Brenda Stichter, artist

Long Enough click here to view on my website This week has been full of administrative duties as I have been getting ready for a two-artist exhibit in our local Lakeland Art Association gallery. Another artist I follow (though I have not yet met him in person) and I are exhibiting our abstract paintings in a show called  Reading Between the Lines: Marks, Lines, and the Movements Within . Yesterday I finished gathering my work and helping to hang and tag the exhibit, which looks very nice, I must say! Our opening reception is scheduled for August 6, 2:00 - 4:00 in the Warsaw, IN gallery space.  Long Enough 40" x 30"  Painted with artist quality heavy-body acrylic paint on 1.5” deep gallery wrapped canvas Edges painted black I hope to spend more time painting this week, and less on the computer! Looking forward to seeing many friends at our reception. 

 I am excited to share that I have a couple of new opportunities coming up on my schedule, so I am "gearing up" in the next several months! One of the possibilities is participation in a black and white exhibit. I have done this limited palette before, but all of those pieces have sold, so I have had a great chance to paint another one. I love the opportunity to try something that is a challenge to me.  12" x 12" Painted with the finest quality heavy-body acrylic paint on cradled wood panel Click here to view on my website. This piece has black paint with flat finish, and with glossy; white paint that is flat and white that is glossy; heavy bodied paint and fluid paint, and a mix of metallic and gritty textures. I really enjoyed working on a good composition while showcasing so many kinds of uses of black and white. The painting is slightly mechanical, and also kind of reminds me of x-rays. Gears are suggested in each of the quadrants of the work (though it is diffi...

What comes to your mind when you hear the word "reel"? I would guess that if you are a fisherman, you imagine pulling in a fish - maybe a whopper! If you are a sailor or have Irish heritage, would you picture a dance, or at least a particular kind of music? (I am listening to some reels as I type.) Maybe those are your connections with this painting, but I painted in response to something that had me emotionally reeling today.  24" x 20" Painted with the finest quality acrylic heavy-body paint on panel Click here to view or purchase on my website. Very early, I decided to go for a walk before the heat of the day. As I entered our woods, (oh, I can barely type this without my heart breaking again) I heard tractors and huge cracking sounds. There was heavy equipment clearing an enormous swath around the drainage tile back there - surely more clearing than their easement calls for or allows! They were taking down 200 year old trees and piling them in heaps, blocking tr...

Intertwangled Featuring a throwback style and yet new in some ways, Intertwangled was a lot of fun to work on, and, at times, really frustrating! Of course almost every large painting I paint is a combination of fun and frustrating, if the truth be told. My first paint strokes on this large canvas were laid on the surface before my open house event in April, so I guess it has been under way for months.  48" x 48" 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. Before I became a full time artist, I remember visiting antique stores and art galleries and trying to discern what it was about certain paintings that make me feel drawn to them. At one point, it seemed clear that curves in the work really appeal. I find that really interesting now, because painting with a curvy composition is not my favorite by a long shot! This work was at least partly inspired by a boat ride at...

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