LINDA LeKINFF

In the bold and vibrant creations of Linda LeKinff, elements of her beloved masters permeate her highly original visions, imbuing them with a force greater than the sum of their parts. Yet, when a body of her work is gathered for an exhibition, there is no mistaking that such a collection is a coherent outpouring of one very focused and original mind, drawing on a diverse treasure of artistic influences and personal experiences.

Linda LeKinff was born in Paris from French and Brazilian parents (to which she attributes her exotic Imagination). She started her career as a painter at the age of 20.

In the 1970’s she traveled to India, Tibet, Mexico and Italy. She lived and worked in Italy for twelve years learning the ancient technique of tempera, egg painting and the gold leaf method taught by masters in Florence and Livorno. She also served an apprenticeship in wood engraving, copper engraving, and excelled in learning the modern techniques of acrylic and airbrush painting.

In Paris, 1975, she learned lithography, meeting the artists, Brayer, Corneille, and Lapique. In 1976 she met Okamoto Taro, the Japanese Picasso, who introduced her to the sand and sumi technique.

In 1981 she spent six months in Morocco where she worked with Chabia, the poetess of the native abstraction movement. She returned to school in south Tyrol where she became interested in painted, polished and varnished woodwork, using a special material made of casein. She applied it to her paintings and continues to use this technique today but still keeps the traditional approach of painting in acrylic on canvas, as well.

She began to create original serigraphs in the mid 1980’s and uses this technique exclusively in the creation of her original graphic works. She also creates hand-embellished versions of her serigraph on canvas and wood, and spends countless hours re-visiting each example to extract new artistic possibilities from every individual image.

LeKinff also expresses herself through watercolors or, more precisely, a mixing of greasy pastels, ink and watercolor. Recently she began to use collage. She works without a model and her inspiration comes from travel, her dreams, reading and her imagination. Her subjects are extremely diverse, and include musical scenes, poetic interpretations of people caught in an intimate moment of their lives, and couples elegantly dressed, out for a night on the town.

Her influences include the hidden sensuality of Braque, the masterful drawing of Matisse, and the elegance of Modigliani and the precocious maturity of Egon Schiele who died at the age of twenty-eight.