Waterways Exhibition

This week I'll be installing my solo show Waterways at the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts in Wilmington, DE. I'm so excited to see this group of paintings together in the white cube. Here's an excerpt from my press release and one of the pieces included in the show.

Spilling Over, 24 x 24 inches

The title of the show Waterways refers to the intrinsic qualities of water that are the subject matter for Celestian’s oil paintings.

She depicts the movement and energy observed in nature with layered spills, pours and splatters of thinned oil paint. The paint in its liquid form is allowed to run and puddle and form similar patterns to waterways. Linda is interested in portraying the energy and life force of water to elicit an emotional response. She is inspired as much by aerial photography, as by personal observations of the ocean, lakes of her childhood, and the creek in her neighborhood.

There is a correlation between these imaginary waterways and our own circulatory system illustrating the connection between earth and mankind.

If you are in the area stop by the opening on Friday the 4th, from 5:30-9pm. I'm also showing ink paintings on the featured artist wall on the 2nd floor of the studio building and fiber work in process in my studio. I hope to see you there.

Living in the Moment

I'm off to Florida for a week! Here is my favorite encaustic painting , for the moment at least.

The title is Bubbling Up and it's 6 x 6 inches. I just sent some images to a gallery in Philly and this was one of them along with a new artist's statement. The statement took days to write, and feels good, for the moment anyway.

Artist Statement 2009

My artwork acknowledges my love of nature and my childhood spent immersed in it. I view nature as a metaphor for human experiences and emotional states of being.
Recently I’ve been working on a series of works that explore the many properties and characteristics of water. Water can be either still, tranquil and peaceful or stormy, rough, and raging. Water supports life and yet can be responsible for the loss of many lives as in the case of a natural disaster.
I’m interested in depicting the energy and life force of this natural element to elicit an emotional response. This desire has led me to explore and invent many techniques to apply and manipulate the mediums I use. I’m pouring and splattering, in the case of oil paints and inks or melting layer upon layer of wax then heating it to let the under layer bubble up in the case of encaustics. I feel akin to nature by making art in the same way the earth came to be, and continues to evolve. Volcanoes erupt and pour molten lava down the mountains to form new land masses and glaciers melt to feed bodies of water. Everything in nature is constantly changing and I try to depict this in my work.