Brenda Stichter, artist

Do you hear the music when you are looking at this painting? As I have been looking at it (for days now) trying to decide how to blog about it, the one thing that keeps interrupting me is the music! The first song I "heard" when I was looking at this painting to blog about it has a line that says " I ran out of that grave ", and that is the heart of what is expressed in this work.  Another one (completely different sort of song, by the way) swells to HUGE organ music in the third verse, and my inside just seems to swell with the music. I feel that immensity. And I want you to feel that when you look at this painting too.  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. I feel the same thing when the sunrise (or sunset) is unspeakably beautiful, when I feel relief from pain, when I realize I am deeply loved.  Here is a passage from the New Testament that f...

Purple Cosmos How is it already June? All of a sudden, this year is absolutely FLYING by me. (You too?) It is time for shows, contests, and art fairs, and somehow or other, it all sneaked up on me. This past weekend was a local art fair that I have always loved attending, and this year for the first time, I was one of the people in a white tent! It was a good show for me, but I already feel like I will busy until Christmas! Well, maybe not quite... No longer available 12 x 12"  painted with the finest quality acrylic heavy-body paint  on  acid-free, heavy weight Fabriano watercolor paper Ready to frame Today I finally got back into the studio to paint. Ahhh. That makes such a difference. The time just melts away, and I am surprised when I look at the clock and it is past time for me to be doing other things. Here is a work that has been many, many layers in the making, and is one of several that have been WIPs in my studio. I love the colors, textures, and th...

Gray Sabbath So, as it turns out, it doesn’t really matter how I open up this dumb canvas panel. Just get the stupid plastic out of the way. What difference does it make? Really, what difference does anything make. DOESN’T ANYBODY REMEMBER YESTERDAY ? They are all out there in the cold sunshine, heading to Wal-Mart to buy plastic eggs and plastic grass and shiny white little girl shoes. And bunny suits and candy. Tons of candy. WHAT ABOUT THORNS AND NAILS AND BODY BAGS ? If He is really dead – DEAD – then what is the point? My whole life makes no sense at all. Why did I even wake up this morning? I am going to mix paint and paint the whole thing gray. Blah. Lifeless. I just keep on seeing that cross … everywhere. I need some more caffeine. Green and red are the colors that I mixed to make my dead gray. Doesn’t that seem ironic to anyone else? Christmas colors? As if that birth, all that time ago, means anything whatsoever if He is dead. Dead . I need to g...

Good Friday. As I walked out to empty my dirty paint water, I thought about this painting I have to paint. I don’t know. I didn’t even think I could paint it as I did my quiet time this morning. But then, I think I need to. So I am walking out to empty the dirty bucket of water – full from painting a portrait of my beloved daughter. As I pour the pigment laden water in my gravel driveway, I think, “It is like preparing for the worst job in the world. What would that be? Maybe telling someone that their loved one has been killed in an accident? Maybe having to put a pet to sleep?” I came back toward the house with my inverted bucket, with my eyes on the ground, thinking. I moved the large things out of the way so that I could paint, and started to gather my thoughts about exactly which paint I would choose for this awful assignment. I took a panel from the shelf, and turned it to the back to cut off the protective plastic layer. “No,” I thought. “It is the front. I have ...