Summer is here at last, and this week I dusted off my booth for my first outdoor show of the season, the Shadyside Arts Festival. (The festival has added a new Spring show in addition to their original August festival.) Despite a dire rainy forecast, we managed to stay dry up until the last 5 minutes. Then as we were loading up the van to come home, the heavens opened and sent buckets of rain! My favorite part of the Festival was getting to meet up in person with some of my friends and fans. My second favorite part, of…

I’ve been promising you a big announcement for a few weeks now… and the big day has finally arrived! “Shhhh!” – the first painting in my new “Jolly Old Elf” series of holiday Santa paintings has made its public debut. The original has already been sold to one of my favorite collectors. Here is what he had to say about the painting… “The painting, “Shhhh!” takes me back to my early childhood with my thoughts of Santa and who he was for me. The Santa in Linda’s painting is just the way I pictured him – jolly, warm, rosy cheeks,…

The one thing in life that is inevitable is change. This week marked the end of an era for me, and I wanted to share that very emotional moment in my life with you. It feels as if for my whole career I’ve been creating a painting each year for the American Cancer Society’s holiday cards, though actually, it’s only been 16 years since I started in 1998. I always felt it was a way of giving back to the community in gratitude for my art career. I have been so blessed to make a living doing what I love,…

Back at last from our relaxing (but also educational) Texas vacation! We explored the beautiful cities of San Antonio and Austin and the surrounding Hill Country, taking tons of photos that may someday turn into gorgeous paintings. So many wonderful things to paint… I think there just isn’t enough time in one lifetime to paint all the wonders our country has to offer. And to think, I haven’t even been off this continent! Imagine how many lifetimes it would take to see the whole world. But there was no time to rest! We flew in on Thursday and then the…

Howdy, it’s Linda… Here we are in the Lone Star State, enjoying this beautiful piece of our wonderful country. I envisioned rocks, dessert and cowboy boots, but instead we’re seeing densely lush rolling hills and the beautiful cities of Austin and San Antonio. We’re seeing quaint old-fashioned small towns, and we’re seeing modern cityscapes. Above all, we’re seeing outsized Texas-style welcoming hospitality. Not to mention extremely large cattle, like the one in this picture! We’re having a wonderful time this week visiting what they call the Hill Country of Texas and enjoying a perfect view of Canyon Lake. Yesterday we…

This week was Graduation Day for my first five-week pastel class! Though I’m proud of my wonderfully talented students, I’m sorry our time together had to end. It was a real privilege to work alongside such creative people! We had a lot of fun together throughout the five weeks of the series. We celebrated our final class in style, enjoying beautiful background music from the very talented Ron Bernhardy at the piano. Funny, but it seemed that everyone enjoyed painting even more with the live music, and I think they even painted faster! In my opinion, the music inspired them…

What a busy week this has been! It began with a birthday serenade with lots of people singing “Happy Birthday” to me. Their lovely voices made me smile and got my birthday week off to a wonderful start. Then while Tom attended the Pirates opener with the Bucs and thousands of his closest friends, I actually had a peaceful time painting with my pastels and reading over 200 birthday wishes throughout the day. Partly thanks to Facebook, of course! So if you’re one of my Facebook buddies who wished me a happy birthday, I thank you as well. You made…

I hope you are all well this week and had a great Easter weekend! Ours was full of life and activity this year as we celebrated by hosting the entire family for our first Easter dinner in our new home. In fact, this year for the first time, we actually had to extend our table into the living room in order for everyone to fit! Speaking of a full house… my storeroom is full to bursting with inventory! Prints of Pittsburgh, prints of amusement parks, prints of sports scenes and schools in the Pittsburgh area. But it’s not just paintings…

This week the new art collector in my life asked me how I got to where I am as an artist. How did it all start? Without hesitation, I told him it’s always been about wanting to make people happy. I always knew instinctively that painting was my gift. Once before I was married, I was painting a portrait in the living room, and my grandfather looked on and said, “You know you’re going to get married and never paint again.” I looked at him in shock and said, “You don’t understand! I will always paint, I can’t stop! It’s…

This week was the first meeting of my new pastels class. What a pleasure to have such motivated and dedicated students! The class consists of aspiring painters of all ages, and everyone showed up excited to get started. I couldn’t have asked for a better group of students… Everyone encouraged and helped each other. I felt like there was a powerful creative energy at work in the studio. There were actually moments when everyone was concentrating so hard you could hear a pin drop. We all had a wonderful time and did great things. I can’t wait until next Monday…