About the Artist
Linda was raised in Alaska and lived most of her adult life in Chile. She earned a degree in Biology from Whitman College in Washington and studied Art at the Viña del Mar School of Fine Art in Viña del Mar, Chile.
Linda has been painting and exhibiting her work for over ten years. She has produced public art work with the 1% for Art in Public Places Program and is part of the Alaska Museum of History and Art’s Contemporary Alaskan Artists Permanent Collection. She teaches oil painting at the International Gallery of Contemporary Art and Anchorage Museum of History and Art.
Her studio is in the foothills of the Chugach Mountains, in a home she shares with her husband, two daughters, and bull terrier, Moncho.
Linda’s work is represented by the Artique Gallery in Anchorage, Alaska. www.artiqueltd.comArtist Statement
One of my first memories is of a large reproduction of a John James Audubon painting, two spoon-billed birds with beady eyes and strange filter-like beaks, their feathered bodies set in a mysterious marshy landscape. I suppose this was the beginning of my artistic sensibilities. I am today a painter and among other things, an avid bird watcher.
My fascination with natural history and art continued in college where I earned a degree in biology. As I filled my science notebooks with copious sketches of plants, invertebrates, and other creatures, I realized that the visual aspects of nature are what I find most fascinating. Subsequently, while living in South America, I went on to study painting.
Science and art have come together in my work and the subject matter reflects a deep curiosity and passion for the natural world. I am inspired by accounts of 17th and 18th century sea explorations and imagine the scientist-artists of these expeditions landing on unknown shores, sketching never before seen plants and animals. In my paintings, I strive to portray this strangeness of a foreign environment.
I am inspired, as well, by regionalist painters Lauren Harris, Rockwell Kent, and Franklin Carmichael and feel a special kinship to the social and magic realism of Latin American painters, Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and José Clemente Orozco.
I paint with oils on prepared hardwood panels or canvas. Color is the main driving force behind my paintings. I attempt to balance saturated colors and create a feeling of harmony. When every color has found its place, the painting has found resolution.
I hope to create a sense of timelessness and bring the natural world and art together in a way that provokes an emotional response in the viewer, a feeling of tranquility, as well as an uncomfortable jolt of the unknown.
Reviews
Anchorage PressDawnell Smith, Anchorage Daily News
Mark Baechtel, Anchorage Daily News
Lora Mahaffey, Anchorage Daily News
Resume and Links
ResumeRasmuson Foundation
Art for Alaska Parks.com
Artiqueltd.com
Anchorage Museum