Linda Fries has composed her new series "Local Color/Local Earth" entirely of earth pigments found in the San Francisco Bay Area. She collects soils during the rainy season, which she then dries, grinds by hand with a mortar and pestle, and finally mixes with the sap of a tree to make the paint. The earth pigments are never combined to create new colors. In fact the variety of colors you see all occur naturally. The beauty of these colors combine with subtle images from nature to create a vibrant, organic art form.

I believe in…facing… embracing… conquering your fears, living your best life, adventure, sport, experiencing life with all senses, flossing, dusting, rotating your mattress, growing vegetables, laughing until you cry, cleaning under the furniture, fertilizing the garden, fertilizing the mind, reading the book before you see the movie, reading the whole book, peanut butter, carbs, singing with headphones on, sewing and mending, doing it yourself, cooking from scratch, fairies, the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat, love, passion, exploration, something Other, the evolution of relationships, breakfast, crème brulee, pumpkin pie is a vegetable, flexibility, breathing, lattes, shaking your booty, balance, color, texture, contrast, the clarity of abstraction, the purity and wisdom of children, beauty, kindness, oatmeal, AC/DC, taking risks, knowing your heart, opening your eyes underwater, painting, perennials, traveling, letting go, trying something new, fostering independence, always exerting your best effort, the therapeutic power of chocolate, squats and lunges, downward facing dog, the glass is half full, looking on the bright side, attitude affects outcome, studying a foreign language, admitting when you are wrong, acceptance, reevaluating, focus on what you need and what you want will come...making lists… BIO: Raised in an artistic family in rural Oregon, I aspired to have a career doing "something creative". I worked as a graphic designer in the high-tech industry for several years before graduating cum laude from the University of Cincinnati with a BA in Art History and a minor in painting. Having spent the last decade traveling the country, I have settled in the glorious San Francisco bay area with my husband and three beautiful children.

In recent years Linda has been inspired by her surroundings, new
and familiar.  The desolation at Hunters Point, where she has a studio
marks a striking contrast with the bursts of natural beauty. 
Wild flowers and vegetation battle through the wastleland.
 Linda is inspired by the tenacity of nature itself.

Her time at Hunters Point has been punctuated by frequent visits
to Scotland.  A recent commission for a large painting in Scotland
found her admiring afresh the lush landscape of home.

Linda paints with oil on panel.  Each painting emerges through many
layers, every transition representing a new perspective. 
These detailed pieces speak of Linda's unique impression
of the world she sees around her, capturing the emotion
of that interaction.

I'm captivated by creatures living amongst us that blur the line between the real and the imaginary. There is an archetypal beauty embodied by the albino peacock or the mysterious white elk that forces me to pause and feel the mystery.  These animals seem to exist outside of space and time.  So in my paintings, they live in a world of imaginary abstraction, far away from the dangers of human encroachment.

When I paint, I'm chasing an elusive equilibrium between form and formlessness… convinced that true beauty hangs in the balance. The chase involves dancing with the unknown: allowing an image to unfold rather than plodding along in a linear fashion. My creative process is a continual cycle of creation and destruction, so what ends up on the canvas is as much about what’s been added as what’s been taken away.

artifacts and extractions from the perceptual mind-stream

Words, symbols, and color, are used to create patterns that provoke thoughts and ideas relating to something I read or see that compels me. I then begin to process the thought or idea into visual elements. I first add layers of color and wax, then paint, draw, and scratch to create multi-layered, nearly 3-dimensional surfaces. I often work with repetition, particularly the repetition of a symbol, word, or a series of words or statements in linear, circular, or grid patterns. While working in this repetitive manner, the creating of the piece becomes a visual mantra for me, and the creation of the painting has as much importance as the finished work.

Through my figurative paintings I endeavor to express the human need for connection and belonging and the difficulty of achieving either.