Linda Dellandre ~ February 2016 Artist of the Month

Linda Dellandre

Linda has several art events scheduled.  Five pieces have been accepted at Design Works Gallery in Galveston, opening Feb 27 – April 4, 2016.  Titled “Drawn to the Sea”. Three of her pieces were accepted in the Southwest Salon in Dallas in April. 
Her work can also be seen at the Davis & Blevins Gallery in St. Jo, Texas and also, the Navarro Gallery in Sedona, AZ.

She will be teaching at the Woodlands March 7-9 and has scheduled an Austin event in September.

Her personal goal is to “get better and I’m going to paint until I am”.

View Linda Dellandre website

Some things have no explanation, and art can be that way.  Linda Dellandre didn't go find art; it came and grabbed her.  When in grade school, we all sit quietly studying.  Linda sits quietly doodling. The teacher walks by and lets her know that she is misbehaving, “oh, and keep it up”.  Fast forward to 9th grade.  No art available in electives, so the only possible alternative is to cut some classes and sit in on the art classes.  Art teacher never turns her in.

Some people have opportunities available to them from a young age and don’t have to make momentous decisions that affect them for many years.  Others, like Linda, must make those decisions often. Once her family began arriving, she recognized that her art career was not going accomplish the traditional goals.  So, she began to study nursing.  And signed up for her first real art class at Montgomery County Community College, and continued to Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.  As the cold and dark of Philadelphia was not conducive to En Plein Aire painting, a move to Sedona, Arizona transpired.  Linda continued to work as a full-time nurse and after about six years she returned to art with classes and workshops.

At the ten-year mark, she began to be seen as an emerging professional.  She began winning awards and building a reputation as a well-known plein aire painter. She began to be placed in galleries.  All this time, she worked in oil. An advertisement for Wallis paper combined with the surprise of the Unison pastel produced an epiphany.  Now, she truly wanted to be a full-time artist.  She switched to pastel in 2003 having used them previously only in a life drawing class in college.

A move to Houston was in the works.  Fortunately, the galleries in Sedona wanted to continue to sell her art.  This was a fairly momentous transfer, from the Colorado Plateau to Flatland Houston on Lake Conroe. Here, she found the gulf, forests, river streams, bayous, trees and meadows.

Today, Linda paints plein aire and follows through in her garage studio.  The kitchen nook is another favorite sketching spot. 80% of her work is plein aire in the 12x16 and smaller sizes. Images from the same day or area are frequently developed into 16x20 and 20x24 pieces. And when asked, “What are you trying to accomplish?”, her answer is “I want to show LIGHT.”

“How do you show light?”  Linda uses strong value and pattern to give mood, to evoke a response in the viewer.  Her favorite pastels today are Terry Ludwig. In her studio in the garage, she a different set of combined pastels in a large box. She finds starting with the harder NuPastels, to Rembrandts and Sennelier and finally the Ludwigs.  In her view, the really bright colors don’t apply, except for, perhaps, a portrait sitting. Depth and distance need grey values.   And she uses fishing tackle boxes to carry her plein aire pastels on site.  The box fits on her outdoor easel quite well.  She calls her style “loose representational”.

Linda is still waiting for her “best painting”!  However, there are two paintings with which she has experienced an emotional connection and she tries to channel emotion through all her paintings. “The connection between something of value to you resonates in your painting.”  Linda wants her viewer to gain an “emotional memory” that describes and holds what the scene was like.

Favorite subjects are landscapes with or without buildings.  Sedona’s mountains colors were a challenge to capture yet she persevered and today they are some of her most popular paintings.  She says that there are three kinds of views: near, mid and far.  Her most comfortable position is mid-range.  And lately she has included people.  This is a significant change for her; urban settings include people.  Pure landscape never has people.  A common tool for painting is the path, used to draw the viewers eye into the painting. Often it can be water, some kind of river, creek or stream, with or without rocks - the classic S curve.