Brenda started painting at the age of five when her mother, while teaching private art classes, encouraged her to paint her first oil painting. This early introduction to the process of sketching and outdoor painting was instrumental to her interest in and love of landscape. She graduated with a B.A. from California State University at Fullerton, and studied art at Orange Coast College, Fullerton College, Tulsa Community College and Scottsdale Artists¹ School. She has continuously studied the art of master painters in art museums, being particularly inspired by Thomas Moran, Gunnar Widforss, Carl Oscar Borg, Georgia O¹Keeffe, and Edgar Payne. Brenda worked more than twenty years as a graphic designer and technical/geological illustrator, which led her to a successful freelance business. But fine art kept calling her, and after spending a year in India and traveling in Europe and Australia, she decided to immerse herself in her favorite place to paint, the Grand Canyon.