Emerging Artists | Brenda Hendrix

In the mind’s eye

Brenda Hendrix, A Warm Spot on a Cool Day, oil, 20 x 24.

This story was featured in the August 2014 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art August 2014 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story!

Brenda Hendrix is fond of saying that people must choose their addictions wisely, and Hendrix’s own addiction is art. The Colorado-based painter is a lifelong student of art with a degree in art education from the University of Alabama. Hendrix’s fine-art education continued in workshops with well-known artists Kim English, Clyde Aspevig, and Michael Lynch. Today she is a self-described “painterly colorist” who captures scenes with bold brush strokes to convey both form and depth. “My paintings are deliberately loose and gestural,” Hendrix says. “I want people to be able to see my hand at work.”

The element of color often inspires a Hendrix painting, whether the end result is a still life that features a bowl of red Bing cherries or a landscape that depicts the yellow leaves of an aspen tree. “Mixing the paint on my palette makes me a bit giddy,” Hendrix says. “Nearly every painting starts with a new but limited palette that I get to blend and transform into my finished works. It all starts there, on the glass, and in my mind’s eye.”

The artist has painted plenty of grand vistas in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. But for a show opening in September at Arts at Denver, Hendrix is preparing some works that veer in a different direction. These new landscapes focus on more intimate scenes. An example 
is the painting PORTRAIT OF AUTUMN, in which Hendrix uses bits of red, 
orange, and gold to create an impressionistic, close-up view of a beech tree that straddles the line between realism and abstraction. Hendrix says she considers her works successful if they convey a sense of harmony, contentment, joy 
for the loveliness of the world, and 
perhaps a little mystery—because, as she points out, not everything in life is clearly defined. —Bonnie Gangelhoff

representation
Arts at Denver, Denver, CO; Act I Gallery, Taos, NM.

Featured in the August 2014 issue of Southwest Art magazine–click below to purchase:
Southwest Art August 2014 print issue or digital download Or subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss a story!