Brenda Howell was born in Oklahoma and also grew up in New Mexico and Southern California. Her mother was an artist and art teacher and began training her daughter to draw in early childhood. Being included with her motherʼs outdoor sketching classes was the beginning of a lifelong love of exploring and depicting the natural world. “She instructed me in drawing and painting in watercolor and oils before I was five years old. I was inspired by her painting at home and outdoors on family camping trips. She enabled me to look at the world with the eyes of an artist, noticing colors and shapes and teaching me drawing skills,” Howell relates.
In college Brenda’s interests were wide ranging and she earned a B.A. in Sociology at Cal State Fullerton, but always studied art: in high school, and at Orange Coast College, Fullerton College, Philbrook Museum School, Tulsa Community College and Scottsdale Artists School.
Her love affair with the Grand Canyon began in 1970 when she and her sister first hiked five miles down the Bright Angel Trail to Indian Garden. “I am fascinated by landscapes that reveal the earth’s rock layers. The American West and the Grand Canyon offer colors and shapes and magical light like no other landscapes. I am just as intrigued by this in my seventies as I was in my twenties.”
Having enjoyed a career in Illustration, Geological Drafting, and Graphic Design, she moved to the South Rim of Grand Canyon and worked there for several years in order to further explore the natural world. Hiking the trails, sketching, painting, and observing the seasons was the experience of a lifetime. Becoming attuned to the natural rhythms of the Canyon’s changing light and atmospheric nuances helped develop her intimate knowledge of Western landscapes.
Howell left Grand Canyon in 2003 to pursue painting full time.
Nationally known for her paintings, winning awards from Oil Painters of America, National Oil and Acrylic Painters Society, American Women Artists, Salon International, and Art Renewal Center’s International Salon, among others, Howell was invited for solo shows at Pearce Western Art Museum in Texas, Sangre de Cristo Art Museum in Colorado, and was also chosen by the National Park Service as Artist-in-Residence at Badlands National Park. Her work resides in the permanent collections of public and private collections throughout the U.S. and abroad.
She paints primarily in traditional oils. “For me, painting is exploration. My art is about my fascination with and spiritual connection to the natural world and its awesome power. When I see rocks, trees, or other beautifully shaped elements in the natural landscape come alive by dramatic light it makes my heart sing. Light is the miraculous key that makes simple things awesome and affects color in stunning ways. My work also explores the relationships of symbolic elements in the landscape. When I am outside painting and experiencing these wild places the process involves long, careful seeing and visually absorbing the complexities of shapes and color. When I am back in the studio I work on concepts for paintings and experiment with compositions. I rely on my memory to evoke the lived experience along with my sketches and photographs to create my studio work.
“What keeps me going to the easel every day is the mystery and anticipation of what will evolve there. What I want to bring about is a painting that represents a bit of the magic, beauty, strength, and weight of the world and says “Celebrate nature!”
Brenda’s paintings have been featured in Western Art & Architecture, Southwest Art Magazine, and other publications.