Brenda Stichter, artist

  New Every Morning #42 Lamentations 3:22-23  English Standard Version " The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;  his mercies never come to an end;  they are new every morning;  great is your faithfulness." 6" x 6" Painted with the finest quality acrylic heavy-body paint on Art Bite panel Ready to frame Click here to purchase via my website. Holman Christian Standard Bible   ח Khet " 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!" King James Version " It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.  They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness." Living Bible "his compassion never ends. It is only the Lord’s mercies that have kept us from complete destruction. Great is his faithfulness; his loving-kindness begins afresh each day." Amplified Bible " It is becau...

Far Kingdom After nearly a week trying to name and blog about this painting, I finally gave up and posted it on Instagram and Facebook as "Untitled", and asked for title suggestions. I felt that my longing for my eternal home and my (sometimes distant) hope were showing up in this landscape.  One friend suggested "Far Kingdom" in reference to a song by the Gray Havens , and I am loving that suggestion! One of the lines in that song that touches me speaks of the Far Kingdom knowing my name.  36" x 36" Painted with artist quality heavy-body acrylic paint on 1.5” deep gallery wrapped canvas Click here to purchase via my website. John 14:1 - 3  “Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be al...

Let's Go Fly a Kite This past Sunday, it was windy, but beautiful blue and cold here. In the later afternoon, my Beloved Husband and I were walking around in our back yard, and he decided it would be a good time to fly a kite! We spent a little while trying two different kites, (I didn't even know we had them! They were somewhere in the recesses of our shed...) and found that the wind actually wasn't quite strong enough to keep them flying. Either that, or the gusts were just too crazy! Our kite would frequently dive for the wood pile or swoop into the tree, just like Charlie Brown's kite always does.  The color, fresh air, and unaccustomed venture were so refreshing for me! I was almost sorry when we decided we just couldn't keep the kite in the air and put it away.  20" x 20" Painted with artist quality heavy-body acrylic paint on 1.5” deep gallery wrapped canvas Click here to purchase via my website. I called my mom today. I have told you...

New Every Morning #41 For today's New Every Morning painting, I want to share some quotes that I have in my quote collection, so to speak. "I have consciously sought after those things which make for value, order, richness, spirit and wonder,  even though I am often unable to verbalize what I feel when I perceive something beautiful. Sometimes it's  a pang or a sensation; at other times it is an awareness of joy and security or pure pleasure. In any event,  it is a moment to be celebrated. Beauty justifies itself. The fact that it is beyond definition means nothing."  Luci Swindoll, You Bring the Confetti, God Brings the Joy “I have been about the world long enough to know that God’s plans for us, however infallibly good, may not  take the form that we expect and demand.”  Ellis Peters, One Corpse Too Many “All shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.”  Julian of Norwich 6" x 6" Painted with the finest q...

New Every Morning #40 This bright, texture-rich little painting is a really good reminder of the last couple days here in Northern Indiana. The colors remind me of the weather which has been (mostly) bright, warm, and spring-y, and the heavy texture reminds me of the daily adjustments that we are all under with regards to the virus. The painting is a "high-key" painting, which means there aren't dark values in it. I am just loving the bright color.  It kind of reminds me of a landscape, how about you? And it looks like there is water flowing down into the foreground. I am always captivated by water! 6" x 6" Painted with the finest quality acrylic heavy-body paint on Art Bite panel Ready to frame Click here to purchase via my website. I may have mentioned this before, but I am finding I really need color these days. I think it would be so much harder to "hunker at home" (as Indiana calls it) if we were in the middle of a typical Northern...

Holy Week  This is the most unusual Holy Week in my memory, and I bet most of you feel the same way. But I have been thinking lately about other times in history when it has seemed like the whole world - or at least North America - was shaken up. I have thought about the Dust Bowl/Great Depression, the Civil War, World War II, the Irish potato famine, epidemics that devastated worldwide populations, and Biblically speaking, droughts, plagues, the tower of Babel, political upheavals, and, of course, the Great Flood. It would seem that almost every generation has an event or time that is unprecedented.  Not that that seems to make anything better!  11" x 14" 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 via my website. The first "Holy Week", the week leading up to Easter, was the biggest upheaval in history, and in fact, it changed history. I rea...

