Brenda Stichter, artist

Maple en Plein Air  This past week I received a very surprising email! As I have mentioned to you (probably too many times), I have started posting my plein air and representational paintings on Daily Paintworks. Well, Daily Paintworks has invited me to be their Spotlight Featured Artist for the next couple of weeks! I have to tell you, I was shocked to be invited to participate in this way.  As part of the program, one painting is chosen as a giveaway, and I have responded to questions that will be posted in an interview format. Maple en Plein Air will be the giveaway painting, and I have been told that my two week spotlight will happen starting Friday, August 5. There is no cost to participate in the drawing for the painting, and there will be a banner at the top of the DPW page with my name (Brenda Kay Paintings) and a link to my interview. I encourage you to visit and sign up for the painting, and I would LOVE IT if one of my newsletter subscribers were to win! Contact me ...

Lift Up Your Head, O Gates (for Ukraine) During this week, I have had opportunity to take several paintings to the pop-up gallery that Fort Wayne Artists Guild is operating in the Jefferson Pointe mall in Fort Wayne. I would like to highlight some of those paintings today. Do you remember seeing these before? Lift Up Your Heads, O Gates is one of the small works I took to display on the shelves in the gallery space. It is 12" x 12" on canvas, and it is a painting for Ukraine.  Psalm 24:7  Lift up your heads, O gates,  And be lifted up, O ancient doors,  That the King of glory may come in!   I am still praying for the people of Ukraine, and all of the proceeds from the sale of this painting will go to medical and food relief for the people of this nation. Click here for the original blog post for this painting. The Substance of Things Hoped For The Substance of Things Hoped For is from 2018, and I am actually surprised that it is still available! It is ...

Amidst my painting deliveries and storm clean-up schedule lately, I have sneaked in a small amount of studio time. (And I should admit that MOST of the work is done by my Beloved Husband on the clean-up, with help from a few others.) These are three small works on paper that were painted using only three colors of Golden heavy body acrylic paint: Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold, Payne's Gray, and Titanium White. I really enjoy experimenting with different ways of painting when I haven't got as much time as I would like to paint! Daily Paintworks will be the place to see these three, since I will not be posting them on my website.  I do invite you to visit my 'gallery' on DPW, because this is where I am posting more small works, as well as my plein air and more representational paintings. (And I hope to be updating my website with more completed abstracts soon too, just so you know!) Top: Midnight, 9" x 12" acrylic on paper;  Bottom left: Storm's Comin',...

Showers & Fireflies This new, bright abstract painting is such a delight to me! Not only has it turned out to be one I really like, but something fun happened with the framing of it. Let me tell you the story.  Some time ago, like maybe last year, I accidentally ordered a frame in the wrong size. Most of my large abstract paintings are on deep canvases with painted sides so they do not require frames, but for whatever reason, I needed a large frame. Since I had the wrong sized frame, I ordered a canvas to fit it. But when I opened the frame, it was damaged, so the vendor replaced it. I was able to use the damaged frame, so I ordered another canvas to fit the replacement. (Can you see where this is all going?!) When I finished this painting on the new canvas, ready to fit the frame, I thought to myself, “Rats. This painting would have looked great in a WHITE frame instead of a black one.” I was just so surprised and happy to retrieve the frame from storage to find that it IS whi...

Red Sky in the Morning That which once told a passive tale is now a story of adventure and imagination! This painting was released before with a different title (bonus points if you can remember what it was or find it on my blog!) but several people told me they saw a ship in the painting, so of course, I repainted bits of it and accented the parts that looked like a ship, and here is Red Sky in the Morning. I must admit, I like it better than the original, mainly because the colors are much more complex and interesting now. Also, my imagination is caught with the image and title, and I find myself looking at the work in a new way.  Sold. 6" x 6" Painted with the finest quality heavy-body acrylic paint on panel Ready to frame Click here to view on my website. In the next couple of weeks, I will be delivering work to the Hoosier Salon in Indianapolis, the Acrylic International Biennial Juried Exhibition in Kenosha, and some local venues and I am watching to see what happens ne...

We'll Be All Right Right now I am sitting in my family room by huge windows enjoying pouring rain showers and occasional thunder and lightning. I absolutely love rainy days, and we have been very, very dry around here lately, so the rain is extra welcome. I think that this weather is watering and refreshing my dry soul, too. Don't misunderstand please! Life is good. I just feel like my creativity tank is being filled at the same time as water is rising in the pasture pond. Such great news! We'll Be All Right has been a favorite painting for me since the day I finished it, and so I have been saving it to enter in the Hoosier Salon 98th Annual Exhibition that happens at the Indiana State Museum. I am absolutely delighted that it has been accepted and will be showing there along with many exceptional works of art by artists who have Hoosier connections.  I have really enjoyed painting en plein air lately. As one of the instructors at the huge PACE 2022 plein air convention sai...

Bejeweled  I have almost finished a book that I have apparently (since there is underlining in it) read before, and boy howdy, am I liking it! The book is The Christian Imagination; G.K. Chesterton on the Arts  by  Thomas C. Peters, and to be honest, it makes me want to binge on Chesterton for a while. I do have some of his books, but may want to look for more. I am not at all sure when I would read them  though .   24" x 24" 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. This coming weekend, something impossible is happening. It is the 40th reunion for my high school graduating class, and I am just sure that has to be wrong. I think it was just a few months ago that I visited my old high school and talked to my teachers that were still teaching there, and I had not yet graduated from college! 40 years just seems like such a big number... how can that be r...