Brenda Howell
Brenda’s love of making art started with the experience and guidance of her mother, who is a visual artist and art teacher. “She encouraged me to draw and paint in oils before I was five years old, and I was inspired by her outdoor painting at Rocky Mountain National Park at about that same time,” the artist states. Howell later studied art in many places and educational institutions, including the art of masters in art museums. When she discovered the works of Thomas Moran, Carl Oscar Borg, Georgia O’Keeffe and other great painters of the west she knew the direction her art must take.
Representative landscapes that reveal something about the story that the earth tells is the focus of the work. These landscapes are wild—untamed—visually rich places that have the power to take the viewer out of ordinary reality. The artist relates, “I have long been fascinated by landscapes that reveal the earth layers below the surface. When I first saw the Grand Canyon and Painted Desert on trips during college breaks I was awestruck, and in my extreme appreciation of the beauty of these landscapes I also wanted to understand how the various rock layers were formed and why all the variety in color and structure. This interest led to my taking college classes in earth science and geology. At about this time Mount St. Helens blew its top and that event was such an emotion-laden and powerful statement of the earth’s processes I would never look at volcanic rock and ash layers the same way again.”.
Howell worked more than twenty years as a technical/geological illustrator and graphic designer, and later developed a successful freelance business. This work was interesting and rewarding; however, she continued her study and practice of fine art inspired by wild natural landscapes. Eventually the fine art began taking more of a center stage in her development.
After spending a year in India and traveling in Europe and Australia, the artist decided to live in the landscape that had always inspired her; at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, desiring to experience the Canyon in a deeper and more intimate and profound way than just a painting visit could ever give. She hiked and backpacked the trails and came to know it by the seasons living and working there from 1999 to 2003.
Painting full time since 2003, much of the work is of Grand Canyon and inspiring landscapes of the West. She paints primarily in oil, both in the studio and outdoors. Excursions in her “paintmobile” take her to breathtaking natural landscapes and wilderness areas every year.
Representative landscapes that reveal something about the story that the earth tells is the focus of the work. These landscapes are wild—untamed—visually rich places that have the power to take the viewer out of ordinary reality. The artist relates, “I have long been fascinated by landscapes that reveal the earth layers below the surface. When I first saw the Grand Canyon and Painted Desert on trips during college breaks I was awestruck, and in my extreme appreciation of the beauty of these landscapes I also wanted to understand how the various rock layers were formed and why all the variety in color and structure. This interest led to my taking college classes in earth science and geology. At about this time Mount St. Helens blew its top and that event was such an emotion-laden and powerful statement of the earth’s processes I would never look at volcanic rock and ash layers the same way again.”.
Howell worked more than twenty years as a technical/geological illustrator and graphic designer, and later developed a successful freelance business. This work was interesting and rewarding; however, she continued her study and practice of fine art inspired by wild natural landscapes. Eventually the fine art began taking more of a center stage in her development.
After spending a year in India and traveling in Europe and Australia, the artist decided to live in the landscape that had always inspired her; at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, desiring to experience the Canyon in a deeper and more intimate and profound way than just a painting visit could ever give. She hiked and backpacked the trails and came to know it by the seasons living and working there from 1999 to 2003.
Painting full time since 2003, much of the work is of Grand Canyon and inspiring landscapes of the West. She paints primarily in oil, both in the studio and outdoors. Excursions in her “paintmobile” take her to breathtaking natural landscapes and wilderness areas every year.
