Brenda Stichter, artist

Bejeweled  I have almost finished a book that I have apparently (since there is underlining in it) read before, and boy howdy, am I liking it! The book is The Christian Imagination; G.K. Chesterton on the Arts  by  Thomas C. Peters, and to be honest, it makes me want to binge on Chesterton for a while. I do have some of his books, but may want to look for more. I am not at all sure when I would read them  though .   24" x 24" Painted with artist quality heavy-body acrylic paint on 1.5” deep gallery wrapped canvas Edges painted black Click here to view or purchase on my website. This coming weekend, something impossible is happening. It is the 40th reunion for my high school graduating class, and I am just sure that has to be wrong. I think it was just a few months ago that I visited my old high school and talked to my teachers that were still teaching there, and I had not yet graduated from college! 40 years just seems like such a big number... how can that be right? When ask

 You might have heard of the crazy weather that went through this part of the world Monday evening. In Fort Wayne, IN, the wind was clocked at 98 mph as a storm passed through, and it was not a tornado. Right at our home, we had no damage, but our son had a neighbor's tree down on his roof right over his bedroom! And there are still people without electricity in the heat wave we are currently experiencing. Wow.   12" x 12" Painted with artist quality heavy-body acrylic paint on 1.5” deep gallery wrapped canvas Edges painted  Click here to view or purchase on my website. Can you tell that I wanted to try working with very thick paint on this piece? I started out with a strong diagonal composition, and began applying color to the entire canvas. But, as often happens, the painting seemed to want to head in a different direction than I had originally intended. I was actually planning for it to be primarily a yellow painting!  One of my favorite things about painting abstract

 Yesterday  I got an encouraging email from Engage Art Conte st telling me that my painting, The Full Armor of God is in the semi-final round of judging! This painting is in a private collection, so it is no longer available to purchase, but I was able to enter it in this competition even though it has already been sold. Click here to see my entry on the contest site! IN the last several weeks, I have been working on quite a few art things that don't quite fit in my usual newsletter, blog, or social media posts. I have been participating in exhibits, volunteering time, doing paperwork and learning and practicing new painting techniques (among other things!) Hopefully the results of this kind of work will show up with time.  The Full Armor of God was painted early this year, and you can click here for a link to the original blog post about it.    Coram Deo, Brenda

Not Lose Heart, 2014  This morning I drove about an hour to another city to enter three paintings in an exhibit with the theme "upside down". It was tough to decide which paintings to enter, not because I didn't have any paintings with that theme, but because so many of them would work! Almost all of my work is an expression of my view of our upside down world, and the hope for creation that only comes through Jesus Christ.  18" x 24" Painted with the finest quality acrylic heavy-body paint on hand-made, prepared wood panel Ready to frame Not Lose Heart has not been in a competition before, even though I am particularly fond of it, and I have had some friends tell me they love it too. I find that it expresses hope in a stormy time of uncertainty even more strongly now than it did when I first finished it. (Although if I were titling it today, I might look for a less awkward title phrase that still gives the same message.) A section from the Old Testament that re