Brenda Stichter, artist

The Weary World Rejoices   These three Christmas paintings started out with a gold background and then words from Hebrews 1:3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high . From the very beginning, I wanted to use color and the quality of the paint to communicate, so I chose my palette carefully and started slowly building layer after layer.  Of course, I chose a metallic, iridescent gold paint as the first layer, representing God, as I often do. Next, I really enjoyed manipulating the different letters in the verse layer to try to make the lettering "font" express meaning, even though this part of the painting is not seen. It is very easy to lose focus or direction in the midst of painting, but by building layer by layer with the concept at the forefront of my planning, I "trust the proce...

Long Lay the World Yesterday was unusual for a Monday. Usually I spend Mondays catching up after the flurry of weekend activities, organizing my painting time, entering contests, marketing, answering emails, and so on. This time, I had to plan, do paperwork for, and drive to a competition venue right away in the day. It turned out to be a good start to the day, since it got me back in the saddle, so to speak.  This year has been a different one, too. I would guess that almost every person reading this email can look back at this year and say the same - it's been an unusual year. One of the things that has had a big impact on me and mine is the cancer that my dear sister-in-law is fighting. She is a very important part of the work places where my Beloved Husband makes a living for us, and these places are really suffering with her absence. And because of that, the weight on my BH has been extra heavy, and it has been heavy to me too. (I would greatly appreciate your p...

A Thrill of Hope "Here come the French horns!" "Look at how fast the strings players are moving their fingers on those parts!"  Those are phrases that I suspect my longsuffering family has heard me say each time they have accompanied me to a concert.  Well, last night I attended a Christmas concert by the Fort Wayne Philharmonic, and I loved it! As is often the case, several of the pieces were songs that I had played in Christmas concerts when I played clarinet (including the bass and contrabass clarinets) in high school and college. I know and love every note in some of those compositions.   There was a vocalist in the concert, and she was a pleasure to hear, too. She was equally at home with pop and jazz styles, and with classical songs. Her performance of O Holy Night brought me to tears. I have never especially liked that piece, but the complexities of the melody really stood out to me at the concert, and then I also began to pay attention to the poetic turn of ...

Christmas Glory This morning I prepared and underpainted six substrates for new work. I don’t know why, but I feel an urgency to continue painting at a more intense pace than I have in the past year or so. Of course, in the last year I was sidelined for quite a while with an injury, and spent several months working on a large commission, the Hope Project, which I loved!  This small painting is my first new release since I finished the Hope Project. I am releasing it here on my blog and on my website, but it might not be available for long. This little work is what I call a progressive painting; a painting that I paint, release, and then, if it has not been purchased, paint a new layer, which usually completely changes it. This one has already been through two layers, and was released on social media only. Do you see how different it looks in different lighting? I think that is so beautiful. (By the way, if you would like to follow me on social media, my Facebook business page is Br...

the Hope Projec t  We finally have a date and time for the Parkview Health Warsaw hospital open house! We will be so excited to be able to show you, in person, how our paintings express hope.  Parkview Health open house will be held Saturday, December 16 from 11:00 - 3:00.  We don't have any further information about what to expect from the open house at this time, but we know that our paintings as well as the work of many local photographers will be on display in this new hospital space.  Hope to see many friends there.  Coram Deo. Brenda

Winter Sunrise   On Sunday, my Beloved Husband and I attended the delayed reception for the Autumn Member Show at Lakeland Art Association, which is the local-est art group that I attend. It had been postponed due to a failed furnace - brr! This painting, Winter Sunrise , was awarded third prize there, which seems fitting since it is a chilly scene. It does surprise me when my more representational paintings win awards.  6" x 6" Painted with the finest quality heavy-body acrylic paint on acid-free, heavy weight Fabriano watercolor paper Framed to 12" x 12" Click here to view or purchase on my website. The painting is currently available at the Lakeland Art Association gallery, through mid-December (though if you REALLY want to get it for a Christmas gift, you could contact me and I can try to work that out!) The photo reference that I painted from is from frigid Minnesota where I still have family living. I feel the cold just looking at it! Chronicles And just today...

Esperanza 1 For the last two paintings of The Hope Project*, I decided to use a verse about hope in Spanish.  Salmo 38:15 En ti, Señor, pongo mi esperanza,  atiéndeme tú, Señor y Dios mío.   (Note: my Spanish translation on my computer calls this verse 16, so I am not sure which it should be. In my English versions, it is verse 15.) I only have very elementary Spanish translation skills, but I found this to be beautiful! In my way of reading it, I see "On You, LORD, I place my hope; please pay attention to me, LORD and my God." Those who know what they are doing translate it this way.  Psalm 38:15  For I hope in You, O Lord; You will answer, O Lord my God. Each painting is 40" x 30" Painted with artist quality heavy-body acrylic paint on 1.5” deep gallery wrapped canvas Edges painted black Esperanza 2 When these two paintings were in progress, I got to one stage of the work and I did NOT want to continue! I thought the paintings were beautiful at that point, tho...

