She attended Saturday classes at the Fort Worth School of Fine Art from the age of 10, studying under Blanche McVeigh.

After leaving Fort Worth Arlington Heights High School, Brants attended Madeira School, Greenway, Virginia and then majored in art at Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, New York.

Here she studied under Kurt Roesch and met a number of European refugees who were working in the New York art world, including André Masson and Lyonel Feininger.

After graduation, Brants traveled around post-war Europe,[2] and established her studio in Fort Worth.

[1] From 1958 to 1962 she taught painting and drawing at Sarah Lawrence College.