Brenda Stichter, artist

Reflecting Our area in northern Indiana has seen some significant flooding in this last week or two. It has caused some of the places where I like to walk to be closed and has made some roads impassable, and some homes have water issues.  This painting was inspired by a photo from a walk my Beloved Husband and I took a few weeks ago in a nearby county where there is a relatively easy walk back to a dam on a (usually) small river. It is one of our favorite places to walk. We haven't checked it in the last few days - I wonder if it is flooded too! 4" x 4" Painted with artist quality heavy-body acrylic paint on 1.5” deep cradled wood panel Edges painted black Click here to view on my website.  This is another very small palette knife painting. I have been enjoying working so small, and working with the knife because it helps me to suggest a landscape without getting too persnickety about mark making and detail. I love to paint enough to be "representational" while ...

Lellow Flowehs This morning I shared a photo of this painting, asking for input, and I received the sweetest reply! "Lellow Flowehs," and "I have it on good authority that that is a picture of flowers and trees and it's a nice picture." A little three-year-old person, who I have never met, is evidently a brilliant art critic! Ha! I think highly of their perspicacity, don't you? 4" x 4" Painted with artist quality heavy-body acrylic paint on 1.5” deep cradled wood panel Edges painted black Click here to view on my website. 

Those Rays Though! It has been a very busy couple of weeks around here, and I finally had a painting day! One thing about that though, and I may have told you this before, is that it is so difficult to get back into the flow of painting when I have been out of the studio. This morning, I varnished a painting, entered a competition and show, looked over another couple of competitions that I may be entering, updated my expenses sheet... all kinds of busy work, BUT I WASN'T PAINTING. I think all of those things are valuable, but I really wanted to be painting.  4" x 4" Painted with artist quality heavy-body acrylic paint on 1.5” deep cradled wood panel Edges painted black Click here to view on my website.  Finally, I decided that I would have to start with something easy and appealing, so I chose to paint two tiny landscape paintings. (I am only sharing one today, until I decide whether I will be adding anything to the other one before sharing.) This little palette knife pai...

Before the Rocks Cry Out Here is another tiny painting, and here is the Scripture passage for the title.  Luke 19:40  He answered, “I tell you, if they were to keep silent, the stones would cry out!” 4" x 4" Painted with artist quality heavy-body acrylic paint on 1.5” deep cradled wood panel Edges painted black Click here to view on my website.  Today I "met" a new musician (through a podcast) by the name of John Van Deusen. Makers & Mystics is a podcast I used to listen to religiously, but have recently let go of, so it was a delight to find something I loved so much as I listened. I was so drawn to the musician during his interview that I looked up some of his music, and I shared it with my musician son.  As the podcast conversation progressed, I was struck by how much the artist loves Jesus, and yet his music does not fit into a typical "Christian music" mold. At all. I really loved that.  He talked about liking his own work, and about making music ...

River House 1 For the last couple of days I have had the opportunity to paint in a new location, in a sun room overlooking a river, and it has been a glorious way to break into plein air painting for this year. I am not sure that it would technically be called plein air painting, since I am not exactly outside, but I did have to pack up my kit and travel, and the windows opened wide and let in the outdoors as I worked. It was spectacular! 8" x 16"  Painted with the finest quality heavy-body acrylic paint on panel Framed in simple frame Click  here to view on my website.  While I was painting, I saw quite a few new-to-me things, like a bird that is unfamiliar to me, a black squirrel with a white tip on it's tail, and a bunch of deer that meandered through the wooded area across the river and eventually lay down in a little hollowed out spot among the trees. As you know if you have followed me in the past, I love the outdoors and flora and fauna when I am able to be among t...

Oddly Enough *Update: I have decided to rename this painting Oddly Enough. I like it better as a title, and it still fits!  I was trying to come up with a title for this painting, and I wanted to work with the word "whatever".  This painting was on my easel during my open house, and at that point, "whatever" was the only obvious thing I had painted. (See the progress photos later in the post.) I thought of several ideas, like "whatever floats your boat" and "whatever it takes", or maybe just "whatever". But I thought all of those ideas had a slightly sarcastic, irritating quality.  30" x 40" 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. So, I googled "phrases using whatever", and I asked my family for ideas. Whatever flips your lid? Whatever you got? Whatever pops your cork? Oddly enough, one of the things goo...

Akin to Prayer Early this week, we celebrated balmy spring weather, almost to the point of my pulling out my summer wardrobe. Tomorrow night, it is supposed to be frigid. And in between were thunder storms, which I love when they don't bring damage in their wake. To me, spring brings something that is just spectacular in the deep blue of the sky (whenever the Hoosier perma-gray breaks for a minute), and especially the bare sycamore trees reaching upward into that blue.  4" x 4" Painted with artist quality heavy-body acrylic paint on 1.5” deep cradled wood panel Edges painted black Click here to view on my website.  When I look up at the trees, particularly in the spring when their skeletons are showing, but they are also beginning to bud, it feels like more than just a cool view from nature. There are bones of hope and buds of promise there.  For me, there is something about the very act of tipping my head so that my eyes turn upward that is akin to prayer.  Painting...