Brenda Stichter, artist

Jacob's Ladder When I (finally) got a chance to work on this painting last week, the title and the composition and color all came to me really quickly. That is a fairly uncommon thing to have happen, though the first layers of the painting have been on the easel for a L O N G time. Maybe my subconscious has been working on it?  $1100.00 plus shipping and handling 30" x 24" Painted with artist quality heavy-body acrylic paint on recycled panel, framed Click here to view or purchase on my website. The "steps" on Jacob's Ladder don't necessarily line up for an easy climb in my painting, and the stairway doesn't look like any stairway I would want to try climbing! The colors are brilliant, and there are iridescent, metallic, and interference paints included to help express the idea of something heavenly, not earthly.  I used "tears" running across the painting in both directions to help me build my structure and to picture some of Jacob's s...

Minnesota Muse Minnesota Muse is my first painting of 2025. I have been in Minnesota with my dear Mom many times already this winter, which means fewer studio days. Because it has been so long, I struggled with ‘blank canvas syndrome’. I felt unsure whether I still know how to paint! So I chose the path which is less difficult (for me) to ease into painting by working on a representational scene. I look forward to returning to my abstract work soon. 12” x 12” Painted with artist quality heavy-body acrylic paint on 1.5” deep gallery wrapped canvas Click here to purchase via my website. The photo I worked from was taken in Minnesota by my friend, Lois, and was a winter landscape with hoar frost lying heavily over the whole scene. (She has such an eye for natural beauty! I was glad she gave me permission to use her photo.) I intended to make the scene look like the photo, but the painting seemed to have its own plan.  Preparing to start my painting, I manipulated the photo using filte...

Beauty of Holiness part a Now available at Art Gallery 317 Well, here is some exciting news, and you are the first to know! A new gallery, Art Gallery 317, is opening in Bryan, OH, and I am happy to be one of ten artists who will have work there. The gallery is in a gorgeous old house with high arched doors, curved staircases, and beautiful wood floors. The grand opening will be November 29 & 30. I hope to be there one or both of those days, and would love to see you there.  For the opening, the gallery owners chose eight of my paintings to display. I was so pleased about that, because they originally thought they would only want four pieces from me to start out. My Beloved Husband and I drove to Bryan with a car full of paintings, thinking that they could see my work in person, and choose from a large selection of work. It made my day when they chose so many pieces! As I probably mentioned before, these last couple of months have been full of family situations, travel, and adm...

Arms Wide Open It started with the word pure. That was the first thing on my canvas, and I was reacting to the idea of purity the whole time I worked on this painting. I found that, in my mind, purity and hot pink don’t typically share much common ground. Interesting. When I started working on this project, I had just finished a calligraphy grouping to be exhibited where we attend church based on Philippians 4:8. “… whatever is pure… let your mind dwell on these things…” I found myself thinking that we don’t often speak of the idea of purity in our culture, unless it is talking about spring water. Do we no longer value purity? What immediately comes to your mind when you hear that word? $1950.00 plus shipping and handling 36" x 36" 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. When it came time to choose a color palette that would tie together the idea of purity with t...

New Every Morning #47 One more leaf painting for this autumn - unless I get another chance to find more inspiration and get into the studio! I did see a bright yellow pile of gingko leaves that tempted me to grab a few, but that was before it started raining. (Hurray for rain!)  $100.00 plus shipping and handling 6" x 6" 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 on my website. After a phone call this morning with a loved one, it is another high stress day here at my house, but I am actively trusting God for grace and peace, (1 Peter 1:2) and His mercies that are always new.  Lamentations 3:22-23 22 Because of the Lord’s faithful love we do not perish, for His mercies never end. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness! So I am off to try to meet today's new challenges. May the Lord's grace and peace be with you today, too! Coram Deo.

New Every Morning #46 This morning, we had heavy, blue-gray clouds bringing much needed rain to our area, and I thought it would be a perfect background for my next leaf painting. What an interesting new thing to be painting! It is kind of a still life, and kind of a floral, and whichever of those you might consider the painting to be, it is sure not my normal abstract painting.  $100.00 plus shipping and handling 6" x 6" 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 on my website. Mostly painted with a brush, I think this leaf is a pretty good companion to yesterday's palette knife leaf painting, partly because I used the same group of colors on both. I just hope the colors look right on your screen, because they are vibrant.  This weekend we are expecting a lot of hours in the vehicles as we shuffle paintings from place to place. While I wouldn't necessarily...

New Every Morning #45 New Every Morning was the title for a series I started several years ago, and I had thought I was finished with this series, but today I chose to start working on the same series again. This time, though, I have started adding more representational work to the series. The earlier part of the series is almost all abstract paintings.  $100.00 plus shipping and handling 6" x 6" 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 on my website. I walked in the woods today, and the gorgeous leaves kept me paying close attention! I brought several up to the house. The sky this morning was an amazing pink color, so I wanted to represent that as I worked on this palette knife painting of one of the leaves I brought home, too.  Lamentations 3:22-23 22 Because of the Lord’s faithful love  we do not perish,  for His mercies never end.  They are new ...