body acrylic paint on 1.5” deep gallery wrapped canvas Substance of Things Hoped For is one of the works that I displayed at the art fair, and I loved seeing people respond positively to it. I am sure not EVERYONE loved the large...

Some of the paintings I am planning to take to the art fair  Well, hello friends! I am sure many of you have heard these bits of news by now, but some haven't. First, my Beloved Husband and I got "the plague" a couple of weeks ago, and while he is back to work and mostly doing very well, I am a little slower in recovering. At first, I had fewer symptoms and was able to care for him and keep our household together (so to speak) but now he is up and running, and I am still a little fuzzy and needing lots of naps. We are so VERY thankful that we did not have the serious, debilitating symptoms so many have had! Second, I will be having a booth at the Village Art Fair in Winona Lake, IN this coming weekend, June 5-6, 2021, and I would LOVE to see friends there! I very rarely do events like these, so it is a big deal for me when I do. We already got a new canopy for my tent and started loading the big things into the car. Now if I can just wrap my head around all of the details...