Brenda Stichter, artist

Well, I am so excited to share that my painting Jubilee was awarded Best of Show at the Lakeland Art Association Juried Summer Exhibition! I have felt honored to receive quite a few awards along the way, and have several ribbons to prove it, but this is my first Best of Show award ever. I honestly thought I might not win anything at this exhibit, because I liked so many of the other paintings so well, and thought they had great chances of winning all of the awards! The exhibit runs through the end of July, and this painting (along with three others of mine) remains through the end of the show. Check out the LAA website here , and be sure to call ahead to check that the gallery is open if you plan to visit!

That's Golden  I have a new work of art that I really like. I "saw" it before I started working on it, and in fact, I bought a particular substrate just in order to make this piece. It is a variation of the cruciform composition, and each of the rectangles is different from the others.  Sold. 8" x 8" x 1.5" deep Painted with the finest quality acrylic heavy-body paint and imitation gold leaf on cradled wood panel Edges painted black Click here to view  on my website. The first step I took was coating the substrate with heavy-body black paint. I wanted to be able to capture brush strokes and cracks throughout the painting. I have used gold leaf, gel matte medium, modeling paste, and different techniques to achieve the contrasts.  (There is such a thing as pure gold leaf, but it is quite expensive.) In low light, the gold really shines. It seems to capture whatever light is available and reflect it. Part of the gold leaf is a single sheet that would be comple...

Lift Up Your Head, O Gates One of the things I have been working on in the last couple of weeks is updating this painting, Lift Up Your Head, O Gates. I painted it just a week after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and I wanted to bring more vibrancy to the painting. I added gold leaf to three areas of the painting, and changed some of the values (how bright or dark an area is) bring about a better balance, since the gold leaf is such a strong accent. And the gold is so pretty! Click here for the original blog post about this painting.   As I mentioned in the first post, this work reminds me of music by Mussorgsky called the Great Gate of Kiev, and there is a link in that post if you wish to listen to that grand piece. This painting is available again on my website here.   12" x 12" Painted with artist quality heavy-body acrylic paint and gold leaf on 1.5” deep gallery wrapped canvas Edges painted black

Once Upon a Time My Beloved Husband and I like to go for meandering drives now and then – we call it vagabonding. (I think that RVers use that term for camping somewhere without any hookups, like in parking lots. We tried that once or twice when we drove an RV to Alaska several years ago, but that is a very different story.) Around here we sometimes find ourselves in Amish country, with road apples (um, horse poop, to be blunt) and kids playing outside and maybe laundry hanging on the line drying. For a long time, it was my favorite thing about Indiana. Anyway, I think we are searching for beauty or maybe adventure when we take those drives.  36" x 24" Painted with artist quality heavy-body acrylic paint on canvas Click here to view or purchase on my website.  “Since it is so likely that (children) will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker.” ― C.S. Lewis Today my mi...

Bright Hope, 2022. You may notice I am sharing a couple of paintings you have seen before. I have a medium/large abstract painting (36” x 24”) on my easel that I thought was going to be finished in time to include with this week’s newsletter, but I just want to give it a little more time – some more careful looking and considering before I am sure it is finished.  Bright Hope, 2022. 48" x 18" Painted with artist quality heavy-body acrylic paint on 1.8” deep gallery wrapped canvas Edges painted black Click here to view or purchase on my website.  Psalm 33:21-22 For our hearts rejoice in him because we trust in his holy name. May your faithful love rest on us, Lord, for we put our hope in you. These two paintings returned home after being exhibited for the last couple of months, and several other paintings went out to other exhibition opportunities. Right now our walls are relatively bare, with many unsold works being out in shows and competitions.  I am sure that some peop...

Paint What You Love Yesterday was Memorial Day, and it was such a gorgeous day for remembering those who have given their lives for freedom here in the United States. In the late afternoon, I got the chance to paint out near where my Beloved Husband was working in the shed. Since I felt like it had been too long since I had done any plein air painting, I wanted to start small, and paint something I love. This is another view of our pasture, with part of our woods in the background, and part of our neighbor's property too.  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 view or purchase on my website. It was such a treat to have the time together this weekend, with a chance to catch up on work around our own home. As I walked this morning in our woods, and looked at the freshly mown pasture and branches that had been trimmed from overhanging our driveway, I thought about how...

Insight Gold was the first color on this canvas, and the entire surface was covered with it as a first paint layer. Though sometimes my first pigment carries words or shapes, or even leftover paint from other projects, I have recently been inspired by and wanted to try a metallic gold starting point. So I painted the whole surface gold while emphasizing the texture from the gesso layer, and applying the paint with varying textures and thicknesses to start building an interesting surface. 40" x 30" 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. Between painting that gold layer and the next step of the work, I had my feet knocked out from under me (figuratively speaking) by a social media post and subsequent phone calls. Incidentally, I keep telling myself I am going to stay away from social media, other than posting my work there, and I sure wish I would listen to myself...