Brenda Stichter, artist

A Vase of Happy It was delightful to return to the studio after celebrating with my son and his new bride this past weekend! Since their wedding occurred just as spring is thinking about coming to our neck of the woods, I decided to paint flowers from life. Not my usual painting, but I loved remembering that I do, in fact, know how to paint! 6" x 6" Painted with the finest quality heavy-body acrylic paint on acid-free, heavy weight Fabriano watercolor paper Click here to view or purchase on my website. I started with a yellow background because I wanted to communicate brightness and happiness. I love it when the back layers come through to the front, as I might have mentioned once or twice before... My first sketching layer was violet-red. I limited myself to using five colors that coordinate with my last painting, and the violet-red was the mid tone that could show through all of the other colors as I worked.  Before I tell more about the weekend, wedding, and painting, I wa...

Full Circle I am so excited to share this painting! I have been working on it for a long time, and I love the way it turned out. (I recently heard that some artists don't like their own paintings... I like almost all of mine, at least when I first release them.) Studio time has been hard to come by recently due to having had the flu, lots of travel, and my dear son's upcoming wedding - woo-hoo! So I am so very pleased to finish this one.  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. I know it is tough to tell from the photo that only shows the painting, but this is a large work, and the small squares on it are about 3.5" square individual little works. They were blocked out and painted white and started fresh after all of the rest of the canvas was finished.  Well, there is so much to say about this painting! The very first layer, in enormous pu...

Our local artist group, Lakeland Art Association has invited me to exhibit as part of a two person show coming up THIS FRIDAY, showing for the month of March. There was another artist scheduled to exhibit for this occasion, but he has had an unavoidable situation that is preventing him from being there. I feel honored to be able to fill in! The Substance of Things Hoped For 36" x 36" acrylic on canvas Available at Lakeland Art Association this coming Friday, March 7 from 5:00 - 8:00 p.m. Please come to the reception! Arise My Love 48" x 48" acrylic on canvas I plan to have at least eight or ten works displayed in this new-to-me downtown space, and I wonder if you have any favorites that you would like to see there. It is always a little bit of a juggling act to make sure that the paintings exhibited in one location aren't scheduled to show in another place for the duration of the show, so there is always a bit of extra paperwork to get figured out. I plan to hav...

Sunken Treasure Although most of my paintings start out with words on the canvas, and a theme already in mind, this painting is different.   36" 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. Last summer when my Beloved Husband went to Paraguay for a mission trip, I had grand ideas of how many paintings I would accomplish while he was gone. I prepped about ten surfaces, and was ready to make lots of painting progress during those 12ish days. As you may recall if you were following along with me at that time, my “muse” evidently went to South America with my Beloved Husband, and those canvases did not get finished! But a few got a starting layer, and this one started with a fairly simple wash of acrylic paint in a color I like.  Often as I work on a painting, there will be many layers that I do not like. (I have a large canvas in progress right now that is at o...

Be Mine Heart And the third heart painting headed to Gallery 317  is called Be Mine Heart. I bet you can see why it's called that! I would love to have you check these works out in person in this gorgeous gallery in Bryan, OH.  6” x 6” Painted with artist quality heavy-body acrylic paint on 1.5” deep gallery wrapped canvas Click here to view on my website. All three of these coordinating paintings have metallic and iridescent interference paint colors that are difficult to see in the photos. I loved playing with the textures and characteristics of the different paints and tools that I used to make interesting paintings - all sharing similar shapes, colors, and theme.  Arms Wide Open , 2nd place winner In other news, I learned on Monday that my painting Arms Wide Open was awarded 2nd Place for Abstract in the huge BoldBrush competition for the month of December! There were over 2000 paintings in this competition, so I feel "all biggety" about being selected for an award. ...

Kiss Me Heart Since Valentine's Day is approaching, I painted three small heart paintings, and this is the second one I am releasing on my blog and website. (However, they are available through Gallery 317 in Bryan, OH . Please contact me if you are interested in one or three, and I will get you in touch with them!)  6” x 6” Painted with artist quality heavy-body acrylic paint on 1.5” deep gallery wrapped canvas Click here to view on my website. For this series of works, I was considering traditional "heart colors" with accents that made them interesting. Part of the challenge in these pieces was getting enough value contrast, since most of the more traditional colors are mid-range in value. So the white and bright orange work to keep the paintings from being all one tone. I also wanted to use symbols and phrases that are familiar for this February holiday - it reminds me of those little candy hearts with words on them. On this heart painting, can you see the heartbeat an...

I Love You Heart With Valentines Day coming in about a month, I decided to paint a series of three small heart paintings. I will release one each day, and they will be available at Gallery 317 in Bryan, OH . Please contact me if you would like to purchase, and I will connect you with the right people there! 6” x 6” Painted with artist quality heavy-body acrylic paint on 1.5” deep gallery wrapped canvas Click here to view on my website. Today I started writing in a new journal. I have been journaling for years and years now, so I have a lot of full notebooks, um, somewhere. Today I finished yet another notebook, and started writing in a new one that my beautiful daughter gave me. In the last years, I have started writing passages that I have memorized on the first pages. I must admit, I find I remember them better when I have had plenty of vitamin D (vacation, anyone?)!  The first of these memorized sections in my journal is always this:  Psalm 62:5-8 My soul, wait in silence f...