Branham Rendlen | Biography

Branham was born and raised in Hannibal Missouri, an agricultural community on the Mississippi River. Her mother’s lifelong love of the arts filled their home with Japanese prints, theater directors, actors, artists and modern art. All of these have informed her work.

Branham did both her graduate and under graduate work at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, in Printmaking and Painting. She later  taught lithography there as a graduate student and recieved several scholarships. She also was invited to assistant teach at Haystack School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine. While at University, she studied with Cima Katz (Indiana University) and Peter Thompson (Yale ). In addition to her formal art school training she has studied with Jordan Wolfson, Dean Fisher, Peggy Kroll Roberts and Ronna Rio.

​

Primarily a landscape oil painter, she works both outside in nature and in the studio. Moving to Big Sur from Kansas in 1986 she fell in love with the land and sea on the central coast of California which has informed her work ever since arriving. She is a founding member of the Monterey Bay Plein Air Painters (MBPAPA) and served on the executive committee of MBPAPA for a number of years. She was also a board member of the Big Sur Arts Initative. In addition, she co-founded Expressive Arts and Healing of Monterey County.

​

In addition to being an easel painter, Branham has assisted on several community projects for social justice with Kira Corser including Posts for Peace and Justice (a national and international project to educate communities ) and Visual Voices:Threat of the Damn ( a project to give a voice to the community about environmental concerns).

Her work has been exhibited locally, regionally and internationally. This includes Transmission Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland, La Marada Museum, Grants Pass Museum of Art , Oregon and Monterey Maritime Museum.

​

Her work is currently found at The Studio and Gallery at Loma Vista, Big Sur, CA and she often participates in Open Studios in San Francisco at 1890 Bryant. Branham offers both private and group class instruction at her studio in Monterey, CA.