Spotlight on Colorado artist,
   Linda Paul by Lisa D. Smith

  When asked about her favorite painting from her collection, Linda admits that her favorite is "the next one I’m going to do." Her natural zest for life led her to discover a creative process, one that brims with vibrant color, heritage, beauty and respect.
  Originally from Canada, Linda initially relocated to San Francisco. With plenty of time on her hands during her immigration process, she spent many days walking the beach areas - allowing time for relaxation, reflection and inspiration. Time proved to be a precious gift. Without any previous art education, she began experimenting with seaweed and plaster - this ultimately led her to bas-relief sculpture. Wanting to paint her new art forms, Linda purchased tempera paint powder.
  Being curious in nature, Linda discovered that egg tempera painting was abandoned in the fifteenth century when oil paint was created. Allowing artists to paint outdoors for the first time, oil paints became so popular that they all but made egg tempera extinct. A medium that lasts for centuries, egg tempera painting is a slow process with many layers of pure, translucent, pigment and egg yolk being built up - one by one.
  Linda uses natural crushed stone mixed with egg yolk to create her original paintings. The only artist in North America, and possibly the world, to combine egg-tempera and bas-relief, her works are sculptures as well as paintings.
  Her blues are derived from crushed lapis lazuli, greens from malachite, and ochres from ancient mines in Roussillon France. Beside traveling to Europe for rock specimens, Linda also imports rocks from India, China and Holland. She uses fascinating minerals which have been ‘lost’ for hundreds of years. Linda has created several new colors by using rocks from her local area of Boulder, Colorado. One of her pigments is aptly named ‘Rocky Mountains Road’.
  Having traveled extensively throughout France, Italy and Greece, her inspirations include old stone walls, stairways, bikes and roosters - all the essential components of French country art and decor. With a love for French, Italian & Southwest cooking and cuisine, she likes to combine pictures of French and Italian food with landscapes of France and Italy.
  Her paintings and canvas prints are perfect for Tuscan style or French country kitchens. Her landscape paintings depict places of serene peacefulness as well as places of intense natural power and strength. Her work is available as Limited Edition Canvas Prints. Visit her website to view her art, and for her show schedule. www.lindapaul.com