New Every Morning #38 Here we are, all of us, in an unprecedented situation. It seems that daily, new restrictions are arising, and new questions come to my mind, as I am sure they do to yours. I am daily, or maybe hourly or even continuously, returning to the knowledge that MY HEAVENLY FATHER IS NOT SURPRISED. He is good, He loves me (and you), and He will cause "all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28 New Every Morning #38 is my newest addition to my series of small paintings, and it expresses some of what I have been feeling. I think it feels a little stormy, and maybe eerie, but it is a traditional format - almost an abstract landscape - and I am using that to show that even in stormy, eerie, unprecedented days, God is still absolutely solid.  6" x 6" Painted with the finest quality acrylic heavy-body paint on Art Bite panel Ready to frame Click here to purchase via my ...

New Every Morning #37 It is a splendidly sunny day again here in Indiana! I am not at all sure how to behave when we have so much sunshine. Do I go outside and soak up some vitamin D, or do I get back in the studio and paint (or on the computer and blog)? On days like this, everything I see is beautiful...  I have been working on a project in the studio that I plan to share next week. I have finished two of the three paintings in the group, and so far, I am happy with them!  My Beloved Husband is improving daily from his shoulder surgery, though it is still a painful and long ordeal ahead. He is out of his sling for the most part and starting to stretch and strengthen his arm and shoulder.  6" x 6" Painted with the finest quality acrylic heavy-body paint on hand-made, prepared wood panel Ready to frame Click here to purchase via my website. On bright days like today, I am so thankful that my Heavenly Father offers his lovingkindness "new every morning...

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...

New Every Morning #36 Though this painting is actually a study for a larger work (that I will hope to finish sometime soon), I have chosen to add it to my New Every Morning collection. I am excited about the possibilities for the larger work, and will blog much more about meaning and composition when I finish it, but I don't want to steal my own thunder, so to speak! Today has been a day with a few good "art things", and also several cheerful family things happening. It has also had several responsibilities that have pulled me from my studio. (Ok, it seems I cannot blog about this painting without some hint of the work for which it is a study!) When I shared this one with a friend, she said that it drew her eyes all around the painting, and that really is part of what I have been hoping to express! The composition is intended to have things "pulling" in many directions.  6" x 6" Painted with the finest quality acrylic heavy-body paint on Art Bi...

New Every Morning #35 Today we have had a fairly heavy snowfall, and once again I am so glad that snow is white and not some other color! It was breathtaking this morning to see the snow covering every single object outside. Nothing was left uncovered that was open to the snow. (I feel like that would preach!) 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 purchase via my website. The snowy, gray-white mornings are beautiful, but the other morning, as the clouds started to roll in, I got a text from my Beloved Husband, who was on his way to work. "Sun." That is all he said. (And honestly, since he was DRIVING with one arm completely immobilized in a sling, I am not even sure how he did that!) The sky was mostly shades of deep blue, but the sun was a bright orange ball peeking through, with maybe a thin line of orange along the horizon. Dazzling.  Especial...

The First Noel, 2019 I painted The First Noel in 2016, and there is a good blog post about the original (before the update) painting here . As I read what I wrote when I first worked on this piece, I can see that the some of the same thoughts still carry through.  6" x 6"  Painted with the finest quality acrylic heavy-body paint on Art Bite panel ready to frame   Click here to purchase on my website. Yesterday, my son shared a song with me that has, surprisingly, been impacting me for two days. It is a metal song , and if you are not a fan of metal music, it will probably not be something you enjoy. It is, admittedly, a bit disturbing. But, as I posted on my personal Facebook page, it tells the Christmas story in a powerful way. "If metal music is offensive to you, you will not appreciate this song, but oh my goodness! I don't listen to a lot of metal, but I keep playing this. This is Christmas! Not cookies and stockings, but warfare to rescue humanity...

New Every Morning #31 I am interrupting my "Vintage Collection" posts for this little autumn New Every Morning painting. It just has to be posted while there is still some autumn color!  New Every Morning #31 Today in northern Indiana we have heavy snow. It seems a little earlier than sometimes, and as much as I love the beauty of it, I must admit to a tiny bit of concern about our travel conditions for this week. We will be driving to NC and to FL this week! I will be attending an art trade show and I do look forward to being in “art world” at Art of the Carolinas in Raleigh, NC. (Will you be there?) 6" x 6" Painted with the finest quality acrylic heavy-body paint on Art Bite panel Ready to frame Click here to purchase via my website. My time reading the Bible this morning started out in 2 Corinthians. Verse 2 offers a greeting of grace and peace, and I am so aware that I need grace and peace! I have been thinking about how seemingly little...

