Brenda Stichter, artist

This Little Light of Mine I started This Little Light of Mine as a demo for a recent workshop I taught. It has changed dramatically, which is not uncommon for my paintings as I build layer upon layer.  $290.00 plus shipping and handling 12" x 12" 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 you can see, the composition of the painting includes so many similar shapes that overlap and interfere with one another. My intent was to make each shape interesting with color, marks, occasional sparkle, and interaction with other shapes. At the same time, I wanted to direct the eye of the viewer to one area more than the others – the focal point of the painting. In this area of the painting, there is a combination of the purest colors as well as the highest level of contrast between bright and dark. In my opinion, the focal area of the painting draws the eye from a distance,...

Showers & Fireflies This week, I have had several rejections to art competitions. I don’t usually tell about that, but this time something surprising happened. In a local competition, my two abstract works were rejected, and the small plein air painting of a barn was accepted! This is just WAY outside of normal for me. So I have decided to share one of the paintings that was not accepted, called Showers & Fireflies. It is actually a painting that I really like, so it is even more difficult for me to accept that it didn’t make it into the exhibit. Click here for the original blog post about it. $1400.00 plus shipping and handling 36" x 24" Painted with artist quality heavy-body acrylic paint on canvas, framed in a floater frame Click here to view or purchase on my website. Also this week I have been working on several paintings, including the one I did as a demo in my abstract workshop a week or two ago. I wanted to try to keep it so that it was obviously the same work...

A Kiddley Divey "Do you have any ideas for a title for this one?" I asked my Beloved Husband, when he got home after work. "Yes," he said, and he started trying to remember the words to the ditty Mairzy Doats . Do you remember that playful take on a nursery rhyme? I remember my Mother singing it to my siblings and me when we were small.  Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey A kiddley divey too, wouldn't you?* $1350.00 plus shipping and handling 30" x 30" 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. The work started out with the same concept as many of this year's paintings have - "Fear Not". One of the earliest layers had the words Fear Not, and there were a lot of colors and shapes that came to my brush as I worked out some of what was on my mind. There is a LOT of texture, and swatches of iridescent and metallic pa...

Freedom, 2021 Click here for original blog post In honor of the 248th commemoration of the Declaration of Independence being adopted by Congress, I want to share these red(ish), white(ish) and blue(ish) paintings with you. I am glad to live in this great country that has been blessed by God in so many ways over the years. I am thankful for the good things that are part of my life because of these blessings.  40" x 30" Painted with artist quality heavy-body acrylic paint on 1.5” deep gallery wrapped canvas Click here to purchase or view on my website. Do you remember this painting from a few years back? It is one of my few red paintings. I bet you could tell that red is not one of my favorite colors! Galatians 5:1 It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.  White, 2014. For my white painting, I am going way back to 2014. This painting is not even on my website at the moment, though you can read the...

This Little Gem You might have heard other artists say that sometimes a painting just sneaks up and surprises them or that it tells them what to do next and lets them know when it is finished. Well, this one is pretty close to that kind of painting.  $130.00 plus shipping and handling 8" x 8" 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. I have been trying to pay attention to elegant composition more often, or at least to using composition in a non-academic way. Part of my practice in that area has been to study other artists work and read more about composition from older sources. I have been examining all kinds of paintings from landscape and portrait art to abstraction and even calligraphy and commercial art. I have to admit, I love these studies!  Several times in the last few days I have run across the idea that end results are not my responsibility, but faithfuln...