Interview with Linda Dellandre, Artist of the Month August 2014
Linda was instrumental in helping to reorganize PSST in 2012. She served as 2012 First Vice President-Membership and chaired the PSST 2013 Pastels Revisited exhibition. She was named to the IAPS Gold Medallion Master Circle in 2013, and her paintings have won many awards.Visit her website for a look at her beautiful landscapes.
PSST Why are you an artist or how did you choose to become an artist?
LD I feel like art has chosen me. When I was in the 3rd grade I was doodling a portrait of the child next to me during a lesson. My teacher came up behind me, looked at it, and instead of reprimanding me for not paying attention, encouraged me to keep going. I really can NOT do it. Even when I get rejections, and the work isn’t going well, I am more determined than ever, to work harder, to find whatever this is that keeps me obsessed with painting and drawing. PSST Where do you paint? Home, studio, corner of a room? How is it set up? LD I paint both plein air and in the studio. I enjoy plein air (when it is going well) and studio (when it is going well.) Although I think plein air is the best when there is a cool breeze, a safe spot, an available potty, and of course, a beautiful view. There is nothing better than that. PSST What is your subject matter and how do you choose it? LD Definitely landscape, but I enjoy loose expressive portraiture as well. The way light affects the land in so many different ways is a neverending quest for me to try and reproduce not necessarily photorealistically, but more what it felt like. Because you know, the camera never quite gets it. PSST What is your art background? Academic, self-taught, workshops? LD I spent 13 years in art night classes while working as a nurse and raising my family to get an Associate Degree of Fine Art. I then worked on my Bachelor’s at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art and Northern Arizona University but am about 4 extraneous courses short of that degree. I have taken workshops with Gregory Hull, Kim Lordier, Will Tapia, Colleen Howe, and Martha Saudek. PSST How do you describe your painting style and color choices? LD My painting style is loose with light expression. Not exactly impressionistic or realistic or contemporary. Somewhere in between. I am still fighting with color. I don’t do the big grand landscape, but I prefer the intimate spot of light that shows beauty in the everyday. PSST If you paint from life (plein air or a model), describe an interesting or funny experience. LD Plein air lends itself to many unique experiences. Once in a competition while I was painting on a sidewalk, 5 young children decided my easel was the “home base” for hide and seek. So every 10 minutes one child would hold onto my easel and shout to 10 at the top of their lungs. I figured they would get tired soon, but I was wrong. Another time another artist and I were painting a farm in New Mexico and this woman comes up out of the field dressed in overalls and dripping in turquoise jewelry to see my painting. It turned out to be the famous contemporary artist Louise McElwain who sadly died last year. She took us into her studio, drank wine, picked some fresh fruit from her trees, and then drove us to “her mountain” in Abiquiu. Such a lovely, generous, and very artistically opinionated woman. It was a magic and inspirational moment in my life. |
PSST What do you consider your best painting ever and why?
LD I am still waiting to do my best painting. PSST What art events do you have scheduled LD I am in a two person show with Liz Czerewaty at the Cloister Gallery in January, and also a one woman show for Woman in Rural Arts in Fayetteville Texas., (near Round Top) in January also. PSST How do you sell/show your work? Galleries, online, home studio tour, open house? LD I am in two professional galleries, Navarro Gallery in Tlaquepaque in Sedona, Az, and the Davis and Blevins Gallery in Saint Jo, Texas. PSST What is your price range? LD My price range is $195. To $2000. PSST Do you have any marketing or exhibiting tips that you would like to share? LD Enter any and all competitions to build your resume and get your name recognition out there. Use those awards and acceptances to market yourself. Just don’t do it unless you have an inventory of good product. PSST What social media, websites or art-focused groups are you associated with? LD I have a website, lindadellandre.com, and faceback page and belong to several art groups. Networking is invaluable in an artist’s career. Nobody sees the paintings in the attic until you are dead. You want a career while you are alive. PSST What are your goals as an artist? LD My goal is simple. Get better. PSST What do you hope people gain from viewing your work? LD I worked on an interesting experiment in July. I did a painting a day and posted it, good or bad on facebook. The comments and new friends and patrons I reaped from this says a lot about the power of social media. Also it pushes you to work your best, and work everyday. It’s scary, but it helps you grow as an artist on so many levels. I think people have seen the beauty of the everyday scene in viewing this work. PSST Do you have one quote or testimonial from a collector that you can share? LD “I believe you are an artist’s artist”. I was very humbled by this. |