Emerald Replacement  A couple of years ago for a painting challenge, I painted abstract expressions of stones found in the Bible, and I grouped some of them in frames. A few of those original paintings have since sold, and I chose today to paint one of the replacements - an emerald.  As I did when I first painted emeralds for this project, I did a little looking at photo references and some information about the use of emerald in the Bible and the rest of history. It is still an interesting study. This time I learned that Cleopatra was evidently obsessed with emeralds. I wish I could see photos of her with her jewelry! 6" x 6" Painted with the finest quality acrylic heavy-body paint on Art Bite panel Ready to frame Click here to view on my website. Can you see the iridescent gold in this photo? It is so pretty! If this painting is not purchased individually, it will become a part of a really cool grouping of paintings that represents the foundation stones in...

New Every Morning #28 Today is gray and rainy, and while I love this kind of day, it really stinks trying to get a good photograph of my painting without the sun! I just cannot capture the light or the color properly.  We have guests staying with us now, and because they don't need to be up and around at "zero-dark-thirty" like we do, I spent some time outside watching the sky at sunrise today. Wow. It was so beautiful! I tried to photograph the sky, too, but again, I could not capture it... the color and shape were there, but they were muted and blurred  without the sun. 6" x 6" Painted with the finest quality acrylic heavy-body paint on Art Bite panel Ready to frame Click here to purchase via my website. Some friends of friends lost their 22 year old son yesterday. I have been heartbroken for them for the last two days. There have been a few photos shared, but you know, they just cannot get a good photo without that son.  My painting time ...

New Every Morning #27 Early this morning I started my quiet time of Bible reading and prayer in 'my spot', looking out across our pasture and woods. I was listening to the Dallas Theological Seminary video of last night's worship chapel, and watching the ground fog over the pasture. The combination of the music/celebration of praise and the illustration of beauty sidetracked me, and I interrupted my quiet time (or maybe just experienced it in a different way) by heading to the studio to paint a morning painting.  6" x 6" Painted with the finest quality acrylic heavy-body paint on hand-made, prepared wood panel Ready to frame Click here to view on my website. James 4:14 (ESV) "yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes."  (By the way, I found this passage to be comforting, surprisingly enough...) Lamentations 3:22-23 "The steadfast love of th...

New Every Morning #26   Have I told you about an exhibit I 'curated' for the gallery space at the church we attend? It is a photography exhibit of sky photos (taken by people who attend there) showing how God's glory and artistry is shown in the sky. It is such a nice exhibit. This painting reminds me of the exhibit, and of how His glory is declared New Every Morning - and evening.  6" x 6" Painted with the finest quality acrylic heavy-body paint on Art Bite panel Ready to frame Click here to view on my website. Lamentations 3:21-23 (ESV) But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Let the Little Children Come II  Earlier this year an email came to me with the subject line "...possibly fun project, if you are interested..." It came from the curator of the gallery at rua, where I had a very enjoyable and successful exhibit last year, and he was inviting me to participate in a charity event. I am delighted to share that I am participating in Raise the Brush, an art exhibit and auction with proceeds going to assist those who are fundraising for adoption.  SOLD 40" x 30" Painted with artist quality heavy-body acrylic paint on 1.5” deep gallery wrapped canvas Click here to see on my website. Bouncing balls, twirling skirts, spinning tops, blowing bubbles, hula hoops, bike wheels/pedals; can you see them here? I thought about so many things as I started working on the concept for this painting, and eventually came to a New Testament passage from the Gospel of Mark that talks about Jesus with children. His disciples didn't seem to see ...

   Swimmer warm-up Once again, I am working on a more representational painting! I got permission to use a photo reference from one of my first college roommates, Lisa. She  posted a snapshot she had taken and talked about it on social media, and it struck a chord with me! When I paint the final version of the work, I will share her post, but for now, I am really enjoying working on it.  7ish" x 22ish"  One side cut, 3 sides deckle edges Painted with the finest quality heavy-body acrylic paint on acid-free watercolor paper Ready to frame Click here to view on my website. I can envision this trimmed down and framed, or maybe just framed, and hanging near my mirror, or in a changing room at a pool or beach. This person in her swimsuit holds my respect and admiration. (Can you tell?) Painting the final version will be a delight!  I Thessalonians 5:16 Rejoice always!