Linda Kemp - About the Artist

Artist’s Statement

There is nothing like an intriguing puzzle to get the brain working and few things more satisfying than finding a solution to a perplexing problem. So while some people take pleasure in working on the newspaper's daily crossword puzzle I can't resist sorting through and arranging shapes and colours. In particular, the interwoven forms and layers of patterns I find while investigating tangled woodlands, meandering streams, open fields, roadside ditches and the countryside landscape. Appreciating my discoveries is easy; figuring out how to interpret my finds and then portray that essence two dimensionally with paint on paper is the real challenge! It is this desire to decipher, understand and organize what I see that motivates me to paint.

In my attempt to interpret nature’s patterns and understand how the pieces fit together my strategy relies on simplifying the complicated and building in layers using negative shapes.

Professional Career

For a complete CV email studio@lindakemp.com

Linda Kemp’s home and studio backs onto a wooded conservation area in the Niagara Region of Ontario, Canada. She is internationally recognized for her unique contemporary watercolors and acrylics and innovative use of negative painting.

Linda is the author of two best selling books,Watercolor Painting Outside the Lines- A Positive Approach to Negative Painting and Simplifying Design and Color For Artists - Positive Results Using Negative Painting Techniques (North Light Books) and presenter in numerous instructional internet forums and art videos including Painting Outside the Lines, and Negative Painting Techniques a series of six DVDs. Her paintings and articles have been featured in publications such as American Artist, Watercolor Magic, International Artist, Watercolor Artist, Watermedia Focus, Palette Magazine, Acrylic Artist and Practique des Arts, Acrylicworks 4.

She is also a contributing writer/demonstrator in the following books:
Watercolor For the Fun of It - Easy Landscapes - Jack Reid
Paint - Illustrated Techniques for Every Medium
Painter’s Quick Reference: Flowers
Painter’s Quick Reference: Landscapes
Color and Light for Watercolor Painters - C. Schink
Discover Your Visual Voice - Dakota Mitchell

Most recently her book Simplifying Design and Color for Artists was translated into Chinese. 

Kemp is an elected member of the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour (awarded Life Membership 2013), the Ontario Society of Artists and the Society of Canadian Artists. This artist is profiled in Canadian Whoʼs Who and Whoʼs Who Canadian Women, The Dictionary of International Biography and the 20th Anniversary Edition of Trivial Pursuit. Her award winning paintings are in private, government and corporate collections around the world, including The Royal Collection, Windsor Castle, U.K. and the private collection of HRH the Prince of Wales.

Linda instructs and lectures at national symposiums and workshops throughout Canada, United States, United Kingdom and France. She was the recipient of the 2005 Woman of Distinction Award for Arts and Culture in Niagara and in 2008 received the A.J. Casson Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Water Colour, the top award for The Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour National Juried Exhibition.

Linda is an enthusiastic teacher who truly cares about the sharing of knowledge with her students. Linda’s lifelong devotion to sharing and teaching the joy of painting began in the early 1970’s when her sister and she received a government grant for youths to offer art and drama programs within the community.

Oldies!

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