Chris Brandell’s compositions grow out of a deep personal engagement with the natural world. Her palette, textured surfaces, and gestural marks are shaped by the objects she gathers near her Marco Island studio—shells, driftwood, broken concrete, bits of wire, and other fragments that carry the island’s quiet pulse.
Equally informed by poetry, music, and words, she translates these tactile and emotional references into large-scale abstract works rendered in oil and mixed media.
Her process is guided by intuition rather than planning. Paintings often begin with a drawing; sometimes it remains visible, and sometimes it disappears into the groundwork for something new. Recently, her work has opened into a more direct physical language, where gesture, movement, and the presence of paint remain visible.
Born and raised in New Rochelle, New York, Brandell now works from her studio in Marco Island, Florida. After a successful career as a business executive, she has been dedicated to painting full-time 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). She is currently represented by Gardner Colby Gallery, Huff Harrington Fine Art, and Artful Sol Gallery.
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. I hold to the idea that Divine perfection, the purest form of love, exists within everything.
My process is guided by listening rather than planning. Recently, marks have begun to arrive more directly, with gesture, movement, and the physical presence of paint remaining visible rather than dissolving. These moments introduce a different kind of clarity, one that exists alongside uncertainty, allowing the work to hold both stillness and movement, softness and structure, the known and the not yet understood. Each painting becomes a place where something is discovered and left open.
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, it creates a sense of connection, and that is when I know the work is complete.
ARTIST STATEMENT
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS, press and COLLECTIONS
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
— Right Here All Along (2 Artists), Palette Home, Richmond, Virginia
— Art2Life International Juried Art Exhibition, curated by Jack Fischer
— The Architecture of Healing (4 Artists), Sozo Gallery, Charlotte, North Carolina
2021
— Found Objects (Solo), Palette Home, Richmond, Virginia
— The Words (Solo), The Athenaeum, Alexandria, Virginia
2020
— Perspective & Prose (4 Artists), Sozo Gallery, Charlotte, North Carolina
SELECTED PRESS
— Gulfshore Life Home (full feature)
— Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles (artwork featured)
— The Washington Post (The Words review)
SELECTED 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