Chris Brandell's work explores intuition, presence, and the many forms of love. Working in oil and mixed media, she approaches each painting as a process of discovery rather than a predetermined outcome, allowing gesture, texture, and paint itself to guide each composition.
Her visual language grows from intuitive engagement with the natural world in her surroundings—shells, driftwood, broken concrete, bits of wire, and other found fragments—as well as poetry, music, and language. These influences are translated into abstract paintings where energy and stillness exist together.
Brandell works from her studio in Marco Island, Florida. A full-time artist since 2019, her work is held in private and corporate collections, including Southern Methodist University, Pi Beta Phi (Texas), and The Silva and The Edge (Maryland).
I never know where intuition will take me or what each painting will become. I often begin with a drawing; sometimes it remains the focus, and sometimes it disappears into the groundwork for something new. At its core, my work is an exploration of love—spiritual, romantic, platonic, and the ongoing practice of self-love.
My process is guided by listening rather than planning. Marks arrive directly with gesture and movement. These moments reveal a clarity that exists alongside uncertainty. In turn, the paintings hold stillness and space, and the known and the not yet understood.
Because I believe that Divine perfection, the purest form of love, exists within everything, I return continually to a simple idea: do what you love and forget the rest. Wherever the work leads, it comes back to love. When a painting carries that energy, I know the work is complete.
ARTIST STATEMENT
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2026: Spring Fling (5 Artists), Gardner Colby Gallery, Naples, Florida
2025: Season Opening Exhibition, Gardner Colby Gallery, Naples, Florida
2024: Season Opening Exhibition, Gardner Colby Gallery, Naples, Florida
2022: Sightseeing (3 Artists), Huff Harrington Fine Art, Atlanta, Georgia
2022: Right Here All Along (2 Artists), Palette Home, Richmond, Virginia
2022: Art2Life International Juried Art Exhibition, curated by Jack Fischer
2022: The Architecture of Healing (4 Artists), Sozo Gallery, Charlotte, North Carolina
2021: Found Objects (Solo), Palette Home, Richmond, Virginia
2021: The Words (Solo), The Athenaeum, Alexandria, Virginia
2020: Perspective & Prose (4 Artists), Sozo Gallery, Charlotte, North Carolina
COLLECTIONS
— Southern Methodist University, Pi Beta Phi, Dallas, Texas
— The Silva (Adams Morgan), Washington, DC.
— The Edge, Bethesda, Maryland
— Ninotch, An Urban Retreat, Tysons Corner, Virginia
— The Asbury, Charlotte, North Carolina
REPRESENTATION
— Gardner Colby Gallery, Naples, Florida
— Huff Harrington Fine Art, Atlanta, Georgia
— Galerie Odette (earlier works) Birmingham, Alabama