Brenda Howell Bio

About the Artist

Brenda at Grand Canyon

Brenda began her love affair with the Grand Canyon on Thanksgiving Day in 1970 when she and her sister first hiked five miles down the Bright Angel Trail to Indian Gardens. It was a life-changing experience on many levels. Ten years later, when she began painting again she made her first painting of the Canyon and it has been a dominant theme of her art throughout her painting life.

Art was a very important part of her early years. Her mother, while teaching private art classes, encouraged Brenda to paint her first oil painting at age five. This early introduction to the process of sketching and outdoor painting was instrumental to her interest in and love of landscape. One of her fondest childhood memories is of a trip to Rocky Mountain National Park where her mother painted outdoors at Bear Lake. Her mother also taught her to draw her own paper dolls and paper doll clothes, complete with tabs.

She graduated with a B.A. from California State University at Fullerton, and studied art at Orange Coast College, Fullerton College, Tulsa Community College, Philbrook Art Museum School and Scottsdale Artists’ School. She has always studied the art of master painters in art museums, being particularly inspired by Thomas Moran, Gunnar Widforss, Carl Oscar Borg, Georgia O’Keeffe, Edgar Payne, Birger Sandzen and Maynard Dixon.

Brenda worked more than twenty years as a Graphic Designer and Technical/ Geological Illustrator, which led to a successful freelance business. But fine art kept calling her. After spending a year in India and traveling in Europe and Australia, Brenda decided to immerse herself in her favorite place to paint, the Grand Canyon. She came to live at the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park in 1999 and stayed for four years. In the tradition of Gunnar Widforss and other artists that made Grand Canyon home, this experience transformed her work and her life.

It was at Grand Canyon that she found a great response to her paintings, which are now in many collections in the U.S. and abroad. Brenda began painting full-time in 2003. Now based in Northern New Mexico, she travels and paints throughout the west. She paints primarily in oil, both outdoors and in the studio.

Selected Exhibitions

2008 — Two Artists Show,
Hueys Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM

2007 — Salon International 2007,
National Juried Show, Greenhouse Gallery of Fine Art, San Antonio, TX

2007 — Oil Painters of America,
16th Annual National Juried Show, Whistle Pik Galleries, Fredericksburg, TX

2007 — National Society of Artists,
23rd National Juried Show, Houston, TX

2006/2007 — Little Gems,
Alla Prima Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL

2006 — Night Visions,
Coconino Center for the Arts, Flagstaff, AZ

2006 — Inspiration from the Forest,
Ghost Ranch Visitor Center Museum, Abiquiu, NM

2005 — American Women Artists Annual Juried Exhibition,
Texas Art Gallery, Dallas, TX

2005 — Arts for the Parks Mini 100 Exhibit,
Jackson Lake Lodge, Grand Teton National Park, WY

2004 — Artists of the Grand Canyon,
Medicine Man Gallery, Tucson, AZ

2004 — Flagstaff “Open Studios”,
Historic Monte Vista Hotel, Flagstaff, AZ

2004 — Celebration of Fine Art,
Scottsdale, AZ

2003 — Art Exhibit at Grand Hotel,
Grand Canyon, AZ

2002, 2003, 2004 — “Appetizers for the Visual Feast”,
Coconino Center for the Arts, Flagstaff, AZ

2002, 2003, — Flagstaff “Open Studios”,
Coconino Center for the Arts, Flagstaff, AZ

2002 — Grand Canyon Art
at the El Tovar, Grand Canyon National Park, AZ

2001 — Art Exhibit at Phantom Ranch,
Grand Canyon National Park, AZ

2001 — Grand Canyon Art
at the El Tovar, Grand Canyon National Park, AZ

1999 — American Embassy Art Exhibit,
New Delhi, India

1992 — Kansas Watercolor Society Five-State Juried Exhibition,
Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, KS

1992 — Louisiana Watercolor Society 22nd Intl Juried Exhibit,
World Trade Center, New Orleans, LA

1991 — Kansas Watercolor Society Five-State Juried Exhibition,
Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, KS

Publications

Sept, 2007 — New Mexico Woman Magazine, Albuquerque, NM

August, 2007 — Southwest Art Magazine, Boulder, CO

April, 2004 — Mountain Living Magazine, Flagstaff, AZ

Sept, 1997 — Tulsa Woman News, Tulsa, OK

Awards

2007 — Southwest Art Magazine Award, Salon International 2007,
Greenhouse Gallery, San Antonio, TX

2007 — Phillip G. Paratore Jr. Memorial Award, National Society of Artists,
23rd National Juried Show, Houston, TX

2005 — Merit Award, American Women Artists Annual Juried Exhibition,
Texas Art Gallery, Dallas, TX

1992 — American Artist Magazine Award, Louisiana Watercolor Society 22nd Intl Juried Exhibit, World Trade Center, New Orleans, LA

1991 — Juror’s Award , Kansas Watercolor Society Five-State Juried Exhibition, Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, KS

1990 — Best of Show Award , Tulsa Community College, Tulsa, OK