My Story

Brenda Smola is an artist living and working in Portland, Oregon.

Originally from Oklahoma, Brenda grew up drawing and painting as a child. Though her creative endeavors persisted through her teenage years, she never imagined becoming a proper artist. In college, she gravitated towards the world of design and advertising as it seemed the most creative route with which to hone her skills. During her formative years she studied art in Norway and traveled extensively throughout Europe. All of the sudden a new world revealed itself to her that was hitherto obscure. She began studying art history and color theory formally during this time, sojourning from museum to museum to seek out the masters she had only seen in books. It was there, standing within the walls of so many exhibition halls where the artifacts of these spirits made her eyes widen and her mind grow.

[ “... she began to see ... herself as a young artist. ...” ]

A seed was planted and she began to see the portrait of herself as a young artist. A brief stint as a fashion designer in Los Angeles afforded her just enough to continue to paint on the side. But as her painterly skills developed, so did the desire to quit the commercial side of her endeavors. She abandoned her career in fashion to paint full time. Haunted by her will to learn, she went to New York to study with painters Paton Miller, Jim Gingerich, and Bernice D’vorzon. It was during this time that she found the confidence necessary to believe in the merit of her work. After a rigorous period of instruction, her own voice began to manifest on the canvas. It was then that her choice to become an artist became her only choice. As she explored the mysterious, beautiful and horrific world that the artist inhabits, her own aesthetic began to emerge, and the speed of her life became known to her. She moved to Portland to start a new life as a painter and has been hard at work ever since.