Brenda Everson-Wiesman was born in 1956 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She has always loved to paint and draw. She has always known that she would be an artist. Her grandmother had her painting with oils on wood when she was eight years old. Her great-grandmother, Jessie L. Foster, was a landscape painter who worked in oils. Her mother has always played the piano. She grew up with a lot of music which has influenced her work. She listens to classical music now when she paints. She is related on her father’s side to Eric Engstrom, a photographer whose photo , “Grace” hangs in many homes and churches across the country.

She grew up in Wichita, Kansas and Cheyenne, Wyoming. Art was her favorite subject. In high school, she took as many art classes as she could. Her father was in the military and in 1974 the family moved to Spangdahlem, Germany (near Trier, Luxembourg.) While there, she traveled for six months to thirteen countries in Europe. Her trip was based on art history. She spent a lot of tune studying the major art museums and cathedrals in Europe. European art inspired her to want to be a painter and in 1976, she returned to the states.

She attended the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, graduating with a BFA in drawing and painting, in 1982. Painting instructors were Jun Burpee, Birney Quick, Aribert Munzner and Paul Olsen.

In 1979 she was chosen to attend the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine for the summer session. This is where she made the decision to become a serious professional painter. The session was very intense. Students were very serious about their work. Visiting artists were Francis Barth, Red Grooms, Susan Shatter, Lois Dodd, Elaine de Kooning, Elizabeth Murray, Lynda Benglis, Nancy Graves and George Schneeman.

She worked for ten years at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. During this time, she was chosen to be the Centennial Artist in Residence for the museum in 1983. She re-created John Singer Sargeant’s “The Birthday Party,” did sidewalk pastels for the children’s classes and gave a lecture. Also in 1994 she was a visiting artist for the museum for the children’s classes. She also exhibited at the museum in a group show in 1987.

In 1987 she started exhibiting in juried shows across the country. She has exhibited in fourteen juried shows so far, in Minnesota, Illinois, New York, California, Indiana and Nebraska.

She moved with her husband to Omaha in 1991. She took some time off to stay home with her children when they were little. During this time, she was the co-chair of the fine arts committee at Rockbrook School for the “SWOOSH” event in 1998. The Omaha Symphony performed “Peter and the Wolf’ while 261 students created art. She was one of the visiting artists which worked with the children in pastel and tempera in preparation for this event. The students artwork was matted and exhibited at the Orpheum Theater for a perfornance by the Symphony during their regular concert season. She wrote the grant for the Westside Foundation. The Nebraska Art Council also provided funding. Ernest Richardson, the conductor at the Omaha Symphony came to speak to the students as well as conducting the symphony for the event.

In 2000 she had a solo show at the Anderson O’Brien gallery in Omaha. 

In 2001 she worked on the J.Doe project committee obtaining corporate sponsorships for the Does. She received an appreciation award by the city of Omaha and the Public Arts Commission in September of 2001. She also completed two J.Doe sculptures, one of which is in MONA’s collection and another one which is in a private collection in Omaha.

In 2002 she was the corporate chair for sponsorships and donations for the Visiting Nurse Association’s Art and Soup Benefit in Omaha. The exhibit by NE. artists was held at the Durham Western Heritage Museum in March. The benefit allowed the VNA to provide nursing care to people in the city’s homeless shelters. She also bad a solo show at the Norfolk Art Center in Norfolk, NE. in 2002.

Artist’s Statement

My paintings are concerned with color and light. I enjoy working from life, challenging myself to recreate what I see. I primarily work with still-lives which I set up in my studio. I call my style, painterly realism. I am concerned with drawing my subject matter accurately as well as the science of light. Where I differ in the recreation of what I see is that I leave certain areas semi-abstract if I like what is happening with the process of painting. I aim to see how far I can go with the abstract areas, and yet still have the painting’s subject matter be a recognizable form. This is an animation of the painting, as if the work has a life of it’s own. I leave certain areas more “painterly” rather than what I actually see. The color is instinctive. I find the compositions to be more challenging. I have a passion for painting and I hope that it shows in my work.

I am always aiming for the highest quality in my work.