About Linda Le Kinff

Since the beginning of artistic creation, the human race has sought to capture beauty in its ideal form. The great Masters of the 15th century painted women in a busty way, considered then to be the perfect cannon. Linda Le Kinff's art represents this classic theme but it also reflects the personality of the modern woman: chic and independent.

 

Linda Le Kinff was born from a French mother and a Brazilian father. This rich blend of cultures can be felt in her art : in her paintings she combines the elegant and refined style of French society with the vivid and vibrant colors representative of the countries of Latin America. After traveling a lot, Linda has now established her workshop in France.

 

Linda's attraction to painting has always been natural and instinctive since her earliest childhood. However, as a student, she followed a rather classic and traditional course which did not destine her to pursue a career as a professional painter. Despite this, in the sixties, her regular connexions with artists, painters and sculptors, finally led her to change direction and encouraged her to devote herself fully to painting.

 

She has also been greatly influenced by the many travels that she made around the world, and particularly her stays in Italy. She made her first trip to Italy at the age of 18 and was dazzled by both the culture and the history of this country, and the art of the Renaissance particularly touched her. 

 

After this first stay, which was almost like a revelation, Linda returned regularly to Italy, making more or less long stays there, because it was there that she found the inspiration necessary for creation. Indeed, the richness and refinement of Italian culture have had, and still have, a major influence on her work. Linda, spent 15 years of her life in Italy.

 

 

It is still in this country that she learned, and perfected, in very diverse techniques, old and modern, such as the technique of egg tempera, gold leaf, acrylic, airbrushing, copper engraving... It is also expressed through techniques such as watercolor, pastel and ink. It was in Franco Cantini's studio, where she learned these procedures, and where she met painters of great renown such as Zancanaro or Chipola. Linda recognizes that these different experiences had a huge impact on the artist and her work.

 

In 1974, while working on a lithograph, she met fortuitously at the Gourdon workshop in Arcueil Sir Myles Cook, director of Christie's Contemporary Art in London, who provided her with numerous publications of original lithographs. They will work together for more than twelve years. She will exhibit regularly through this publisher in Japan, Australia, and throughout Europe.

 

Then, a large number of international exhibitions followed, and many of her lithographs will be distributed and sold throughout the world under the aegis of Christie's Comtemporary Art. Her work has also been exhibited in a large number of galleries : Burlington Art Galleries (Hong Kong), Krashin Gallery (USA), Metz Webb Print (Australia) and Toronto Fine Arts Edition (Canada).

 

Moreover, she met the artists Brayer, Corneille and Lapique.

 

Her various journeys around the world, (which she would very much like to continue), undoubtedly nourished, enriched and continually reactivated her. Linda often says that her encounter with color was her trip to India.

It was only in the 90s that Linda began to paint on wood in a common way. She had always admired Renaissance works in Florence painted according to this principle, and she decided that this process would henceforth be representative of her work. Linda chose plywood as a support for the pictorial surface because it allows her to use the grain of the wood to create textural effects. She was also innovative in the very composition of her painting because she created a special recipe in which she mixes products used in ancient and modern techniques.

 

The association of these original processes gives Linda's work a sort of aura similar to what emerges from classical works. It should however be noted that it took years of work and know-how to succeed in perfecting this technique which allowed her to evolve in her work, and which contributed a lot to her fame.

 

When Linda was asked about the artists who have influenced her the most in her work, she replies that she has an enormous admiration for Matisse's compositions, and that she has also been influenced by Modigliani, Gustave Klimp, Combas, Ernesto, Sakti Burman, Tarkay, Raya Sorkine, Egon Schiele and Georges Braque. We can indeed observe in her compositions that she represents her characters in a great freedom of lines and proportions, occupying the space by ignoring all laws of perspective, taking up the cubist approach.

 

Linda also has a passion for Picasso who she considers "an unmissable genius who had all the daring and who must be decrypted with humor".

 

Linda Le Kinff also expresses herself through watercolors or, more precisely, a mixture of oil pastels, ink and watercolor. She recently started to use collage. She works without a model and her inspiration comes from travels, her dreams, reading and her imagination. Her subjects are extremely varied and include musical scenes, poetic interpretations of people caught in an intimate moment in their lives, and elegantly dressed couples, for a night in town. Her influences include Braque's hidden sensuality, Matisse's masterful drawing, Modigliani's elegance and the precocious maturity of Egon Schiele who died at the age of 28.

 

However, Linda believes that self-confidence is the most important ingredient that allows her to paint. We indeed feel this state of mind when we contemplate her works. Her stroke is sure and delicate, her style is unique in the way she composes her paintings, and in the way she mixes old and modern techniques, giving her work a timeless spirit.

