By Elizabeth Brannon
North Texas native Brenda Gribbin grew up in an environment that encouraged creativity and do-it-yourself projects. Young Brenda created things she wanted, including handmade gifts for friends, but slowly eased into her life’s work as an artist. It wasn’t until Brenda was in her 40s that art education became a life changing experience and set her on her highly successful path and career.
Graduating summa cum laude from University of Texas Dallas with a degree in Art and Performance, Brenda established herself as a local business woman and artist, and thrives as an artist, teacher, facilitator, workshop leader, collaborator and ‘creative’ who is always up for a challenge.
Brenda works with various dry media as well as watercolor and acrylic paint on canvas, paper, and panel. Her art focuses on botanical forms and movement of those forms which can be seen and felt in all of her works. Brenda has a love of using deep and velvety charcoal as part of her work, and charcoal and metallic paints are uniform elements of her current works. Her technique involves charcoal and 3-D acrylic layers to create an illustration of a personal moment through botanical symbolism.
Brenda has done numerous commissions and always has commission work pending. Often those commissioned works are of a time or a story or an experience the customer wants her to capture.
Her studio is in her garage, except during Texas heat advisory days, when she moves the studio into her house. Brenda uses a limited palate and limited tools to provide consistency in her works and also force maximum creativity. Within a given work, she establishes rules then gives herself the freedom to create. Brenda works most days for a minimum of two hours, depending on the commissions she has at any given time.
In addition to painting, Brenda is currently working on a liturgical tapestry project that will occupy some of her time through the end of 2022. Brenda has been prolific with works created for specific individuals and with works created as public art.
Brenda’s work has been seen in Flower Mound on several occasions. In 2019, Brenda was the firstartist chosen to have a work (Daisy Dance) installed on a Flower Mound traffic signal box (Morriss and Firewheel). She was also the first artist selected to display her work on the Flower Mound Town Hall Art Wall (2019). Brenda has participated as an artist in the Cross Timbers Artist Guild Studio Tour (2016-2017), had a solo exhibition at Swirl Bakery (2020), and was the featured artist at Clink Wine Bar + Bites in 2022.
When Brenda attended a church in Plano, she created chalk walls several times each year. Brenda also has some additional local firsts. In 2018, Brenda was part of the first installation (south entrance wall) of the Chalk Wall at the Lewisville Grand Theater. Brenda’s work titled “Heel, Toe, Away We Go!,” was of cowboy boots and there is a video that shows her chalking the wall (vimeo.com/293239306). Later in 2021, Brenda was the first artist to paint a decorative crosswalk for Lewisville (Charles and Purnell Streets). Both the crosswalk painting and the Chalk Wall project for the Lewisville Grand were funded by the Public Art Program through the City of Lewisville.
Visit the Town of Flower Mound Community Creatives webpage for more information about Brenda.
Brenda offers her works for sale. Examples of her works can be found on her website www.bgribbinstudio.com or on Facebook and Instagram @bgribbinstudio. To contact Brenda about a commissioned work, reach out to her at her website.
Currently, Brenda serves on the Town of Flower Mound Cultural Arts Commission (Place 6).
Art Thoughts: “The earth without art is just eh.” – Demetri Martin
Elizabeth Brannon serves on the Flower Mound Cultural Arts Commission.
