Linda Shearin - Biography

My very first inclination that I might want to be an artist someday occurred as a ten year old on a field
trip to the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco. Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” and “Starry Night” paintings
were so beautiful and intriguing. I wondered, “How do you do that?”
Now, after over 40 years of studying and creating art, I continue to enjoy the exploration of the art making process. I began my art journey using watercolor taking my first class in 1978. I was able to study with many fine watercolorists in the San Francisco Bay Area before a move to Mendocino, California, in 2000.

An “Experimental Watercolor” class taught by Robert Rhoades at the College of the Redwoods opened up many new and exciting possibilities in making art. I also studied acrylic painting with Judith Hale and Robert Burridge at the Mendocino Art Center. Judith Hale’s soft abstract paintings were breathtaking and inspired a new direction for me. Then, after several classes with Robert Burridge in acrylic and collage, my work began to expand and veer off in many new directions. I was inspired not only with his art, but his outlook on being an artist and how we continue to create art.

My current work continues to flow in many different directions with various media from watercolor to acrylic to collage. I’m always looking for a different way to paint a subject whether through media, abstraction, collage, or line drawing. Although most art interpretations “have already been done,” I’m trying to paint something in a way that I haven’t seen before. That can be scary sometimes, but what fun it is to try!

My favorite artists: Richard Diebenkorn, Picasso (who said it took him 90 years to learn how to paint like a ten year old, love that), Van Gogh, J.M.W. Turner, Matisse, Monet, Kandinsky, De Kooning. And the ladies: Helen Frankenthaler, Lee Krasner, Joan Mitchell, Elaine De Kooning.

My favorite books besides those about the above artists:
Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles & Ted Orland.
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert.

A quote from Big Magic that I love....

“Creativity is sacred, and it is not sacred.
What we make matters enormously, and it doesn’t matter at all. We toil alone, and we are accompanied by spirits,

We are terrified, and we are brave.
Art is a crushing chore and a wonderful privilege.
The work wants to be made, and it wants to be made through you.”