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.
CHRIS BRANDELL
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
CHRIS BRANDELL
Painter, Oil and Mixed Media
b.1964 | New Rochelle, NY
Currently lives and works in Marco Island, FL
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2026
Spring Fling 5 Artist Exhibition, Gardner Colby Gallery, Naples, Florida
2025
Season Opening Group Exhibition, Gardner Colby Gallery, Naples, Florida
2024
Season Opening Group Exhibition, Gardner Colby Gallery, Naples, Florida
2022
Sightseeing Three Artist Exhibition, Huff Harrington Fine Art, Atlanta, Georgia.
Right Here All Along Two Artist Exhibition, Palette Home, Richmond, Virginia.
Art2Life International Juried Art Exhibition, curated by Jack Fischer of The Jack Fischer Gallery.
The Architecture of Healing Four Artist Exhibition, Sozo Gallery, Charlotte, North Carolina.
2021
Found Objects Solo Exhibition, Palette Home, Richmond, Virginia.
Women in the Arts Group Exhibition, 2nd Annual Latela Curatorial at Umbrella, Washington DC.
The Words Solo Exhibition, The Athenaeum, Alexandria, Virginia.
2020
100 Women in the Arts Group Exhibition, Latela Curatorial Virtual Exhibition.
2019
Perspective & Prose Four Artist Exhibition, Sozo Gallery, Charlotte, North Carolina.
2018
Abstract Invitational Group Exhibition, Invited Artist, The Athenaeum, Alexandria, Virginia.
2017
Halo Solo Exhibition, Asbury Dunhill for Sozo Gallery, Charlotte, North Carolina.
Abstract Invitational Group Exhibition, The Athenaeum, Alexandria, Virginia. Best In Show for Deliberate Passage.
2016
Prose Solo Exhibition, Gallery43, Roswell, Georgia.
Repression Solo Exhibition, Agora Gallery, New York, New York.
Rise Up Group Exhibition, NAWA Strathmore Mansion, Bethesda, Maryland.
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
PRESS
2026
Gulfshore Life Home
2021
Creativ Magazine, Cover and Article
2020
Art of the Times Winter 2020 Issue
2020
The Washing Post Review of The Words Solo
2016
Saatchi Artist of the Week
2015
British Vogue, Vogue’s Gallery
Elledecor, House Tour
REPRESENTATIONS & AFFILIATIONS
Represented by: Gardner Colby Gallery in Naples, Florida; Huff Harrington Fine Art in Atlanta, Georgia; Artful Sol Gallery in Vail, Colorado; and Design Supply Gallery in Birmingham, Alabama.
The National Association of Women Artists, November 2014 Juried Member