• Signature Member, as well as former board member of the Watercolor Society of North Carolina
• Recipient of numerous awards for both her oils and watercolors
• Several commissions by the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
• Recently illustrated Someone I Love Is in the Air Force
• Featured artist in Our State magazine and in the book, Painting North Carolina
• 2009-2010 NC Regional Artist Project Grant Recipient
Brenda Behr has sold her work in galleries and art centers
throughout the state and is quickly growing in popularity and demand. She
paints much of her work on location, considering plein air painting to be the
most challenging and evocative way to paint. Seldom without her sketchbooks and
paints, Brenda’s good nature and innate interest in people make her a fun
artist to follow. Her paintings are in private collections across the United
States, in France and Japan, and in N.C. corporate collections that include
Cape Fear Valley Health System, Captive-Aire Systems, First South Bank, New
Century Bank, Parker Poe Adams Bernstein law firm, and the University of North Carolina.
photo of Brenda by Dara
Blakely
Artist’s Statement
It takes one a long time to become young. - Picasso
It took me a long time to appreciate Picasso. - Behr
Once
in awhile, like most other artists, I feel compelled to prove how well
I can copy "reality", how real I can make my subject matter look, or I
am commissioned by someone else to do this.
In
a nutshell, here's what it has taken me my life as an artist to
conclude... The older I get, the more I know that children know more
than I do what drawing and painting are all about. It's about seeing
and showing green the way we saw it the first time. It's about seeing
and depicting our mothers, the way we saw her for the first time. It's
about first impressions and about expressing those first impressions.
Further
than this, it's about showing our first, most impacting impressions
using value, form, and color in a way that is aesthetically appealing.
When
I can do the aforementioned and do it consistently, I will consider
myself a successful artist. Until then, I'm enjoying the journey, and
especially enjoying it when someone else finds pleasure in my
perspective. I hope that you'll enjoy my views.
Career highlights: 
