Brenda Stichter, artist

Homage to Waterlilies This little painting reminds me a little of Monet's water lilies paintings, and somewhat to my dismay, I find that many artists have painted "homage to Monet's waterlilies" paintings. I wonder whether Monet had any idea that he would become such a familiar part of culture. I have listened to a book about Vincent VanGogh, and learned a lot  - maybe I need to find a good book on Claude Monet as well!  6" x 6" Painted with the finest quality heavy-body acrylic paint on acid-free, heavy weight Fabriano watercolor paper, mounted on cradled panel Click here to view on my website. Part of my work as an artist, outside of the studio, includes time to re-up my inspiration. It may include walking in the woods, travel and scenery, art magazines and books and art videos, among many other things. It is imperative that my "inspiration tank" is regularly refilled. One of the programs I was watching as part of my inspiration refresh had art p...

Li'l Peach Tree Painting This is a really tiny painting, just 5" x 3", and I love how it turned out! I worked from a photo from our own peach tree, and the photo was way larger than the substrate I was working on ! That was a challenge to work with - usually I am enlarging an image to fit the substrate.  The sketching layer, done with magenta paint, was trickier than I anticipated, but once I had a satisfactory "map", I moved on to painting the darkest areas of the painting. I worked from a black and white version of the photo, which was very helpful in shrinking the image and limiting my value choices.  5" x 3" Painted with the finest quality heavy-body acrylic paint on panel Ready to frame Click here to view on my website. With an extraordinarily busy week nearly behind me, I thought a tiny painting might be just the ticket to be in and out of the studio quickly. Well, I should have known that working this small is not quicker! But I sure did enjoy w...

Peaches & Cream This has been a WEEK. Boy. My dear friend had a significant car accident, though thank the Lord, she is ok! My family member (actually two of them) have medical situations that are overwhelming to me. I have an art fair coming up this weekend, and I have not done one of those for several years. I have a huge reception* in Indianapolis to attend this evening, and a painting to deliver there, too. I missed a funeral due to car trouble. And my son told a joke and no one laughed at it! Well, that last one, while true, is just to relieve my own angst.  7" x 5" Painted with the finest quality heavy-body acrylic paint on canvas panel Ready to frame Click here to view on my website. I love some of the details in this tiny painting, and of course, they don't really show up in the photo. The color is complex and interesting, and the shapes are too. The painting started as a monoprint painted over a failed little painting. It has been fun to decide how to accent ...

Plays Well With Others Plays Well With Others has been in progress for a long time, and started out with my thoughts about boundaries. I wonder whether you can see that concept in this painting. It strikes me that, even though the shapes are sharp and the colors are complements (which would often be conflicting and jarring to the eye), the painting is working together harmoniously.  Both horizontally and vertically, the painting works well. It is a size that I have not used before - at least not in a long time - at 24" x 48". Also, I chose to use a favorite paint color even though it is no longer available, (so when my stash is used up, it cannot be replaced). The color is Nickel Azo Gold by Golden, and it has been a favorite for quite a while because of how it interacts with other colors. It is the orange color that is actually on the entire canvas, though it has been covered in some areas.  24" x 48" Plays Well With Others, vertical Painted with artist quality hea...

Where Can I Go?  I am still enjoying painting on 10" square paper, then mounting it on 1.5" cradled panel. It is an efficient use of 22" x 30" Fabriano watercolor paper, though efficiency is not normally one of my priorities.  10" x 10" Painted with the finest quality heavy-body acrylic paint on acid-free, heavy weight Fabriano watercolor paper Mounted on 1.5" deep cradled panel, edges painted black Click here to view on my website. I was stumped with this little painting for weeks. I think it might have been the first "practice painting" I started for the workshop I taught, but I just finished it today. And I sure do like it now. Of course, it is difficult to see in the photograph, but it has such great texture, and metallic colors. I like the way my eye moves around the work, and I like the asemic writing (the scribbly looking marks) that are incorporated in it.  There is a song that has been playing in my head for the last several days, a...