 

Linda often refers to the Masters of her youth and to their teaching to explain her involvement in painting, she likes to quote Georges Brassens: "Without technique, art is only a dirty mania". For Linda, the basic technique is essential but it must be constantly improved, reinvented, creative in the same way as the expression and especially acted out.

 

According to Linda Le Kinff: "The artist only exists if he has his own writing, his style and if we recognize him without reading the signature. The artist will have as a rule never to be satisfied with his work, a way like another to continue and progress. He can also be curious, he must be, curious, daring and try his hand at other expressions, experiences. There can be good surprises. "

 

Linda's favorite subject is women. She does not paint according to a model but according to her imagination, thanks to which she sees the ideal woman. Indeed, in her line are represented graceful, relaxed, serene women. She does not paint them slender and thin according to the canon of our time, but she prefers to paint sensual, busty women, full of curves with ebony hair and abundant.

Here we find once again, in the treatment of her characters, the influence of Italian art as well as of the oriental school : happy amalgamation resulting from the harvests of memories brought back from her travels in Japan, and from her frequent stays in Tuscany. They are drawn with clean lines, sometimes just sketched. She likes to paint, around her female characters, stylized shapes, floral motifs or cats, recurring motifs in her work, which sway her compositions. These cats are sometimes a witness, sometimes just part of the decorative motifs that abound in her paintings. The use of vibrant colors is also something very characteristic in her work, which certainly comes from her Brazilian origins and her love for India. The composition of the paint she uses allows her to obtain very deep colors, and the association of this original pictorial composition with the use of the support on wood gives her work a decorative aspect.

 

In 1992, Linda lived a decisive turning point in her career, she worked in the Perrin workshop in Paris and met by accident Albert Scaglione of the company Park West Gallery (Michigan) editor of Dali, and other prestigious signatures.

From this moment, they will not leave each other and will begin a collaboration that will allow her to modernize her expression and reach her artistic maturity.

 

Her career then turns to America where she takes off and diversifies. She approaches new techniques : engravings, sculpture (Botero workshop in Pietra Santa Italy, Paumel workshop in Reims, etc.). Goes from lithography to more modern technical serigraphy which plays more on relief than lithography.

With PWG she travels in Europe, America, Asia (China, South Korea).

 

In 1998, Linda was selected as the official artist for the Soccer World Cup. For this distinction, she created a painting which was struck as a commemorative coin by the French government, an honor never before offered to a living French artist.

 

In 2002, Linda Le Kinff participated to the "Prestige Exhibition" organized by the Ambassador of France to Japan and her work was exhibited in museums and Art foundations in Japanese cities including : the Tokyo Museum- Bunkamura; Nagoya-Tenjin Salaria Art Foundation; Osaka-Kirin Foundation; Fukuoka-Loft Gallery; Yokohama-RedBrick-Warehouse.

 

But the biggest event she attended was the Kentucky Derby in 2010. Linda is the first French artist selected to represent the Derby. She made the canvases for The Oaks and for the Churchill Down Racecourse Derby. For the record, the horse she painted was number 4, and what a coincidence, the winner was number 4 !

 

When asked if she considers her art to be French or Brazilian, she replies that the influence of French art is surely the strongest, even if Linda then adds that her art contains international influences, and that by that, it can be understood by all. Indeed, her many travels around the world, in Japan, India, Singapore, and especially in Italy have influenced her immensely.

 

In a joint exhibition with Wong Yean Yean, one of the most important Singaporean artists today, she said of Linda: "I don't understand French, nor can I communicate well. in English with Linda, but when I see her paintings, I understand her through them ". This underlines the fact that Linda's art is internationally recognized and appreciated.

Linda has her own philosophy about creating art. She said in fact: "What I like about creativity is the perpetual gestation that makes us remain modest, because nothing is ever acquired or finished, and the mystery of inspiration, fragile and capricious, is given to us by heaven, and does not come from us. We are in fact only the makers of this strange poetry. "

 

Linda Le Kinff undoubtedly has this talent for creativity. All the elements she combines give to the world she creates a poetic intensity, full of color. Her painting is soft, delicate, timeless and international. She combines influences from all times and all countries, adding her personal touch and her feminine vision of the world. She thus succeeded in creating an original style, in creating her own brand.

 

Linda believes in the fact that a painter can only be considered an artist if he brings something new to painting. Linda Le Kinff is one of these artists, and will be among those of the end of the XXth century who will leave their mark in the history of Art, and from whom the new artists will take their inspiration.