Rejoice in Hope the Hope Project This work actually scares me just a little. As part of the Hope Project*, there is one spot on the third floor of the hospital that will be filed with a triptych - three paintings that hang together as one work of art. And each of the paintings is done by a different artist in this case. This is my part of the triptych. The thing that is a little scary, though, is that we three have not seen or talked about our parts of the grouping before working on them! What if they don't coordinate? 48" x 24" Painted with artist quality heavy-body acrylic paint on 1.5” deep gallery wrapped canvas Edges painted black With each of the five paintings, I worked from "sketches" - black and white, cropped copies from my own work. It was actually pretty fun to work that way, once I figured out my work flow. I painted my normal bright colors on one of the earliest layers for each painting, and then began toning them down. And it seems to me that the ...

The Power of Hope The Hope Project  A companion piece with Hope Filled , The Power of Hope is the second of five paintings commissioned for a local hospital. Oh, I do love this painting! I can feel hope against the storm, and the comforting care of the Heavenly Father, particularly when the two paintings are seen together.  36" x 48" Painted with artist quality heavy-body acrylic paint on 1.5” deep gallery wrapped canvas Edges painted black Right about the time this project got underway in earnest, I personally experienced a couple of circumstances that cannot be fixed. I have told you in this blog, probably way too many times, about the devastation in our woods. There is still trouble in my heart when I go back there to walk, or when I see the sun shining through in places where there were trees before. But at that time, I started to ask God to somehow redeem the situation. Though I do not expect to see Him place huge old trees back on their feet there in that gash, I have b...

Hope Filled The Hope Project "The Hope Project" - doesn't that sound encouraging? Two other artists and I are commissioned to paint works to hang in a new hospital in our area, and the three of us chose to name this opportunity. I began to mention The Hope Project here in my blog quite a while ago, and have recently been putting almost all of my time in on my part - five large paintings. I will be sharing them one at a time as I get closer to finishing them all and turning them over to be placed in their new spaces.  36" x 48" Painted with artist quality heavy-body acrylic paint on 1.5” deep gallery wrapped canvas Edges painted black Hope Filled will be displayed with a partner painting in a space for a café or lounge area. My hope (and believe me, that word has come up in my mind often every step of the way in this project!) is that staff, patients, and visitors will be encouraged to look closely at the paintings and will be filled with hope when they do.  This...

Prayers & Promises (click here to view on my website)  Last week, I mentioned that I had news to share, and before I finished telling you what I wanted to say, all of a sudden it was time for my newsletter to go out, and I had missed my chance. The big news that I wanted to share is the my painting Prayers & Promises is in this year's The Best of Acrylic magazine, part of Artists Magazine and American Artist . I decided to purchase a digital copy of the magazine (paper copies should be available in bookstores later this month) and found that my painting has A WHOLE PAGE! (p. 111, if you're looking for it) Wow, what an honor!  You may remember seeing this one a time or two before. It was also in  the inaugural Acrylic International Biennial Juried Exhibition, 2022 in Kenosha, WI;  Fort Wayne Artist Guild Ventures Competition 2021, (2rd place oil or acrylic painting); and the  92 County Art Show 2022, (Honorable Mention painting) in Wabash, IN. It i...

Free Falling My Beloved Husband and I are recently home from a trip to Colorado, where I am privileged to have paintings included in an abstract exhibition. The trip itself was a welcome change of pace for us, and I feel like I have JUST gotten home! I hardly know where the time has gone since we returned, though I have had some more good things happening since then. Sold 6" x 4" x 3/4" deep Painted with the finest quality acrylic heavy-body paint on cradled panel Click here to view on my website. While we were in CO, we had the opportunity to drive up Pikes Peak (which I found both terrifying and thrilling) and on the way back down, our brakes were found to be too hot for us to continue so we were instructed to pull over for a time. My Beloved Husband helped find a place for me to set up my plein air painting kit, and I started painting the beautiful mountain landscape! I was just well into the painting, and ‘in the zone’, which means I was hardly noticing anything ar...

