Linda is a practiced learner who self-describes as “drawing-impaired.” Following a professional healthcare career in emergency medical services, she leaned into creative yearnings and was introduced to painting with wax mediums and oil pigments…an age-old art form. Fascinated by the immersive, tactile nature of working with wax and captivated by all things weathered, distressed, organic, industrial and textured, she enrolled in workshop offerings and continues to learn and paint.
At present, Linda builds abstract wax paintings on cradleboards using both encaustic (beeswax, resin and various pigments) and cold wax medium/oil paint techniques. Images she creates on absorbent papers are often applied to the cradleboard substrate and inform her paintings. Multiple layers of waxed-paint application and removal invite further texturing, marking and enhancement with tools, objects, heat, punctures, abrasions, powdered pigments, scoring, oil washes, foils, sand, fire ash and quite rarely, a scavenged treasure.
A Cleveland, Ohio native, Linda has called Colorado “home” since 1978. She holds memberships with Colorado’s Foothills Art Center, Art Students League of Denver and the international Cold Wax Academy. When not experimenting with wax and oils, Linda and her husband, Michael, enjoy roaming art venues with their discriminating French bulldog, Groot.
Artist’s Statement: I paint because I believe the acts of creating and sharing – an idea, a song, a garden, a design, a meal - allow us to hold space for both individual and planetary transformation healing….at once very personal, yet accessible to all.
Drawn to the sensory, experiential nature of working with wax and paint and tools…I study and play with the elements of abstraction, texture, color and diverse shape, as the use of wax affords me an expressive platform that is joyfully reminiscent of rule-free finger painting, Playdough and “coloring outside the lines” combined! The fused energies of pigmented wax and abstraction engage me in a compelling process of discovery that is both grounding and uplifting. What emerges and connects the panel to the artist or the viewer is often delightfully unexpected. Occasionally…even a bit of whimsy(!) will manifest… What’s not to love??!!
