Linda A. Levy

416 Westdale Drive

Linda's Web Site

I have been working with the human form for numerous years in many different media.  I started with oil paints at the age of 12. Under the tutelage of Patricia Frey, a bay area artist, I experimented with acrylics, oil pastels, soft pastels and watercolor. During college, I became enamored with using clay to describe the human form.  I also dabbled with several printmaking techniques.  After all this experimentation, I prefer using charcoal or watercolor for my short, gestural pieces, and a black oil pastel with turpenoid for longer poses.  Most of my current work consists of original images drawn on a Pentium-based computer using the program Painter and a pressure sensitive Wacom tablet. 

After years of somewhat "tight" classical drawing attitudes, I've come to enjoy the gesture approach: allow yourself only 60 seconds in which to capture the essence of the pose. You elicit much movement and feeling with a gestural drawing that often gets lost in longer poses. With my watercolors, I do not mix colors in the palette; I mix my color on the page as I paint. The paper is held almost upright, and a lot of running and weighted blending occurs that is really beyond control. The resulting images are always varied and unique: the looser I am, the more I like the figures. The wireform images are based on gestural sketches, with the form set away from the background, creating enticing effects that change with the direction of light.

 

Gestural (60 second) watercolor image at left.

My computer artwork is currently created using the program "Painter 9" by Corel. All my pieces are originals: nothing is scanned and no clipart is used.  I treat each printed creation as one-of-a-kind original.  Selected images are printed on 100% rag paper or Epson ‘Photo Quality Glossy Paper’ and stored in an archival tradition.

In the past years, I've displayed my artwork in San Francisco bay area group shows, restaurants/galleries and universities. Current work has been displayed at the Santa Cruz Art League, the Santa Cruz Mountain Art Center, and various on-line web galleries.

 

A collection of work is available for viewing and purchase.