This third painting of the collection I recently finished is possibly my favorite one of the bunch, though to tell the truth, the favorite status changes with the day and my mood. I really like how all three turned out. Each is highly textured, and has a broad range of values, lines, shapes, and even includes metallic gold paint. They work so well as a group, but each also stands on its own.    $100 plus shipping and handling 6" x 6" 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. Set Apart is the concept I have in mind with this painting, and it is represented by the one rectangle off on it's own. The idea of being set apart came up in a sermon series at church earlier this year. The speaker used an illustration to show what it means to be set apart, saying that his toothbrush is set apart for his use and it ought not be used for cleaning things other than his teeth...

Appointment This is the second of a group of three paintings that coordinate and can be displayed as a group. I posted one last week, and have not been online in order to share this second one until today. So much has happened this week, and I have things to share!  $100 plus shipping and handling 6" x 6" 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. But first, let me tell you a little bit about this painting. I have entitled this one Appointment, and you can see that there is a pattern of small dots that help to direct the eye to the place where I want the focus to be. I have chosen a place where I want your attention to meet mine - an appointment, of sorts - and the lines and shapes in the painting are all intended to direct you to that meeting place.   Each of the three paintings in the group has the same palette, and similar techniques. Each uses line and shape...

A Walk Along the Lake  Saturday was a protracted day of travel for me as I returned from a long overdue visit to my mom and family in beautiful Minnesota. While I was there, there were days of cool sunshine and a day of rain and thunderstorms - and you KNOW how I love thunderstorms! Every day provided opportunities to go for walks, usually along beautiful Lake Minnewaska.  The time spent there was refreshing, and I came back ready to get into the studio!   $100 plus shipping and handling 6" x 6" 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. As is often the case, I have several paintings underway in my studio, so in order to get back into the habit of blogging and posting more often, today I am starting out by posting one of a group of three small paintings that coordinate together. I had more fun than should be allowed painting these today! I did actually finish al...

Long Enough click here to view on my website This week has been full of administrative duties as I have been getting ready for a two-artist exhibit in our local Lakeland Art Association gallery. Another artist I follow (though I have not yet met him in person) and I are exhibiting our abstract paintings in a show called  Reading Between the Lines: Marks, Lines, and the Movements Within . Yesterday I finished gathering my work and helping to hang and tag the exhibit, which looks very nice, I must say! Our opening reception is scheduled for August 6, 2:00 - 4:00 in the Warsaw, IN gallery space.  Long Enough 40" x 30"  Painted with artist quality heavy-body acrylic paint on 1.5” deep gallery wrapped canvas Edges painted black I hope to spend more time painting this week, and less on the computer! Looking forward to seeing many friends at our reception. 

 I am excited to share that I have a couple of new opportunities coming up on my schedule, so I am "gearing up" in the next several months! One of the possibilities is participation in a black and white exhibit. I have done this limited palette before, but all of those pieces have sold, so I have had a great chance to paint another one. I love the opportunity to try something that is a challenge to me.  $350.00 plus shipping and handling 12" x 12" Painted with the finest quality heavy-body acrylic paint on cradled wood panel Click here to view or purchase on my website. This piece has black paint with flat finish, and with glossy; white paint that is flat and white that is glossy; heavy bodied paint and fluid paint, and a mix of metallic and gritty textures. I really enjoyed working on a good composition while showcasing so many kinds of uses of black and white. The painting is slightly mechanical, and also kind of reminds me of x-rays. Gears are suggested in each o...

What comes to your mind when you hear the word "reel"? I would guess that if you are a fisherman, you imagine pulling in a fish - maybe a whopper! If you are a sailor or have Irish heritage, would you picture a dance, or at least a particular kind of music? (I am listening to some reels as I type.) Maybe those are your connections with this painting, but I painted in response to something that had me emotionally reeling today.  $950.00 plus shipping and handling 24" x 20" Painted with the finest quality acrylic heavy-body paint on panel Click here to view or purchase on my website. Very early, I decided to go for a walk before the heat of the day. As I entered our woods, (oh, I can barely type this without my heart breaking again) I heard tractors and huge cracking sounds. There was heavy equipment clearing an enormous swath around the drainage tile back there - surely more clearing than their easement calls for or allows! They were taking down 200 year old trees an...

Intertwangled Featuring a throwback style and yet new in some ways, Intertwangled was a lot of fun to work on, and, at times, really frustrating! Of course almost every large painting I paint is a combination of fun and frustrating, if the truth be told. My first paint strokes on this large canvas were laid on the surface before my open house event in April, so I guess it has been under way for months.  $3500.00 plus shipping and handling 48" x 48" 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. Before I became a full time artist, I remember visiting antique stores and art galleries and trying to discern what it was about certain paintings that make me feel drawn to them. At one point, it seemed clear that curves in the work really appeal. I find that really interesting now, because painting with a curvy composition is not my favorite by a long shot! This work was at lea...