Brenda Stichter, artist

Wild & Sweet "Ouch! Tough love!" That is the way I started an email to a friend and art mentor today, after telling him what a struggle it has been to get back into abstraction. I know people don’t get this, but man! it is so much harder to paint abstract paintings than it is to do paintings that are ‘recognizable’.  So I have been ‘fighting’ with a very large painting since Thanksgiving, and doing the sweet little 6” x 6” representational works in the pauses. Part of what has made painting the large abstract difficult is the deep view of Christmas that I have been looking at this year. I referenced it earlier when I shared the metal version of O Come Emmanuel. I have been so aware this year of the raging war for humanity that is beyond our physical sight. The war that was won with the coming of Emmanuel, God with us. Though the ultimate battle is won, the skirmishes still continue for each human soul, and it is dark and it is wild. Or maybe, wild and sweet.  SOLD ...

Abstract 029, 2018 - Vintage Collection Wow, December! It is so tough to keep up with everything I need to keep up with! And my guess would be that I am not alone in that. It turns out that it is a good thing I started sharing my older paintings that haven't been seen very often! I painted this abstract painting on black canvas in response to a challenge from my Beloved Husband. It definitely took me outside my comfort zone, but also was SO much fun! It reminds me of one of my favorite art quotes by Hans Rookmaaker:  Art is a form of play rejoicing before the face of God.  The Creative Gift , Hans Rookmaaker 16" x 20" Painted with the finest quality acrylic heavy-body paint on black 3/4" canvas  Ready to frame Click here to view on my website. Click here for my original blogpost for this painting.

Christmas Snowman On a lighter winter note, here is a Christmas Snowman. He is one of my representational collection I have been doing for Christmas giving this year.  "I am doing some small representational paintings for Christmas giving until Christmas. Would you like one? 6" x 6" acrylic on Fabriano watercolor paper Ready to frame" (Contact me to save shipping and handling) Click here to view on my website. There are still some of these particular paintings available. Let me know if you would like one of these! Shadow Couple To Grandmother's House We Go Bleak Midwinter

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...

Beside Still Waters Here is another of the 6" representational paintings I have been painting, and offering at a spectacular deal. This one is Beside Still Waters, and is very meaningful to me. I feel like it does a great job of communicating peace.  Psalm 23:1-2 ESV The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.  He makes me lie down in green pastures.  He leads me beside still waters. SOLD 6" x 6" acrylic on Fabriano watercolor paper Ready to frame Click here to view on my website.  Contact me to purchase without paying for shipping and handling. 

No Worries, 2016 No Worries, 2016 - Vintage Collection Recently a dear friend of mine has been faced with breast cancer. She is brave and does not want to be seen as "she-has-cancer". She has recently finished her treatment, I am thankful to say!  When she was at my house recently, this painting caught her eye. (She already has a lot of my paintings! We think maybe her house could be considered a Brenda Stichter gallery of works... )  24" x 24" 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. Since my friend was drawn to this painting, it has caught my eye again, and I am remembering what I like about it. Also, as I look at it this time, I see a Christmas painting, with "every good gift coming down" from heaven! James 1:17  Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom ther...

To Grandmother's House We Go "The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing .... For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited." C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory To Grandmother's House We Go 6" x 6" on Fabriano watercolor paper, ready to frame SOLD If you have a landscape photo you would like me to consider painting, send it to me to look at! If I paint it, I will tag you . Bleak Midwinter Bleak Midwinter 6" x 6" on Fabriano watercolor paper, ready to frame SOLD In the Bleak Midwinter BY CHRISTINA ROSSETTI In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone; Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow, In th...