Chris Brandell walks the beach by her Marco Island home almost every day, her poodle, Sam, trotting alongside. She follows the tide line, listening to the surf and letting her thoughts drift, a practice that sets the tone for her work before she steps into the studio.
Her canvases are spare and intuitive, with spacious fields of whites and beiges, interrupted by quick charcoal marks, smudges, scrawled phrases and the occasional flare of red. Patches of bare canvas reflect the self-taught artist’s spontaneous approach—her brush only touches the canvas when it has something to say. “The intention is to keep it raw-looking,” Brandell says.
Rooted in intuition, the 61-year-old abstract painter approaches nature, literature and music as meditative practices that quiet the noise and allow her subconscious to take the lead. “It’s this struggle between what we think we should do and what is going to come out of us naturally,” Brandell says.
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Photography by Anastasia Walborn
Marco Island artist Chris Brandell HOME 2026
Marco Island artist Chris Brandell walks the beach each morning, reads widely and immerses herself in music—rituals that quiet the noise and let her subconscious surface on the canvas.
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Photography by Anastasia Walborn
artist mixing paint HOME 2026
As she drags gauzy layers of white paint over a cross-hatching of charcoal markings, a feeling surfaces—something that briefly brushes against a Rumi line she’d read days or weeks earlier. She keeps working, letting the thought fall away. When the piece feels finished, she flips through the journal, where she keeps fragments that stick with her, until a title falls into place: i ask that lovers no longer be shy or concerned. The line echoes the Sufi writer’s The Book of Love. The intentional omission of capitalization reinforces Brandell’s overarching aesthetic: minimalist and unimposing, but quietly captivating.
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Chris Brandell’s while the soul afterall is only a window (2025)
while the soul afterall is only a window 60x60 painting by chris brandell HOME 2026
Brandell’s work is characterized by spacious fields of whites and beiges punctuated by rough-hewn charcoal markings, bits of text and splashes of red or blue. “The intention is to keep it raw-looking,” she says.
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Photography by Anastasia Walborn
Chris Brandell painting HOME 2026
The resulting works create an atmosphere that is simultaneously visceral and playful, rudimentary forms rendered with an urgent composure. But it took her years to learn to paint with instinct rather than ego. Before moving to Southwest Florida in 2019, she worked out of a studio in Virginia, crafting saturated abstracts inspired by artists like Helen Frankenthaler. She’d agonize over each stroke of the brush, each hue. Her practice grew stagnant and restrictive. She felt stuck.
Chris Brandell’s plank and pilings study (2024)
planks & pilings study 60x60 chris brandell HOME 2026
Since moving to the island in 2019, her palette has shifted in harmony with the colors of the coast, without veering into caricature. Soft, earthen tones mirror sand and docks; pearlescent hues echo seashells and morning light.
A friend suggested she try painting blindfolded, an idea Brandell rebuffed as ridiculous until a particularly frustrating day in the studio. She wrapped her eyes, picked up a hunk of charcoal, and dove in. When she removed her blindfold, she was shocked and delighted. The work felt more honest than anything she’d created in years. “I realized that when you take your brain and your ego out of the picture, your intuition and who you are on the inside take over,” she says.
Soon after, she arrived in Collier County, casting her artistic rebirth in the soft light of the Gulf and the gentle hues of shifting sand. As she developed her new style, she lost the blindfold but took its lessons with her. Brandell’s emotionally charged isabella, inspired by the friendship formed when an elderly neighbor stopped by for help in the midst of a power outage, exemplifies the shift in her style; frantic, gestural markings echo the woman’s initial fear, while soft fields of white reflect the comfort of mutual kindness the pair discovered in their meeting.
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Photography by Anastasia Walborn
Chris Brandell painting large canvas HOME 2026
Brandell didn’t always work intuitively. After 30 years of producing richly hued abstracts reminiscent of Helen Frankenthaler, she felt like she was in a rut. Then, a friend suggested she try painting blindfolded. The experience was transformative.
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Photography by Anastasia Walborn
mixed paint and brushes HOME 2026
Music keeps her focused in the studio. Sometimes, zen tunes lull her anxious mind; other times, a rock ‘n’ roll beat is the only thing that keeps her from harping on the cares of the day. “I can’t go into the studio saying, ‘OK, today I’m going to be intuitive,’” she says with a chuckle. “But now, I have the tools to get me there.”
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Chris Brandell’s i ask that lovers no longer be shy or concerned 2 (2025)
Chris Brandell’s i ask that lovers no longer be shy or concerned 2 (2025)
When Brandell finds a line of poetry or lyric that strikes a chord, she jots it down. Often, these lines become the titles of works. Her i ask that lovers no longer be shy or concerned 2 references Rumi’s Book of Love.
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Photography by Anastasia Walborn
Chris Brandell painting large canvas white outfit HOME 2026
When she participated in her first exhibition—a group show at Alexandria, Virginia’s Torpedo Factory, curated by the National Portrait Gallery’s assistant director of exhibitions—Brandell was in a liminal phase. “I’d been painting for years, but I was so insecure,” she says. “I wasn’t sure I had what it took.” Out of 300 submissions, 65 works were selected, and only five broke from the portrait genre. One was Brandell’s. The recognition propelled her toward more ambitious opportunities, like solo shows at Agora Gallery in New York City (2014) and Alexandria’s Athenaeum Gallery (2020). Her work is represented at Naples’ Gardner Colby Gallery; Atlanta’s Huff Harrington Fine Art; and Vail, Colorado’s Artful Sol Gallery.
Chris Brandell’s our friendship is made of being awake 2(2025)
Chris Brandell’s our friendship is made of being awake 2 (2025) HOME 2026
For Brandell, intuitive painting requires setting ego aside. She stays close to the canvas while working and resists the urge to pull back and examine the composition until the piece feels settled.
Now, she’s gaining reach in Southwest Florida. Her work featured prominently in the 2024 and 2025 season-opening exhibitions at Gardner Colby, and in November, she signed a lease on a 1,500-square-foot studio unit at the island’s central Rizzi building. There, she hopes to connect more personally with collectors; not to explain the work, but to watch them uncover its meaning for themselves. “They will often see something in my work, a shape or a form or a theme that is meaningful to them. It’s hard to unsee it,” she says. But, she does her best to shut the voices out, to work purely. That is the practice.
Photography by Anastasia Walborn
Chris Brandell posing on balcony HOME 2026
In November, Brandell cemented her place among the Southwest Florida art scene by signing the lease on her first public studio, a 1,500-square-foot unit in the center of Marco Island.